Blues Matters 104

JOE BONAMASSA

GENUINE HOUSEROCKIN’ MUSIC SINCE 1971

TINSLEY ELLIS WINNING HAND

“Rugged, red-dirt blues rocking, urged on by his dusky voice...burning and riveting” –Blues Music Magazine

“Blistering blues-rock, soul romps, minor-key blues, and shuffles—and it all sounds great” –Vintage Guitar

CURTIS SALGADO & ALAN HAGER

ROUGH CUT

“Salgado’s singing and harmonica are convincingly expressive in tone, range and subtlety. Hager’s guitar bespeaks a synthesis of honest emotion, unstudied instinct and technical deftness” –Downbeat

THE NICK MOSS BAND featuring DENNIS GRUENLING

THE HIGH COST OF LOW LIVING

“Moss’ muscular, electric energy combines jaw-dropping guitar, gruff, soulful vocals and impassioned songwriting. Gruenling is a contemporary harmonica master... impressive, genuine and fresh-sounding” –Living Blues

MARCIA BALL SHINE BRIGHT

“Rollicking, playful, good-time blues and intimate, reflective balladry...her songs ring with emotional depth” –Rolling Stone

ELVIN BISHOP ’ S BIG FUN TRIO

SOMETHING SMELLS FUNKY ‘ ROUND HERE

“Wonderful chemistry...joyously raunchy, fun-loving music” –Living Blues

SHEMEKIA COPELAND AMERICA’ S CHILD

“Copeland is a powerhouse, a superstar...she can do no wrong” –Rolling Stone

TOMMY CASTRO STOMPIN’ GROUND

“Tommy Castro is top of the food chain...impressive and funky...A major talent” –Blues Matters

LINDSAY BEAVER TOUGH AS LOVE

A uniquely talented musical spitfire performing raw R&B, blues and old-school rock ‘n’ roll with punk rock fervor. Like the love child of Amy Winehouse and Little Richard. AVAILABLE OCTOBER 12TH

LIVE JAK’S

FROM THE STAGE AT

JAMIE THYER & THE WORRIED MEN

GERRY JABLONSKI & THE ELECTRIC BAND

TEED UP (STEVE ROUX)

ANDY GUNN

THE MILK MEN (ADAM NORSWORTHY)

ZOE SCHWARZ & BLUE COMMOTION

ROADHOUSE DANI WILDE

LUCY ZIRINS

DANA GILLESPIE

ROB KORAL & ZOE SCHWARZ

GEORGE SHOVLIN & GEORGE LAMB

Our Blues MC for the weekend : M.D.Spenser

Hello and welcome, please step into the new issue… time indeed moves on. Sometimes we miss it, and sometimes we remember it, and we look forward to the time to come. We always look forward to the music that we have not heard yet and the chances to hear it, write about it, and to talk to some of the artists who have created it, for all of our pleasure, and bring it to these pages for your enjoyment. Music is always the best therapy. I never imagined I would be in the position I am now, sitting at a desk playing the music that thrills me all day as a ‘job’, incredible. Loving reading the material that our team provide with joy and then working through it with our ’managerial team’ to the point of sending to print and awaiting the finished product that you all see. Even the scent of the printed item is still a thrill! Ok, I may be odd but I love it. As always I am so proud of everyone who contributes and helps to make Blues Matters! what it is!

Talking of these pages…we are chuffed to hear that you are enjoying our new and vital presentation. There have been some very pleasing comments coming in. It is turning out to be a good year all round and in all areas. Our distribution reports show steady new members and noticeable sales boost in International airports. We thank you all for your support and encouragement.

In this issue we have a feature

on Nashville Blues brought to us by Nashville musician and resident Patterson Barrett. The first part is indeed a super piece of a history lesson as we examine the Blues in the heart of the Country Music capital.

The interviews are again a real mix of talent for you, for the first time we have the legend that is Delbert McClinton, who had an intimate chat with Tim Arnold. Tony Joe White is back with his latest offering stripped bare, and he talks with Pete Sargeant about it. Giants of the genre abound here with Tas Cru, Rick Estrin can’t stop blowin’ that harp, and you just cannot keep Joe Bonamassa down for long, yep, you saw him on the cover so we sat him down, but didn’t have to work too hard to get him to talk! The gorgeous Shemekia Copeland graces our pages for you with her latest on the Alligator label. Plus, new name from down South in Bishop Gunn, and long time friend and producer Michael Lehman chats about Gregg Allman. Dan Patlansky is currently doing an acoustic tour and we had a chat with him too. Do catch him if you can. We have a feature piece on Jefferson Blues Mag here, and Blues in Russia will be back soon. There are also new Blue Bloods artists to check out at a venue near you.

It’s like your favourte selection pack for Christmas in these pages… where’s that bottle of the good stuff?

ENJOY and spread the word because ‘our name says it all’.

Alan Pearce

Founder, Publisher, Editor-in-Chief, Fan

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COVER PHOTOS:

Joe Bonamassa by Jen Rosenstein; Tas Cru by Sandy Roe; Delbert McClinton by Rick Lewis.

Contributing Writers:

Liz Aiken, Tim Arnold (USA), Roy Bainton, Eric Baker (USA), Steve Banks, Patterson Barrett (USA), Adrian Blacklee, Eddy Bonte (Bel), Colin Campbell, Iain Cameron, Martin Cook, Norman Darwen, Dave Drury, Carl Dziunka (Aus), Ben Elliott (USA), Barry Fisch (USA), Sybil Gage (USA), Jack Goodall, Mickey Griffiths, Stuart A. Hamilton, Trevor Hodgett, Rowland Jones, Brian Kramer (Sw), Frank Leigh, John Lindley, Boris Litvintsev (RU), Gian Luca (USA), Mairi Maclennan, Ben McNair, Mercedes Mill (USA), John Mitchell, Toby Ornott, Merv Osborne, David Osler, Iain Patience (Fr), Alan Pearce, Dom Pipkin, Thomas Rankin, Simon Ridley, Darrell Sage (USA), Paromita Saha (USA), Pete Sargeant, Graeme Scott, Andy Snipper, M.D. Spenser, Dave Stone, Tom Walker, Don Wilcock (USA), Dani Wilde, Steve Yourglivch, Mike Zito (USA).

Contributing Photographers:

Annie Goodman (USA), others credited on page

© 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.

46. Dan Patlansky

52. Michael Lehman on Gregg Allman

Delbert McClinton (USA) .............................

56

Having backed many legendary blues heroes like Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf, Freddy King, Muddy Waters etc… on harmonica, the Multi Grammy Award winning Delbert gave us a rare interview following his show at the Tampa Bay Blues Festival.

Lloyd Langford (UK)

62

Comedian Lloyd Langford appeared on the Celebrity Mastermind show and his specialist subject was Robert Johnson, so, we caught up with him to discuss his blues.

Bishop Gunn (USA)

66

Named after the sixth Bishop of Natchez, Mississippi, these exciting new Southern rockers have been described as having a whole lot of Muscle Shoals mixed in with their blend of Mississippi Blues.

Shemekia Copeland (USA) ..........................

70

Larger than life star Shemekia is movin’ on up and enjoying another run of chart success with her latest and captivating album, America’s Child , which features collaborations with some top names such as John Prine, Rhiannon Giddens, and Emmylou Harris.

Rick Estrin (USA) .........................................

Wildy fun, musically fearless and bursting with bravado states his bio and this is certainly true if you’ve ever been lucky enough to see him and his band live. Rick is well known for his world class harmonica playing, his hipster style and unforgettable lyrics and vocals.

Tas Cru (USA) ...............................................

The blues poet, blues educator, singer-songwriter, and guitarist, chats with our writer about his latest album Memphis Song and about where his inspirations come from.

74

Tony Joe White (USA) ..................................

With a hugely successful career spanning five decades, White brings us his latest release Bad Mouthin’ which sees him going back to his roots with an elemental blues album which he discusses with us here.

84

80

Deep Blue Sea, Dik Banovich, Dom Pipkin, Eric Bibb, Selwyn Birchwood.

70. Shemekia Copeland

Ottilie Patterson – The Godmother of British Blues

Phenomenal Blues Women

In the late 1950s and early 1960s, when American blues artists including Big Bill Broonzy, Sonny Terry and Muddy Waters began touring the UK, young British musicians such as John Mayall, Peter Green and Eric Clapton were hugely inspired by their emotive performances. These young British men took the American blues and made it their own – the British Blues Boom was born. John Mayall, whose 2009 DVD release was entitled The Godfather of British Blues indeed was a pioneer of the subgenre; however, a decade before John Mayall and The Blues Breaker’s first album was released, a young Irish Girl called Ottilie Patterson took to the stage and the recording studio, inspired by her hero Bessie Smith!

Before Ottilie Patterson joined the Chris Barber Band in 1954, it was accepted that British performers could not sing the blues. Ottilie Patterson was born in Comber, Co, Northern Ireland, in 1932. Her father Joseph, was a local Irish man and her mother, Julia was from Latvia. Both of her parents were musical and her grandfather played The Bagpipes. Ottilie’s gift for music was evident in her early years; she took piano lessons from the age of nine and taught herself to sing.

Whilst studying art at the Belfast College of Technology, a fellow a student and friend lent her some jazz and blues records that included Jelly-Roll Morton and The Empress of The

Blues – Bessie Smith. Ottilie was blown away by Bessie Smith’s Reckless Blues, and this inspired her to begin singing the blues herself.

In 1954, Ottilie spent her Summer Holiday in London where a friend took her to hear cornetist Ken Colyer’s band at a small venue in Soho. At the end of the night, after the rest of the band had packed up their instruments, Pianist Johnny Parker began an impromptu duet with Ottilie. Parker played the opening notes of ‘Careless Love’ and Ottilie wowed the band with a Bessie Smith inspired blues vocal performance. Excited by her voice, the band unpacked their instruments and joined in. Later that week Ottilie met up with the trombonist Chris Barber and he invited her to sing with his band for the remainder of her holiday.

When Ottilie returned to Ireland, it wasn’t long before she received a phone call from Barber, who offered her £10 a week to join his band full time. She flew back to London in time for rehearsals on January 1st, 1955, and made her first public appearance at the Royal Festival Hall eight days later. The band’s impressive line-up included Lonnie Donegan, Monty Sunshine and Pat Halcox. The audience reaction to Ottilie’s authentic and emotive blues vocal was ecstatic. Her renditions of ‘classic’ blues songs including ‘Careless Love,’ ‘Reckless Blues’ and ‘St. Louis Blues’ received fantastic reviews with one reviewer describing her as “the nearest thing to a real blues

Verbals: Dani Wilde

singer to emerge this side of the Atlantic.”

“I sing the blues because I find it so fulfilling,” Ottilie Patterson said in one interview, and her passion for the genre shone in all of her performances. Ottilie would continue to perform with Barber for the next ten years.

With Ottilie in the line up, the bands popularity swiftly grew. As their fan base increased, Chris Barber decided to invite American blues, Jazz and Gospel stars to join them on tour in the UK. For Ottilie it was an opportunity to perform alongside her African American idols. Racial discrimination in America during the 1950s and 60s was shocking. Jim Crow Laws were local laws that enforced racial segregation in the Southern states until 1965. The laws stated that black and white people had to have different schools, restaurants, bathrooms, and discriminated against black people using public services. By the late 1950s, the civil rights movement had turned mainstream and brought about both hope and hatred as white Americans either supported or opposed the movement. Some of the African American blues Artists were nervous of joining Chris Barber’s tour, and especially of being seen in the company of a white woman. Ottilie recalled of Big Bill Broonzy: “We were walking along Oxford Street and he said, ‘You’re not ashamed to be seen with me, are you?’ I said, ‘I’m proud,’ and my heart nearly broke.”

Another phenomenal talent invited to guest on tour with Barber’s band was gospel singer and rock n roll guitar pioneer Sister Rosetta Tharpe. “I wasn’t put down to do anything with her,” Ottilie reminisced. “She had done a rehearsal with the band in the afternoon, but not with me. Then in the interval, she had heard me from side stage, and she came belting into my

dressing room, and she said, You’re on with me in the second half. And I said, No I’m not! And she said, Yes you are. And all you have to remember is that when I say ‘You wanna be,’ immediately you answer ‘I wanna be.’ Sister Rosetta lead the way engaging Ottilie in a passionate call and response duet in the traditional song ‘Oh when the saints go marching in”. The crowds went wild at seeing their homegrown star holding her own, improvising with Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Backstage, buzzing from the thrill of a fantastic show, Rosetta turned to Ottilie and exclaimed “You ain’t nothing but a white n****r!” “And she smashed her hand over her mouth,” Ottilie explained, “and her eyes grew big with fear and terror at what she’d said! She got her wires crossed, because I mean I couldn’t have said it to her, and she thought she was insulting me, and I burst out laughing and said, You’ve just given me the best compliment I’ve ever had… Oh, we got on like a house on fire!”

Ottilie was honoured to have toured with Sister Rosetta, and she enjoyed having a female travel companion working in such a male dominated industry.

As well as starring on Chris Barber’s recordings, Ottilie Patterson also released records under her own name (The Patterson Girl –Volumes One and Two – 1955 and 1956). She

also composed her own songs and would sometimes accompany herself on piano. In 1959, Ottilie married her band leader Chris Barber. The band’s tour schedule was extensive, often playing 200 shows per year in Europe and America. The San Francisco Examiner hailed her as “the world’s only Irish blues singer.” One moment that really was a dream come true for Ottilie, was her invitation to sing on stage with Muddy Waters and his band. During her performance, she heard one African-American lady call out from the crowd “Hey, lady, you sing real pretty. How come you sing like one of us?” Years before ‘The British Invasion’, Ottilie Paterson was already stunning crowds with the mismatch of her white British appearance and her emotive, classic blues voice.

Much of the Barber band’s success was down to Patterson’s popularity. Chris Barber described the band’s height of popularity as being the period 1955-61. At their peak, they sold out the 3,000 seat venue ‘Newcastle City Hall’ five times in one year. In his autobiography, Barber explained, “we were not like other jazz musicians. Once Ottilie was singing with us full time from January 1955, we became very different from other traditional bands because we started to play the blues regularly.” When Ottilie left the band, “promoters… would ask ‘will Ottilie be there?’…It wasn’t so much a question of whether the band was good, or not so good, it was just that promoters did not want us without Ottilie Patterson.”

Sadly, by 1965, Ottilie began to suffer from vocal health problems and so, under doctor’s advice, she took a long period of ‘vocal rest’. She did make the occasional appearance with Chris Barber in the 1970s, however in 1983 the couple divorced and in 1991 she decided to fully retire from performing.

Ottilie Patterson died 20 June 2011 in a care home in Scotland. Despite arguably being the first pioneer of British blues, on her deathbed, her huge contribution to British music had been largely forgotten. This is why I have chosen to celebrate Ottilie Patterson in my article today; and why her fans and I believe that she should be officially crowned ‘The Godmother of British Blues’.

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Earl Thomas Bridgeman and Greig Taylor at The Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival 15 July 2018

Celtic Blues and Gospel Ensemble

Iwas recently party to a bit of a secret concert series. It all centred on an Earl Thomas set, but this was not to be a regular Earl Thomas gig as such. This was to be a showcase for the all new Celtic Blues and Gospel Ensemble to be performed at The Edinburgh Jazz and Blues Festival 2018, for three nights, in three different venues. Earl Thomas Bridgeman wanted to do something different for this year’s festival and certainly having been to see the show it is sure to be one of the major highlights of this fortieth event. Earl’s concept was based on ‘What if the slaves and the Plantation owners jammed together.’ Well, going by the show it is probably the most vibrant and uplifting

sounds an audience could hear. People clapped and hollered, adding to that Gospel effect true to the tradition, the atmosphere was buzzing. The story went like this: two centuries ago, a slave owner, John Bridgeman, moved to Bledsoe County, Tennessee, where he fell in love with a female slave called Delphea and they had eighteen children, Earl quipped ‘he hoped it was love.’ Consequently, Earl was born to this dynasty and he was on a quest to retell the Gospel songs in Edinburgh with some Scottish cousins. Enter, vocalist Greig Taylor whom Earl met at Maryport Blues Festival, although Earl forgot about him until scrolling through Social Media and on hearing Greig sing, Oh Pretty Woman. Earl thought: ‘Oh here’s another white dude trying to play Albert King, let’s see how well he doesn’t do it.’ “But, I was blown away, not only was he singing his own soul, as they said back in the day, but he has honed his skills, and I felt I want to know him, I want strong singers, not copycats. His own twist was confident and not like some artists who cannot hit the notes.” Earl contacted Greig to see if he could get some musicians together and he did, it was Greig who set it all up. Greig has already got a newish band formed, The

Verbals and Visuals: Colin Campbell

Greig Taylor Blues Combo. So, on drums there is Dave Cantwell and lead guitarist Sandy Tweedale. Other musicians gathered for the ensemble are fellow vocalists, Gerad McArthur and Kris Boobyer, bass player Lorna Thomas, and Gill Hunter on keyboards and accordion.

Why choose The Plantation Gospels album?

Earl replied: “No one else is doing this, no one has the vocabulary, and there are a lot of people out there, winning awards who know nothing about the foundation of the blues. They know their Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf but they don’t know Mahalia Jackson, Clara Ward or James Cleveland or what these songs represent and how they relate to the blues and Gospel tradition.” Earl was raised in this environment; this is the music of his birth. His mother always said he’d be a Gospel singer. “I’ve graduated into something more sophisticated than that. I don’t differentiate between soul, blues, rhythm and blues. It’s all African- American Heritage music, but after The Rolling Stones did it, it proved white men could play all that music too. Blues is sharing people’s experiences in life, that’s all it is.”

Greig related to this: “I’m a white man from Scotland, I’ve had the blues. On my first album with the GT Boos Band, I described some of my experiences in my early twenties when I was in prison for a short while. The second album was about relationship breakdowns. That was my blues.”

Earl went on to say: “The reason there is blues is because of the oppression of black people, they were not the only oppressed people but the most severely. Out of that mud came blues, jazz and all other styles of music.”

His influences on his music were family related, but also cited Ike and Tina Turner as number one, Rod Stewart, number two and everyone else number three. He cited himself growing up as a musical nerd soaking everything to do with music up. “Blues wise. I liked Johnny Shines.” When he got the courage to sing that’s when it all started. Similarly, Greig related to this growing up, but it was not until he was in prison and singing in front of ‘two hundred convicts and advice from the warden’ that it hit home that he could sing and start a career. He even sent The Governor

a letter of thanks for pointing him in the right direction. There seemed an insight of this on stage at Edinburgh when Greig did his solo ‘None of Us Are Free’ a very powerful song with wonderful backing vocals.

We talked about the Scottish culture. Earl was very impressed with how generous and helpful people were to him. “I feel there is a general happiness overall.”

This was a very relaxed chat after a highperformance concert. There is a real bond between the band and their interpretation of classics like ‘Glory, Glory’ and the harmonies on ‘Swing Low Sweet Chariot’ exemplified this.

This led to me describing the overall feel of the connection of the band to the audience and to quote a Scottish phrase. This being ‘we’re all Jock Tampsons bairns’ (Children). Basically, we are all the same under the skin, and have similar identities and emotional needs. Earl reiterated this feeling of kindness from strangers. Talking culture, Earl said his dad was in the Navy and had travelled the world. “Had I not travelled I would have gone to a segregated School, then I would have been in that group of kids traumatised by the adults throwing shit at them and making all kinds of threats because they were trying to get an education, I didn’t know I was black until I was fourteen. Because black is a mind-set caused by the craziness the Government is bringing in.”

Greig talked about how much he is learning from this project, in particular about the song ‘Pressing On,’ how it relates to pressing cotton and having to intonate the hardship of doing this job. “It gives so much depth to the song.” Earl’s take on musical abilities was put succinctly and definitely noted. “White people imitating black oppressed people and being awarded for how they do it is kinda weird. There are no white people that can validate what I do.”

Discussion went on about how you have to ‘feel’ the music you’re playing and live the song your singing. There was a feeling that Earl and Greig are not in music for the fame.

Greig insisted he would like it as a legacy for his family. Earl has been singed, by the ‘fame’ bubble being double nominated for a Grammy: “People try to give me what they think I want, but I’m not trying to be famous. But I’ve had to tone it down; I don’t like getting stared at.”

“Next time you see this show, I will be singing less songs. I only sang so many tonight because people expect this when they come to see me, this is an ensemble and I will be singing less songs next time. It’s about giving the audience an enjoyable experience”.

Presenting a show and attention to detail seems the core of the show. Greig especially aware of taking the applause of the audience and what that means. We are always learning. It was noticeable that there was no time between songs and the audience was so receptive. The concert was filmed as well. From the first note Earl knew the audience was receptive. It’s always about putting on a show. ‘Hold your focus and tell your story,’ more good advice from Earl. Also, giving an audience their money’s worth, which they certainly did at this particular concert.

Albert Collins and Ike Turner gave Earl a lot of advice and he is sharing this with the ensemble and particularly with Greig who is soaking everything up at the moment and becoming a better performer for it.

Greig has other projects. He will be touring with his own band, as well as the Earl Thomas Ensemble, and bringing out a solo album in September; he also has the Blind Lemon Gators, a stripped-back delta blues duo. The future is looking good.

Regarding the future of the Ensemble, there are plans to play The Royal Albert Hall and Montreux Jazz Festival. The sky is the limit for this project. There are exciting times ahead. It’s been a blast talking good luck and goodnight.

For further information check out the websites: www.earthomasmusic.com and www.greigtaylor.com

Blues is sharing people’s experiences in life, that’s all it is.

Nashville Blues

For many of us, “the blues” conjures visions of run-down shacks in the deep south of the Mississippi delta or smoke-filled bars in places like Chicago, Memphis, St. Louis, or Kansas City. Nashville, Tennessee is probably not a location that immediately springs to mind. But surely a place proudly proclaiming itself “Music City” must have a few souls singing the blues. And it does, sort of. To understand today’s Nashville blues scene, I found it helps to know some of the backstory of blues in this southern state capital city known mainly as the epicenter of country music.

Jefferson Street

When it comes to looking at the history of the blues in Nashville, all roads lead to Jefferson Street. During the American Civil War, Nashville was occupied by Union troops, and a large contraband camp was set up in North Nashville. The camp became a temporary home to many newly freed slaves, and the wagon road that ran through the camp came to be known as Jefferson Street. Over the years the area became a bustling community, home to many of Nashville’s African American residents. Between 1935 and 1965 the area’s nightlife was bountiful, and music

Verbals: Patterson Barrett Visuals: Supplied by author

D.L. Duncan

was an abundant feature found in venues of all kinds up and down the avenue. In pool halls and dance halls, speakeasies and theaters, performers came from near and far to appear, and blues musicians were no exception. They came to places with names like Club Revillot, the New Era, Deborah’s Casino Royale, and Ebony Circle.

And to the Del Morocco, where a young and somewhat green Jimi Hendrix, fresh out of the army, led a combo that included Billy Cox, who would also join him in later configurations. And down the street to the Club Baron, where blues great Johnny Jones engaged Hendrix in a legendary guitar duel, with Jones emerging as the undisputed winner. Jones, who would go on to mentor Jimi, admitted late in life that the main reason he won “the shootout” was that he had a bigger amp and played louder than the skinny kid who had difficulty keeping his guitar out of the pawn shop. Hendrix, already quite the showman, playing guitar with his teeth, earned himself the nickname “Marbles,” supposedly because some folks thought he’d lost his.

B.B. King, Etta James, Ivory Joe Hunter, Ray Charles – all played Nashville’s Jefferson Street; even Memphis Slim made the trip eastward. Bobby Hebb, who would later have a hit with the song ‘Sunny,’ was often seen there at the Bijou Theater. But dark clouds were gathering over Jefferson Street.

What Killed Jefferson Street?

The Jefferson Street described above is a distant misty memory, recalled only by those still around who lived it. The first blow toward its demise came in 1952, when the US federal government funded an urban renewal project aimed at cleaning up what was perceived by some as a seedy, run-down neighborhood too close to Capitol Hill. Then, in 1963, a new city charter went into effect, giving officials more power over the North Nashville neighborhood. You see, for years illegal gambling was carried out in back rooms of many of the establishments, and the income from those ventures helped finance the music rooms out in the front. But as the gambling operations were shut down by newly empowered agents, many

clubs were left struggling or closed. The final blow came in 1968, when a large superhighway was constructed right down the middle of this once vibrant community. The glory of Jefferson Street has not been seen since.

Caretakers Of The Legacy

The Music City Blues Society

Some 20 years later, when booking agent, publicist, and songwriter Karen Leipziger and her husband, saxophonist Dennis Taylor, moved to town, she noticed something. The bands playing the blues music she had come to love “kind of drove through Nashville, [but] they never stopped and played in Nashville.” So, in 1991, she decided to do something about it. She gathered a few like-minded folks together and started The Music City Blues Society, “so that we could start bringing some of these national and international blues acts to Nashville.” Eventually garnering over 1500 paid members, the organization was a great success, and Leipziger, along with others, brought in top-notch performers such as Luther Allison, The Holmes Brothers, and Johnny Lang. “It was a very thriving scene for a number of years,” says Leipziger, “but then–,” she pauses, “it takes a lot of time and commitment. People got burned out; it started sort of falling apart. The scene just kind of faded.”

The Nashville Blues Society

Enter Andy Talamantez (Andy T) and his wife, Kathy Bolmer. In 2010, along with musician and publicist Ted Drozdowski, they started a new organization – The Nashville Blues Society. It became an affiliate member organization of the Memphis-based Blues

It takes a lot of time and commitment. People got burned out; it started sort of falling apart. The scene just kind of faded.

Foundation, where Bolmer now serves as board member. The newly formed society proclaimed in its inaugural newsletter its mission to “…promote, preserve, support and advance the tradition and future of blues music.” In addition to promoting local shows and disseminating news and information about the blues, they sponsored a weekly blues jam session. Hosted by Andy T in a few different venues, the jam continued for the better part of the decade. But eventually Andy T got busy with out of town gigs (a good thing, if one wants to, you know, make a living), and that jam session and the Nashville Blues Society both fell by the wayside. About the collapse of the Nashville Blues Society, Andy T explains, “I wouldn’t say it’s been due to lack of interest; it’s due to lack of volunteers.”

may not have a permanent home in Nashville, but they have certainly been fostered.

Jams

The blues have continued to find a home in the several recurring blues jam sessions across town every week. They include:

The Blues Jam Session at Carol Ann’s Home Cooking Cafe – If there’s anywhere in Nashville where you can find the remnants of Jefferson Street’s heyday, this would be it. Hosted by veteran soul singer Jimmy Church (who’s song ‘The Hurt’ was a minor hit in England in 1963), the session is sponsored by the Tennessee Rhythm & Blues Society, a nonprofit “dedicated to preserving & promoting Classic Soul/R&B and honoring the legends that paved the way for artists of today.” Advertised as “Grown Folks Night,” it leans a bit more towards the classic soul side. It’s also probably the only jam where attendants are predominantly black.

Are The Blues Homeless In Nashville?

The history of the blues has always involved homelessness; the feeling of being homeless lives at the very center of the blues, perhaps traceable all the way back to Africans ripped from their homes and sold as slaves an entire ocean away. If not entirely homeless, the blues have been wandering around Nashville from stage to stage, or perhaps from one corner of a cafe or bar to the other for the last 40 years. It’s hard to believe, but during this time there has not been a dedicated blues club in town, no venue where national touring blues acts might play. Sure, there are clubs with blues nights, and even some with blues names: Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar and B.B. King’s Blues Club, for instance. These are seen by local blues performer D.L. Duncan and others, however, as “tourist blues,” catering more to the ubiquitous bachelorette parties and out of town sporting event attendees, rather than true blues fans. The blues

Pro Blues Jam at The Local – This isn’t a walk-up-and-play sort of affair, but more of an invited artists event (hence the “Pro” in the title). Held on Tuesdays, it’s curated by Cara Lippman, who performs as Cara Being Blue. She previously hosted the event at Carol Ann’s, and Carol Ann herself (who died in 2016) honored Lippman for her contribution to blues music. Since recently moving to the Local, the attendance of both performers and audience members at Lippman’s jam has been quite good.

Papa Turney’s BBQ – Wednesday nights there’s a blues jam hosted by the band known as 3 Bean Soup at this little joint perched on the shore of Percy Priest Lake. And on Saturday nights you’ll find the Rib Cage Deluxe Blues Band holding court.

Twin Kegs II – Whether it’s the longrunning Sunday Night Blues Jam or Big Monti’s Wednesday Night Blues Jam, they’re playing and singing the blues just a few minutes from downtown Nashville.

Nashville Blues Artists

Perhaps echoing a larger global trend in blues music, Nashville’s current blues scene appears to be populated by older, and mostly white,

The feeling of being homeless lives at the very center of the blues.

folks. Rather than identify with the rich heritage and musical traditions of blues progenitors like Muddy Waters or even B.B. King, young black musicians across the country today seem drawn to Hip-hop, Rap, and the commercialized R&B that dominates the media. Gary Clark Jr., Keb’ Mo’, and Ruthie Foster seem more like the exceptions, rather than the rule.

A quick look at the 2018 Blues Music Awards presented by the Memphis based nonprofit Blues Foundation reveals that out of 26 awards, only 9 went to black performers (and 5 of those were to Keb’ Mo’ and Taj Mahal).

But none of this means the blues aren’t alive and well in Nashville. There are plenty of talented blues players in Music City. Here’s a sampling of some folks you might be able to hear on any given night:

Whitey Johnson (aka Gary Nicholson) –Gary Nicholson is probably best known for his songwriting; his songs have been recorded by everyone from Willie Nelson to Robert Plant. But he sometimes adopts the persona of a Texas bluesman named Whitey Johnson.

Singing songs like ‘Better Off With the Blues’ and one of my personal favorites, ‘Worry Be Gone,’ he can often be heard at the Bourbon Street Blues and Boogie Bar. Although the lyrics may be a bit tongue in cheek, the music is purely authentic blues. And Bourbon Street may be the closest thing to a bar actually dedicated to the blues. Tucked away in Printer’s Alley, a few blocks away from the cacophony of Lower Broadway, the joint has a nice bluesy vibe with pretty good sound and seating.

Colin Linden – Although born in Canada, Linden is now one of Nashville’s premier purveyors of the blues. When he was just an 11-year-old kid, he was hanging out with blues legend Howlin’ Wolf, and through the years he went on to accumulate an encyclopedic knowledge of blues music. Particularly proficient at slide, or bottleneck, guitar, Linden can be seen around his adopted hometown playing with any number of acts, including a recurring role with the aforementioned Whitey Johnson.

Shaun Murphy – If you’re lucky enough to be in Nashville when Shaun Murphy is

Brian Langlinais

not on the road, you might catch her at one of the blues jams or doing a show of her own at one of the larger venues in town. Murphy’s list of credits reads like a list of rock royalty and includes Eric Clapton, Bob Seger, The Moody Blues, and Little Feat, to name a few. She has embraced her blues roots on recent recordings, accumulating awards and accolades along the way.

Jack Pearson – A member of the Allman Brothers Band for two years, Jack Pearson is acknowledged as one of the great guitarists in a town that is full of them. If you happen to be in Nashville, you can hear him most Tuesdays at 3rd and Lindsley or Wednesdays at the Station Inn. Adept at both acoustic and electric guitar, he often plays as a trio with organist Charles Treadway and drummer Joshua Hunt. While they sometimes blur the lines between jazz and the blues, they can launch into a loping shuffle and stroll on down the road as well as any band to ever come out of Chicago.

Charles “Wigg” Walker – Born in Nashville, Walker has recorded for a number of labels in his nearly 60-year career, including Champion, Chess, and Decca. After spending most of the 1980s performing and

hometown in 1993. Authentic and old-school, he can be caught most Saturday nights at Acme Feed & Seed in downtown Nashville.

D.L. Duncan – After establishing himself as a successful songwriter with Gold records for some notable non-blues singers (Lorrie Morgan, Buddy Jewell), Duncan teamed up with West Coast bluesman Curtis Salgado. The two wrote a number of tunes together, with a couple gaining Blues Foundation’s Blues Music Awards for Song of the Year. He can be heard around Nashville playing songs from his most recent recording, D.L. Duncan

Mark Robinson – Robinson’s stints playing with legends like Sunnyland Slim and Koko Taylor served him well. When he moved to Nashville after living in Chicago and Bloomington, Illinois, he put his experience right to work, forming The Mark Robinson Band. He’s followed up his first two CDs with 2017’s Live At The 5 Spot, recorded at the storied East Nashville hotspot.

Brian Langlinais – Originally from Lafayette, Louisiana, Langlinais has called Nashville home since 1995. Veering from crooning soul to bayou boogie, his two recent releases, Loud And Clear (2016) and Right Hand Road (2017), show him taking the bluesier route. You can find him

There are also a number of artists who live in Nashville but rarely play in town, like Jimmy Hall (of Wet Willie fame, now touring as Jeff Beck’s vocalist), roadhouse rocker Delbert McClinton, young bluesrock sister act Larkin Poe (on tour with Keith Urban), and Keb’ Mo’, among others.

So, Is There A Nashville Blues Scene?

As John Lee Hooker famously sang, “It’s in him, and it’s got to come out.” The blues are universal, they are everywhere, and Nashville is no exception. A look at the history of blues in this city reveals that even if the venues change and the performers drift in and out of the picture, the blues will find a way, a place to live. Even (or especially) in Music City. It’s in us and it’s got to come out.

Mark Robinson

“This posthumous release sees Roger Hill deliver a CD-worth of the most gorgeous jazz-blues,... the magic tripped effortlessly off his fingers”

David Osler, Blues Matters

Eric Bibb may have found the perfect formula, where his own groovy contemporary blues fuses with African roots as well as reggae and gospel. About 15 musicians of the highest calibre, Americans, Europeans, Jamaicans and two African stars, the Malian Habib Koité and the Senegalese Solo Cissokho took part in “Global Griot ” , a most unusual treat and a milestone in Eric Bibb’s outstanding career

C D S - D I G I S L E E V E

Part 9: Big John Carter – The Heart of British Boogie

Radiating the 88s

John Carter makes a great cup of tea. Surrounded by gig posters, wonderfully stylized photos of himself and musical friends, a large painting, portraits of the great boogie piano players, stacks of CDs, a metronome, a couple of Yamaha uprights and comfy chairs, Carters cosy east London pad feels like the ultimate musician’s cave, yet modest and slightly hidden away. I’ve been here before, jammed here and talked music here.

I stand at his shoulder and listen. Big John Carter’s piano boogie has deep soul – less flash than some firebrand boogie exponents, utterly entrancing and truly the real deal – his feel and weight remind me of Mac Rebennack. His right-hand tumbles with effortless ease and invention, peppered with all the right spice, and supported by a left hand as it should be – growly, driving, playful and always grooving. I could listen for hours.

Today I’m hearing John’s story. Aged eleven, one “life changing” day, he put his hand up for piano lessons and was taken out of class to the school hall. Ignoring the C major scale, he was being shown, he started practicing the blues and boogie left hand patterns he was shown by another boy who was in the know. Bitten by the bug he now started to break back into school to use the grand piano when it was closed, negotiating a deal with the cleaner to be left alone with his practice,

and weathering the inevitable clip round the ear he would receive from one of his parents when returning home late. Discovering a shop selling pianos on Brick Lane once he’d left home at 16, Carter found resilience playing on the street despite a further barrage of spitting, stone throwing and verbal taunts. He says that this experience toughened him up to the worst that any audience could ever throw at him. Education indeed!

Carter then started going to rock and roll clubs and followed his old man to the eastend record shops, digging out the best vinyl he could find from the genre. Amos Milburn was a particularly impressive early discovery, and album liner notes and word of mouth recommendations led to further and deeper research for the teenager. His next discovery was Big Joe Turner, and a track named ‘Sally Zu-Zazz’ which had Pete Johnson on the ivories and which essentially constituted boogie-woogie clashing with rocking late 40s RnB. As Carter points out, the actual terminology of what constitutes rock and roll is fairly arbitrary. I know myself, for example, that Fats Domino didn’t ever really see himself as a rock and roller, although plenty of others did. Pete Johnson of course led to Albert Ammons, and “that’s it”, says Carter, “I was on the hunt! Anything by these two, anything boogiewoogie.” Another influence for the 17-year-old was a chance discovery in Woolworths of ‘Back

Verbals: Dom Pipkin Visuals: Dom Pipkin

to Boogie’ – an album by the great British piano player Neville Dickie. His development was then significantly accelerated by moving in with a young woman and getting an upright piano in the flat too. Finally!

There is no mention from John that at this time he thought about playing for audiences. “It was a personal quest” he says. However, his Brick Lane hangouts began to lead to requests from landlords for him to bring his skills into their pubs, for “not a lot of money”. Moreover, live playing opportunities began to develop through the rock and roll scene. Some of this would be just playing the house piano before the night properly began. John recalls pianists like Trevor Hawkins and Dave Taylor in rock and roll bands on the scene and

hauling real pianos up stairs for players such as Rusty Lupton, who also let him sit in with the band, again in a rock and roll setting.

Other memories that Carter shares with me from this time include being amazed at hearing bona fide boogie-woogie piano played on Top of the Pops by the swiss duo Che and Ray – the European openness to the style that we shall talk of later. Jona Lewie’s ‘Piggy Back Boogie’ was the only modern record tolerated in the clubs, whilst other chart-topping releases were ceremoniously stamped to splinters on the dance floor! Carter made the national press in the alleged ‘Punks versus Teds’ conflicts, although the narrative that comes through in our conversation speaks more of actual ‘conversion’ of a couple of punk boys to the

rocking scene, which was running a club practically every night of the week.

Carter speaks fondly to me about Johnny Parker, responsible for the piano on Humphrey Lyttleton’s ‘Bad Penny Blues.’ When the older man could no longer maintain a repetitive left hand owing to a pinched nerve, Carter was given boogie duties on his live shows, whilst Parker concen trated on stride playing. Carter’s admiration for the man is highly evident. Stan Greig too (who had a duo with Parker swapping piano and drums) gets a glowing mention.

Carter’s own band was, of course called the Brick Lane Boogie Boys, and set out to be a genuine synthesis of real boogie-woogie piano and country style guitar picking, creating the same flavours of true early rock and roll and the more country side of RnB, rather than the more ‘uptown’ showy side of rocking music.

Twelve or so years ago, Carter was hyped up to the existence of the UK Boogie Woogie Festival, in Dorset. Within a year of its inception he was there, becoming a mainstay and one of the festival’s creative forces. I’m happy to report that John has organized for me to play this year, so I’ll see you all there! He tells me the Festival receives regular visits from Patrick Smet (Belgium) and Eeco Rijken Rapp (The Netherlands), and an examination of this years line up reveals many more international stars of the scene. I ask Carter more about the players to watch out for at the Festival and its associated monthly club night. “From the UK – James Goodwin and Julian Philips.” From further afield he lists Jo Shumacher (a real-life priest as well as piano player) and cites the big European daddy Axel Zwingenberger (who I first heard at the end of 80s when travelling in Europe with my friends just after leaving school – we had been amused by his name!) and Frank Muschalle. The festival attracts aficionados from all over the country and is a

definite date for the diary for lovers of all rocking piano. Through his work at the UK Boogie Woogie Club and Festival, Carter sees the state of talent both at home and abroad, and sadly laments our lack of overall standards compared to some mainland European countries –especially Germany, the powerhouse and staunch supporter of the scene – remember Che and Ray? More names are offered – Lasse Jensen and Daniel Paterok to mention but two. Carter suggests that not only do young players have more resources to learn from now, but in countries such a Germany the talent emerges because the older players are there to teach and mentor the up-comers. But, is this all? Is this the future of boogiewoogie? Well, funnily enough, both John and I agree that recreation of the standard repertoire is a dangerous game. The style is ‘classic’ but the invention of something new is what matters. A reworking of a right-hand lick, a new twist on a left hand, or a quirky ‘turnaround.’ Vitality for the scene can only really stem from creativity and personality, and Carter makes real time to help players unlock this, by visiting him in his den. He really wants to make a difference, he really cares, and this absolutely shines through when we talk. “If a player can play just one note differently when leaving here, then I’ve made a difference”. I love this humility, complete honesty, and pride in John. He’s an absolute master of the style, so deeply connected to every note and lick, yet seems to put others first over and over again. Thank you, John Carter, for your music and your inspiration.

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Big b lues

f e s t i va l —

Sat 13

october ‘ 18

Blues Matters!

Acoustic Stage

Mojo Hand

1:30 – 2:15

Michael Woods

3:15 – 4:00

Rowland Jones

5:00 – 5:45

Trevor 'Babajack'

Stieger 5:45 – 6:30

Early bird £40

Festival ticket £48 (from 1 Aug)

Saturday ticket £35

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5th UKBlues Challenge

Hot on the heels of the recent UKBlues Challenge, we are now at the final showdown as it were, where a panel of judges will decide who, of the five bands still left, will go to the States in January for the ultimate International Blues Challenge, and then on to the Azores in Spring 2019, for the European Blues Challenge. So, who do we have lining up for the off? In no particular order, we have Kyla Brox, the Greg Coulson Band, Tom C Walker Band, Catfish and as yet, an unsigned band chosen through the Jessica Foxley Unsigned Competition. I arrived in good time to get around and meet the great and the good and catch up, and then it was time to start. Each band were given 30 minutes to strut their stuff,

and first out of the traps was the Greg Coulson Band from London. Greg is a very active frontman and it was fair to say that he didn’t stop moving from the very first note played on guitar by Greg, who quickly changed to keyboards, conjuring up a great Hammond sound and switching from hitting the stops and singing as well as various on-stage gymnastics, well, I was tired just watching him. All too soon, their time was up, and I got time with them for a quick chat, I was astonished to find that Mathew who had been playing rhythm guitar and some dazzling lead work too, was only depping! Phenomenal, and as far as I was concerned straight into the first slot. Next into the frame were the afore mentioned young and unsigned band by the name of Carl

Worthing Piers Southern Pavilion, 8 September 2018

Verbals: Dave Stone Visuals: Liz Aiken

North & The Lonely Hearts who are a six-piece, with two young ladies, on sax and backing and lead vocals, sad to say that I didn’t get their names, but footage of their performance is already up on their web site, so, give yourselves a treat and go look at them. Kyla Brox was on next with her band and she simply blew the place apart, finishing a blistering set with an awesome version of Leonard Cohens’ ‘Hallelujah’ that almost brought the roof in. Next in line was my own personal favourite, Catfish, and they were able to show that not only can Matt sing, but he was probably the best guitarist on stage all evening, and still giving out the obligatory rock god grimaces. The final act was the Tom C Walker band and they had quite a unique style being very staccato in their riffs, and at times almost giving a Shadows marching routine, it was a very enjoyable set. Well, it was all over bar the counting and we sat eagerly awaiting the raffle as I was certain in my fantasies that I was

going to win the first prize which was a brand-new Fender Telecaster, ideal for any bluesman or woman, but as usual I was wrong. Then with an unrehearsed drum roll on the table tops, UKBlues Chairman Ashwyn Smyth announced the winner; Kyla Brox and her band! As you might imagine there were no objections or sour grapes, and the very worthy winners were presented with their welldeserved prize. Well done to Kyla and all the very best for the US Challenge and the European one too, let’s have a UK hat trick and get the other two! I am certain that you can do it. I must say thank you to the organisers who ran a very slick show, thanks to the sound man who seemed to be controlling everything from a handheld tablet, I want one of those! Thanks of course to the five bands and all of their support, and thanks to everyone who was a part of this by being a UKBlues Federation member. Now how can I get to the States?

Jefferson Blues Magazine 50 Not Out

Fifty years ago, a handful of blues fans took the decision to create and publish a new, innovative magazine in Sweden, a model that has since been copied throughout the Nordic region with similar publications in Norway and Finland now both well established formats. And while here at Blues Matters! we’re justifiably proud of our own heritage and twenty-years of putting the music at the forefront of UK readers and fans, we have to doff our cap at Sweden’s very own Jefferson Blues Magazine, another full-colour, print title, with, now in 2018, a half-century of blues enthusiasm and promotion behind it, making Jefferson the world’s oldest blues

music magazine that inevitably sets something of a benchmark for the rest of us.

Run by a dedicated crew of volunteermembers of the Stockholm Blues Association, Jefferson is, like Blues Matters!, published bi-monthly, with six editions per year. It includes the usual range of interesting features about the music generally, alongside CD and book reviews, interviews with leading or up and coming blues artists world-wide and gig and festival reviews and preview material. In an age where online, digital publishing is the norm rather than the exception, Jefferson (like Blues Matters! ) has struck a successful, enduring formula that

Verbals: Iain Patience Visuals: Jefferson Magazine

hopefully will remain dynamic and essential to the blues world cultural future.

On a personal level, I’ve had the pleasure and privilege to be a small part of the Jefferson team in recent years, contributing interviews and reviews to Jefferson on a fairly regular basis. Having previously lived in Sweden for a number of years, I became aware of the blues scene and as I made contact and became friends with Nordic blues musicians and fans, a few things in particular often came to light: Jefferson Magazine and Brian Kramer’s International Blues Jam, a weekly event then held at a Stockholm bar, Stampen, and now hosted at another city bar, Engelen. Blues guys invariably mentioned both to me, advising me to check both out and confirming their respective importance in the Scandinavian blues music world.

That Jefferson has survived so long, must surely be down to the optimism, determination and enthusiasm of its management team, a four-man group, Tommy Lofgren (editor until recently); Hans Schweitz; Bo Majling and Max W Sievert, that oversees the editorial process and ensures everything is ready and properly written and researched prior to publication. With a readership that extends beyond the confines of its Stockholm base, Jefferson is popular with Swedish blues fans globally.

Finland’s own Blues News, is a similar title, published with the same frequency and similar overlapping values, interests and content. Like Jefferson, it, too, is celebrating fifty years of publication in 2018, running just behind Jefferson’s own flagship achievement. Norway also has the same name, Blues News, a fullcolour, print title aimed at the blues lover in the land of the fjords, albeit with some time to go before it can claim the same longevity as its closest Baltic cousin, Jefferson in Sweden.

Since its inception in 1968, Jefferson has successfully encompassed the various changes and challenges of specialist publishing, watching and reporting on the explosion of electric, Chicago-style blues, the British blues explosion, soul music, gospel, modern rap and Afro-American music. Initially established by a couple of youngsters, Bo Johansson and 15-year-old Claes Hedman, (who tragically died in a car accident in the USA

in 1998, aged just 45) Jefferson has chronicled the rise and fall and rejuvenation of interest in the music throughout the region with assurance and knowledge. Most of the music’s greats have visited the country, from B.B. King, Buddy Wells, Johnny Shines, Otis Rush, Johnny Winter, William Bell and almost everyone of note in the blues fraternity, and Jefferson has met and covered them all.

Sam Charters set up home in Sweden for many years, as did the late Tom Paley who initially taught Ry Cooder guitar in 1950s USA. Izzy Young is now a resident, the guy who gave Bob Dylan his first professional gig, and worked with the likes of David Bromberg, Rev. Gary Davis, Dave Van Ronk and virtually everyone of note in New York’s Greenwich Village in the 1960s. Acoustic bluesman Eric Bibb lives in Sweden and has now been resident in the region for over half his life. So, Sweden has a blues music heritage and history that few can match and many might envy. And throughout this time Jefferson Magazine has been central to the support and promotion of blues music, musicians and its fans.

Now heading confidently towards its 51st year, Jefferson is in deservedly celebratory mode, with a special fiftieth year anniversary meeting in early October at Stockholm’s Scala Theatre Bar planned with live music –blues, of course – and a special, limited edition Blues Beer on offer through the nation’s state-licensed liquor stores, System Bolaget. In addition, the celebrations will continue onboard the October, Viking Lines, Blues at Sea event, an annual blues-cruise from Sweden to Finland and return, featuring many international and local blues-bands which Blues Matters! also attends. Maybe we’ll have the chance to savour the beer, a decidedly neat, blues tradition that we can surely all support.

Jefferson traditionally ran material in Swedish and some English items, though more recently output has tended to be purely Swedish. However, like Blues Matters!, Jefferson Blues Magazine also has a dynamic website where an archive featuring articles, reviews, interviews and features can readily be accessed, including many in English, at www.jeffersonbluesmag.com .

Mike Mettalia

Verbals: Norman Darwen Visuals: Mike Mettalia

Out of Perkasie, PA, bandleader Mike Mettalia has an excellent blues and vintage rock-and-roll sound.

How did Mike come to the blues?

“My brother had a Muddy Waters record in his collection, The London Sessions. Vintage rock and roll came to me from probably seeing the show with Sha Na Na. From there I was hooked on old time rockand-roll and rockabilly. I heard Johnny Be Goode for the first time in 1972 in my aunt’s Cadillac – and from there I was hooked.”

How did Mike start on harmonica? “Two things. The first was hearing Carey Bell on those London Sessions and the second was my brother who had a friend that played really good country harmonica. Between those two I was hooked. My influences are Little Walter, Big Walter, Snooky Pryor, Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Buddy Holly. The band came together from my love of wanting to do blues and rockabilly – and wanting to front my own band. I have always felt there’s a good relationship between blues and rockabilly, that they were very similar, with rockabilly being faster.”

Mike has several albums available: “My recording career started back in the mid-80s, when I played harmonica with The Paul Tracy Band out of Knoxville, Tennessee. I played on a 45 with him. My next recording came with the band Crosscut Saw in the 90s. After that I recorded with Illinois Slim and The Maxwell Street Band in early 2000. Next I formed my own band, Midnight Shift, and started recording with them in 2005. We have four CDs so far. I also recorded with Todd Wolfe and Christopher Dean. I recently released a Chicago Blues collection. The Chicago sessions were a dream come true for me. I always wanted to do something like that. When I lost my job in 2016, I was determined to make a trip to Chicago. I thought I’d only make

one trip but ended up making two. I knew I wanted to record with Rockin’ Johnny Burgin and his band. I also wanted to find some of the unsung heroes still playing in Chicago, and I recorded with Mary Lane, Milwaukee Slim, and Little Jerry Jones. I had originally scheduled Elmore James Junior and Smiling Bobby, but it didn’t work out for those two.”

“I’ve played with Magic Slim, Carey Bell, Taildragger, Sonny Burgess, Rayburn Anthony, Little Jimmy Reed, Big and Little Smokey Smothers, Junior Wells, Little Mike and many others. From them, I’ve learned how to entertain a crowd and to know your instrument. Blues is doing good right now. It’s harder to tour but you can still get work and find a crowd.”

Australian born singer-songwriter Simone Craddock is making a splash on the London music scene. Her genre-defying vocals have been compared to Bob Dylan, Erikah Badu and Stacey Kent but Simone remains fiercely individual, with London Jazz News describing her music as ‘clever and unique, imprinting her stamp.’

Her first single, ‘It’s No Big Deal,’ was released in August, proving her chops as both a songwriter and producer. “A new original which impressed … holding its own amongst some famous standards,” (Editor, Kind of Jazz). Whilst this original song swings with a modern twist, her current song writing collaborations, with both Paul Armstrong, (Maynard Ferguson Band), ‘That Gene,’ and Robin Banerjee, (Amy Winehouse Band), ‘Bobby’s Bounce’ & ‘Eden,’ hark back to

Express Live, The Bulls Head and Live at Zedel. She has enjoyed great success with her sell-out show, ‘Birth of the Blues,’ sharing the anecdotes and music of Blues legends, WC Handy, Bessie Smith, Robert Johnson, Nina Simone, Ray Charles and contemporary artists such as Elvis Costello and Amy Winehouse as well as her own originals.

Simone is currently focused on producing her first EP of original songs, under the working title of Home. It’s bluesey, a little jazzy, a little country … and a whole ‘lotta heart.

Look out for Simone’s upcoming release, ‘Christmas Any Time of Year’ co-written with fellow Australian Nick Di Gregorio, and catch her ‘Birth of the Blues’ band live on Saturday, 20th October at The Bulls Head in Barnes. Further info at simonecraddock.com

Simone Craddock

Verbals: Paul Armstrong Visuals: Raymond T Lewis

Leny’s Girl

stylings of her own on the likes of ‘Stay,’ as sweet a ballad as you’ll hear anywhere. Equally, she can rock up a storm on the title track, ‘Devil With A Gun,’ and the closing ‘Little Miss Robin Hood’ where the guitars crack and the harmonica wails and you can imagine the band carving up a sweaty barroom on one of those great Friday nights you never want to end. On the title track Kasey’s voice soars above the driving guitar and you won’t be surprised to hear that with a voice like that she’s spent time playing the role of Evita in Sydney, Australia.

Ablues band with a twist. Fronting Leny’s Girl is Kasey McKenzie who delivers an astonishing vocal range powerful enough to give Janis Joplin a run for her money. Beggsy on guitar, is an outstanding musician who plays loud and crazy intricate solos as well as smooth slide. Cookie joins in on harp adding a creative top end to proceedings. In the power house on drums is Brownie with the addition of Tom Raw on bass, they create Leny’s heart beat. Leny’s Girl has blues at its roots and a train ride through country to rock and back again (once described as ‘blues to give you nightmares’). Right here we have a sublime combination of powerful and soulful vocals and genuine guitar versatility.

In Kasey we have a blues-wailing singer who embodies the storming passionate voice of Janis Joplin and incorporates some sweet

The band show themselves to be more than adept, too, with Beggsy’s guitar prominent throughout whether it’s the slide, solos or frantic riffing. Tom Raw, on bass, holds it all down with his funky, soulful groove and it’s clear he’s learnt from the best. Drummer Brownie keeps it basic with a good boogie beat that keeps everyone on their toes. This classy rhythm section are at their best on ‘Pretend’ with some excellent stop-start sections that allow the frantic harmonica through to whip up a blues wailing storm. It’s fine stuff and makes me want to see ‘em live. With ‘Stay’ there’s a change of tempo and Kasey’s sweet side is brought to the fore with a nice echo mixed in, then Beggsy’s guitar comes over all-sensitive. It’s an interesting and slightly different side that they could do well to develop.

This six track taster is self released and only available via the band’s website or available for streaming on Spotify, iTunes and all online media outlets. Check them out and if you like your blues raw and smokin’ then this one’s for you. This band has its very own sound, bringing blues into the 21st Century.

Verbals & Visuals: Supplied by artist

Full Fat

What have poet Lord Byron, footballer Denis Law, singers Annie Lenox and Emeli Sandé got in common with blues band Full Fat? The answer is, Aberdeen. All were born in Scotland’s third biggest city.

The ‘alt. blues’ trio Full Fat formed five years ago and have issued two full length albums so far: Most Of What Follows Is True in 2014, and An Evening Of Full Fat – Album 2.5 (Live), in 2015.

They have built up a loyal following across Scotland and The North East, playing headline gigs at famed venues such as The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen and shows in Glasgow and Edinburgh. In-demand for festivals too, including Belladrum, The Edinburgh Fringe, and Eden Festival.

They’ve opened for ‘Gerry McAvoy’s Band of Friends’ and ‘Ghost Riders in the Sky,’ won local awards, reached the finals of a prestigious contest organised by a Scottish radio station, and played live radio sessions and a globally streamed TV show.

Full Fat dropped their latest release on September 17th, an impressive five-track EP of all-originals. In The Dark, is set to place this young outfit firmly on the national map. Fraser McKain fronts the band on lead vocals and guitar, Fraser Urquhart on bass and Simon Rattray on drums. Fraser ‘M’ writes the lyrics and all three contribute to the music. On the new EP, they

open with ‘Le Funk,’ inspired by Stevie Ray Vaughan and Double Trouble. Blending the funk of the likes of The Red Hot Chili Peppers with an energetic blues rock sound.

‘Come Break My Heart’ is a slow blues that nods towards 50s rock and roll. ‘Doctor Longhair’ swings like heck and sits on a distinct retro groove, dedicated to New Orleans blues singer and pianist, Professor Longhair. Another dose of funk on ‘Brand New (Again)’ with psychedelia vibes; think Johnny Cash meets Cream. The strongest cut of the bunch for many will probably be the closer, ‘Temper Temper,’ a radioready cut that really does have Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker’s finger prints all over it.

Their mission statement, ‘Keeping it real’ – with one-take, live in the studio recording, back to the old-school way of making music. Recorded & mixed by Mark Freegard at Kyoti in Glasgow, there is strength of songwriting and palpable chemistry here. This outfit have a young, fresh take on the blues; with 50s rockabilly and rock and roll influences thrown in to the pot for good measure. Lots of promise and big potential from a welcome addition to the national blues scene.

Full Fat In the Dark EPis out now.

www.fullfatband.com

www.facebook.com/fullfatband

Verbals: Simon Redley Visuals: Doug Nivan

Mojo Hand

We first met in 1991, long before Mojo Hand began. Jon was already a professional guitarist with a background in the blues since the late sixties, having first been inspired by, then going on to play with, many of the artists on the London blues scene.

Pete was a fourteen-year-old aspiring guitarist who had recently picked up an old dobro and was listening to rural and early electric blues, piecing together by ear how to play it. On hearing about Jon, Pete went round for lessons and a friendship ensued, with Pete joining Jon for several gigs and blues seminars.

Fast forward to August 2017 when a chance meeting brought us back together. After many years of working in music, it turned out we were both hankering after an out-and-out, undiluted blues project. Blues is our first love and our mother tongue, and it felt like time to return to simply playing what we love. We met up and decided to put a set together and go out busking, just for fun and to see what would happen. On our first busking session we got booked for a gig, and things have continued to snowball from there, beyond our expectations. We’re now doing it pretty much full-time with lots of gigging work, and with slots at blues festivals in Colne, Southport and Wotton lined up in the next few months.

Mojo Hand started as street music, in the tradition of so many of the great players we admire. That’s still at the heart of what we do: we go out a few days a week travelling from town to town and supplementing our gig earnings by playing in the street where you get

audiences who may never have heard blues before but just respond to the rhythms and the emotions in the music. They’re not in town to catch a performance – they’re just going about their business – but we always end up with a crowd of people listening and dancing. That’s where we develop new material for our set, by jamming it out while working to keep a transient audience engaged.

We do our own take on songs from across the history of blues, trying to remain faithful to their essential feel while gradually letting them evolve into our own versions. We’re playing live all week long, and for us that’s how this music is meant to be heard – spontaneous, played for an audience with the hope of making them happy, helping them forget their problems, hopefully moving their spirit in some way. People kept asking us if they could buy a CD, so when we went into the studio in February we decided we’d do it completely live – no headphones, no overdubs, just the two of us and a couple of old fifties mics. We knew that would mean leaving any mistakes on there in all their glory, but it also meant we could try to capture the energy and improvised nature of a live performance. We’re currently writing our first batch of original material, and when we go into the studio later in the year to record that, we’ll do it in the same way.

We’ve received so much support from so many people. It’s been a wonderful lesson that when you do the thing you love the most, with as much passion and honesty as you can summon, that people will enjoy it and respond to it.

Verbals: Artist Visuals: Pat Cooper

Gerry Quigley

Verbals and Visuals: Supplied by artist

Dublin born and bred Blues/Rock guitarist and virtuoso composer Gerry Quigley is captivating crowds with jaw-dropping performances in a career that has so far spanned four decades and shows no signs of slowing down.

Quigley plays with such emotion and feeling which at times takes you away to another world. Hypnotic, mesmerizing and captivating are all words used to describe Gerry’s sound. Many say there are just no words to describe the effect of seeing a live show.

A prolific writer from the Blues to his blues-inspired Rock, Progressive Rock and Folk Rock with it’s un-mistakeable

Celtic influence. It’s no surprise that on his return home to live in Ireland after 30 years in Australia, Quigley is making his mark on Ireland and the UK once more.

Gerry captivates the audience with a showcase of memorable guitar riffs, soaring solos, and mesmerizing melodies where ever he plays, including his epic instrumental ‘Weeping Willow’.

Gerry’s music is as diverse as his influences including Gary Moore, Rory Gallagher, Paul Kossoff, Peter Green, Eric Bell, through to Vivaldi, Paganini and Turlough O’Carolan.

Gerry was introduced to the world of rock at a very young age with older brother and bass player Pat Quigley and all the bands rehearsing in the Quigley house during those magical 60s and 70s.

At 10 years of age Gerry was mesmerized when saw his first electric guitarist rehearsing with one of the bands in the Quigley house. It was Brush Shiels’ original Skid Row the guitarist was none other than a young Gary Moore, who would go on to become a major influence in Gerry’s own guitar style. From that day Gerry knew all he wanted to do when he left school was play guitar.

Pat Quigley played In a band called Orphanage with Phil Lynott and Brian Downey, which later become Thin Lizzy. Thin Lizzy rehearsed in the Quigley house in their early years and Eric Bell later became Gerry’s own guitar teacher.

It was during those childhood lessons that Eric introduced Gerry to the blues, encouraging him to listen to all the greats and develop his own style.

Now a sought-after guitar teacher in his own right, Gerry teaches online every week to eager students around the world.

Exposure to such a high calibre of musicians daily from such a very young age set the standard in Gerry’s own playing. When you hear those first few notes played live, you just know you are in the presence of something special.

Known for his ecclectic collection of guitars and things with strings, including a one of a kind double-neck mandola/bouzouki, if you get the chance to see Gerry Quigley live, please don’t miss it.

Looking Inwards, Playing Out Joe Bonamassa

A new Bonamassa album called Redemption is out on the Mascot/Provogue record label and Pete has reviewed it and indeed heard some of the songs performed live at Hampton Court Palace but takes the opportunity to catch up with Joe and discuss the collection…

Verbals: Pete Sergeant Visuals: Marty Wall and Jen Rosenstein

Hi Pete, how are you doing?

Hmm…just on YouTube hearing a youth brass band playing Zappa’s Zomby Woof… A cool find! Trust you…

Just to mention, Glenn and I were at the Hampton Court Palace show. Oh yeah! A few weeks back, by the river…that’s good. I liked that setting.

Without BS, that was the best show we have seen you do. Thanks man! I can tell you the band has really been on fire the last few months… well, the last year to be fair to them.

It’s not as if you’ll find better players anywhere, but to gel on this new material the way they do...and we know that’s what you’re known for. Now, this Redemption record, I thought the subtitle should be Stronger Now In Broken Places, one of the songs. The song titles do read like Johnny Cash numbers! (Ponders) Yes, you could say that…

Is there anything in particular that has prompted the content of the record? It’s markedly different from your older releases. Well, y’know every now and again my fans let me set the re-set button every ten years or so and do fresh things amongst the material. So, this and Blues Of Desperation, they do kind of trigger the re-set.

Revitalising the catalogue as it grows and just going in slightly different directions here and there. I find that as long as every few minutes on each record I let myself have a vehicle for some guitar playing in an expressive vein, let’s say, over blues-rock changes then everybody is cool with it.

You can’t turn your back on what made you popular, but you can explore the songwriting side. What made me popular?

Yes, the guitar skills and the way you throw yourself into what you do. Yeah, yeah, I would agree with that.

When asked what you are like and what you’re about, I do say Joe doesn’t do half-hearted. Exactly! It works when you put your all into what you are doing. You do it, you gotta do it all the way. Otherwise, why bother?

The crowd know if you’re woodshedding, anyway. Let’s talk about some songs, Joe, if we can. Evil Mama has this great stomping drum intro. There seems to be a strong Tower Of Power tinge to the song. Well Lee Thornburg our trumpet player, he was in Tower of Power for over ten years, so if we opt to give him that groove in that song, there in particular...there’s very few grooves that over time we haven’t experimented with, as a unit. But one was that What Is Hip active rhythm. It’s difficult to write songs of that style straight out, it takes some thought, some mapping. Evil Mama kinda felt right in the sense of it all, to do the song that way, that dynamic. When we were originally recording that one, we were in half-time. I said let’s drive it up, we did, it turned out great!

I used to do their song ‘Only So Much Oil In The Ground’…very prophetic! Way ahead of its time. (Enthused) Oh! The band were way ahead of their time! Them, The Average White Band, all those magical horn bands.

I also liked Mandrill, their scope was global, kind of before World Music as it’s known now…King Bee Shakedown, I really like this! That boogie sound – and the first time I sensed a Rory Gallagher kind of lick happening in there, in your music. Ha! The downwards run…when you record with a band that does a hundred and ten shows a year you can capture the feel pretty quickly.

The backing vocals are superb. Yeah. Mahalia, and Juanita. It’s symbiotic, it’s a proper band. Not just a bunch of session musicians doing a job.

Molly O – almost sounds like a Black Country Communion job. The dynamic. I do write differently for BCC, just naturally, it’s not premeditated in any sense. It could have been on the last Communion record really, yes. I had ‘Song Of Yesterday’ on that and that mood.

I was thinking that Glenn Hughes would like this one and the arrangement. Yes, I think he would…he’s doing so well at present, really kicking ass…he’s got that Deep Purple thing happening. I have not seen the man happier in the ten years that I have known him.

The vocal arrangements that you’ve come up with for ‘Deep In The Blues Again’. Just fabulous! The song for me is sort of Bob Seger-ish. Yeah, a little bit. So again, that’s Mahalia Barnes along with Jade, Juanita…they really groove together, as you say.

I think everyone in their life has a moment when they have to ponder their role, their actions in their fate. I wanted to just address that concept.

‘Self Inflicted Wounds’ – sounds like your most eerie song since maybe ‘Dust Bowl’. I think it’s the best vocal on the record. I love the space in this track, no filling space for the sake of it. We were down in Havana. It was just one of those songs…y’know, I think everyone in their life has a moment when they have to ponder their role, their actions in their fate. I wanted to just address that concept.

That Johnny Cash vibe, this is where it seems to come through, if you hear him singing ‘Hurt’...it’s that ‘Man In The Mirror’ point. You do have to look at yourself, I think that’s one of the better songs I have been involved with, in a long time. That’s maybe the best song, for me.

I like the contrast with the old timey jazzy atmosphere on ‘Pick Up The Pieces’, it sits well at that point in the sequencing. (Laughs) That’s sorbet! You have to give ‘em sorbet…

I was expecting Dr John to start singing! Yeah, it’s a touch of Tom Waits, too – I think Reese really shines on that, on the piano.

Discography

Joe Bonamassa is a prolific recording artist, so we have only listed his most recent works.

Redemption – 2018

British Blues Explosion Live – 2018

Black Coffee (Beth Hart) – 2017

Live At Carnegie Hall – An Acoustic Evening – 2017

Live At The Greek Theatre – 2016

Blues Of Desperation – 2016

Live at Radio City Music Hall – 2015

Muddy Wolf at Red Rocks - 2015

Different Shades of Blue – 2014

Driving Towards the Daylight – 2012

A quick aside, how is the Wynans own album progressing?

It’s almost done, I gotta finish it this month. Each song is already mixed, and I think its killer, it’s a great record. He’s very proud of it.

I’m looking forward to that. All I will say is that it’s NOT what you might expect out of a solo keyboard player’s record!

The braver people are, the more I like it, you know how I am. What’s this Albert King thing on ‘Just Cos You Can’? Oh, I wanted to write an Albert kinda song! I did two versions of it at the first rehearsal and the first one had more Albert stuff going on, like the Three Kings tribute sound I tapped in to. And the second time we did it, it changed gear a tad and there was more shredding happening over the end.

It sounds like it was from the AK session for Cadillac Assembly Line. Yes! that early 70s sound, very funky! I always loved that Albert King, Get Funky album.

With the smoke, I know it…

‘Redemption’ itself, it’s quite a twilight sound isn’t it? Very desolate, but also a bass register adventure. (Sighs) Now there I was writing with Dion, of all people!

Di Mucci? Great bluesman! It was great to collaborate with Dion and James House, we have done a bit of writing together over time, it’s turned out pretty honest

A very striking song and I think that’s going to become quite a concert favourite. Now the song that really got to me was ‘Stronger Now In Broken Places’. To me, it’s like a dream. I know there’s an optimistic

Joe Bonamassa Redemption

Provogue / Mascot

A new studio album from the guitar guy, following the performance of some of the new material in recent UK shows by Joe and his sharp band. Production is again in the hands of Kevin Shirley. What strikes the listener most, however, is the step-up in compositional quality. We know the playing, singing and mix will be top notch but it’s the songs that encourage repeat plays. The song titles here are redolent of Johnny Cash. Kick-off cut ‘Evil Mama’ has a stomping drum intro and ominous band sound, the lyric on the theme of treachery. The impact of the relentless bass, spiky guitar and Tower Of Power style horn stabs, bringing the number home. On to the lively ‘King Bee Shakedown’ which is a brisk boogie, a grittier vocal and a major contribution from the other vocalists. The tumbling Rory G lick is easy to spot! Sea sounds start ‘Molly O’ which is very much Zep/ BCC and would make a fine duet with Beth Hart. The fat ensemble sound of ‘Deep In The Blues Again’, put me in mind of Bob Seger. A lot of work on the vocal arrangement has really paid off here. Those

twist to it, where was your head when you wrote that?

I wrote it with Gary Nicholson and he had this great lyric lying around, so we recorded that a few ways, just to see. It was recorded with the electric band but ended up working somewhat better as an acoustic song. We were going really for the ‘Tears In Heaven’ kinda treatment. I think ultimately that approach showcases the song better than in alternative settings.

It is quite a delicate song, you could over-sing it if you weren’t careful. Exactly, exactly.

So, on this record I was never sure what might be coming next, which is what I want from a record, it’s too

keen on Joe’s eerier stylings are going to love ‘SelfInflicted Wounds’ and in this vein it’s maybe the best since ‘Dust Bowl’, still a popular show inclusion. I like the space, and the vocal might be the best in this programme. ‘Pick Up The Pieces’ shows an old timey jazz vibe, you almost expect Dr John to start singing! It’s a good inclusion, for the album’s balance. The airy sound of ‘The Ghost of Macon Jones’ is part of a story told and doesn’t take anything from the pace. This is fresh territory, with slide embellishment. ‘Just Cos You Can Don’t Mean You Should’ gives me a picture of Joe with a Flying V, so Albert King is the setting. Title track ‘Redemption’ has a twilight sound with a bass register adventure. ‘I’ve Got Some Mind Over What Matters’ puts over an edgy ambience and is the closest Bonamassa has been to Taj Mahal. I love this and it’s still very JB in attack. ‘Stronger Now In Broken Places’ – how Johnny Cash is that? – it has delicate acoustic guitar on a reflective outing, with a sad dream vibe that stays with you. The saloon bar workout of ‘Love Is A Gamble’ has the axe nodding to Buddy Guy and some stirring piano. Aware of his influences, Bonamassa is sounding more and more his own man.

Pete Sargeant

easy to give your following what they already like, but you fight against that. I do want to run against doing the obvious all the time, yes. There are fans who just want another burst of Blues Deluxe and I’m OK with that, but these days, Pete – I’d rather have a catalogue of songs where people say ‘I didn’t know you wrote this, I didn’t know you wrote that, to concentrate on songs but also give people the playing they enjoy hearing, as well... think of the artists you really respect, Rory Gallagher, Hendrix, it’s that catalogue of songs that to me is what separates artists.

Dan Patlanksy

Blues/rock legend Dan Patlansky has been on the scene for a little over a decade now and has become one of the busiest and most respected blues artists to come out of South Africa. In 2006 Fender Guitars recognised Dan’s fiery playing and offered him an endorsement deal to promote their guitars and amps. Dan is one of only six Fender endorsed guitarists in South Africa. Patlansky also hosts popular Guitar Workshop Weekends where guitarists get to spend time with him honing their skills on improvisation, licks & riffs, chords & harmony, and tone & gear. Here’s hoping he brings one to the UK soon. Our writer Dave recently caught up with Dan for a quick chat.

Verbals: Dave Stone Visuals: Tobias Coatsee

So, South Africa, the Rainbow nation, but not generally known as being a hotbed of the blues, but you’re disproving the myth?

Well I think in reality, it really isn’t, although there are a couple of guys playing out there who are absolutely fantastic. I think that the blues really came about through my parent’s generation listening to Clapton et al. and that is certainly where my passion for blues music began. Listening to British blues and such.

I was over in South Africa about ten years ago, in Johannesburg, and spent some time trying to find some outlet for bues, looking for any blues clubs, but I didn’t succeed, is there much of a blues scene there or was I looking in the wrong places? There isn’t much, it’s really the kind of Nation where you have to go do your own stuff, there is the odd blues club, but they are few and far between. There is a following for blues out there, but there is a lack of infrastructure to support it. You have really got to do your own events more than anything.

Looking at your web site I was quite interested to read about your Fender sponsored Guitar Weekends, have you considered doing anything like that outside South Africa? Well actually we are currently trying to put one together in the UK and we are trying to sort out all the logistics to get that going. It’s a lot of fun because you end up spending time with a group of people who have a similar passion.

I’ve got a copy of the new album on downloads, but I haven’t got any sleeve notes or anything, so I have no information about the band that were playing behind you. Is that your touring band or a studio band, or what?

That is my South African band on there, and it’s the band that are on the album. In the genre, it’s really important to take people into the studio that you’re comfortable playing live with, they know the way that we play it, so we get that sound in the studio.

So was it recorded in South Africa? Yes, I found a studio that was close to where I live that had a very un-studio sound, it sounded like we were playing in someone’s living room and I really wanted that sound on this album.

There is quite a live feel to some of the tracks, though I have to be honest and say that I haven’t had long enough with the album yet, before I do a full review. I did like the ambience there, it was coming through really well. Well I kinda wanted to make an album that was close to our live set, so it isn’t too far from the album when you hear it live.

What’s the story behind the album cover photo?

Well, that’s just a take on Perfection Kills (album title) the mother that strives so hard for perfection that she is actually a mannequin, you know, and the family around her are suffering as a result, the little girl with the gas mask and all that. So, that is pretty much the take on the whole Perfection Kills set up.

You’re currently doing an acoustic tour, can you tell us something about that? Is it a bit of a mix or is it totally acoustic? No, it’s a solo tour, just me out on the road, no band to worry about, just me and an acoustic guitar. I use a looped track to give the band feel and I try to mix it so that I am not playing to a backing track. I am an electric guitar player first and foremost and that’s where I feel comfortable. It’s a different challenge and you have to approach it from a different angle. Repertoire-wise, on the acoustic tour I kind of delve into covers in a way I suppose, songs that I grew up with, back from my musical journey and my life. I do a lot of Son House kind of songs and others from that era. I won’t say that it’s a passion, but it is a lot of fun.

Yes, the thing that I have found when playing that kind of music is that you don’t pick the mainline stuff like Cross Roads and all, an awful lot of people won’t have heard it before

it’s just like new music to them. Oh you’re so right, in South Africa if I said I was going to do a song by Son House, the whole audience would stare at me and they’d have no idea. I could play it and pass it off as my own and nobody would know! In a way it’s kind of cool to educate the audience and bring them a little bit of the history of the blues, what influenced me, and what was important.

It has the added benefit of keeping this great music alive and fresh to new audiences in the next generation. Yes, encouraging them to try and find Son House or Robert Johnson, and others.

This is where eBay and Amazon are great in having such apparently obscure stuff readily available, almost by return post!

It’s actually fantastic, I remember growing up in South Africa and tracking down some obscure record and then having to wait two or three months for it to arrive, before MP3s and downloads were invented.

When you are playing an acoustic set, you play slide as well? Oh yeah, I love slide guitar especially for Son House as his playing was so unique and powerful. But now there is Derek Trucks or Sonny Landreth, a great introduction to superb slide playing.

The thing that I particularly like about old blues stuff, is that people don’t generally come up and say ‘oh that doesn’t go like that’, and if they do, I say well listen to it again next week. They don’t know how it goes, Robert

Johnson was always changing things. Yeah and I must say that this is one of the best things about acoustic shows in that I don’t have to keep prompting or calling in any other musicians. If I want to go in another direction, it’s just me up there so I can do what I like. It’s a fantastic feeling sometimes.

Yeah and if you start off in the wrong key you can just stay in it and bluff it out, (Laughing) Exactly.

Thank you once again for giving us your time Dan. Dave, it was my pleasure.

Discography

Perfection Kills – 2018

Introvertigo – 2016

Dear Silence Thieves – 2014

Wooden Thoughts – 2013

20 Stones – 2012

Move my Soul – 2009

Standing at the Station – 2006

True Blues – 2004

Real – 1999

The Road Home Michael Lehman on Gregg Allman

The man who knows more than anybody outside Gregg Allman’s family about his final years is his manager and close friend Michael Lehman. Pete met him in London to talk about the great musician’s final years …

Welcome to London, Michael. I never got to meet Gregg. I have spent time with Warren Haynes, Chuck Leavell, Devon Allman and others … but in his later years you were his close friend, guiding Gregg’s career … Gregg passed away May 27th last year, Pete, and speaking about him helps … a little.

I have been talking about Gregg to Bernie Marsden, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Warren Haynes face to face since then and the respect is striking … can you remember when you first saw The Allman Brothers playing live? So, I came to them a little later than I wish now I had. I probably heard them for the first time late seventies, I think. There was a point in time when I was seeing and experiencing a tremendous amount of music. Of course, it was after Duane and Berry had passed.

Post Dickey Betts era?

Yes, exactly. And then I got to represent Gregg for the last fourteen years of his life. Probably saw in excess of 250 Allman Brothers shows. Plus three or four hundred of Gregg’s solo shows, in his name.

Bernie showed me with great pride an Allmans’ Beacon Theater show poster, signed by various members. From when he sat in with them. It’s in his living room. I remember that very well … such a gentleman. Quite apart from his musicianship.

He said “These people, they give, give, give …”

Yep – now at the Beacon, the Brothers would typically play for three or three and a half hours, that would be the show. And most shows were different, if we would play say fifteen shows then … I know they hold the record for most shows at The Beacon, over the years … almost every night it would be a different set. So, if the March run was ten nights or fifteen nights, y’know, there would be very little duplication of songs. Plus the style in which they played a particular song would undoubtedly be different from the last time it was included in the setlist.

One of the reasons I love Jefferson Starship, they always change things and take chances, so it can never get stale … and even more Zappa. He might not include your favourites, so to speak – but it was always so entertaining.

Verbals: Pete Sargeant Visuals: John Bull & Michael Lehman

What’s your musical background?

Have you ever been a musician?

A really poor one. I just studied piano and guitar as a child and then picked it up again in my thirties. I have a way better ear than technical musical skills, I think.

Where are you from?

New Jersey.

Bruce, Southside Johnny …

Yes, exactly! And I actually got into music and one of my childhood friends was a kid called Ricky Kirshner, who’s father was Don Kirshner.

Rock’n’Roll Hall Of Fame?

Precisely, that Mr Kirshner! With the Rock Concert and In Concert. So that was my introduction to the music scene, as it was in those days. I’m fourteen, fifteen and hearing a ton of music. Seeing tapings of shows … some incredible memorable shows. Seeing Journey, Kansas, Yes, The Who.

Vanilla Fudge?

Of course! So many concerts … then I went to

college and had a burning desire to somehow get into the business, so I was on the radio station, got on to the concert committee … and someone said at the end of my first year did I want to run the concert committee. No election or anything, and I said I would love to. And I never gave it up, so that was really my education for three years – promoting about twenty shows a year. Plus, the radio station, interning at MCA Records, part of Universal Music.

So that gives you a fabulous seat in the hall, for Art Meeting Commerce, the eternal dilemma for creatives v. business. Absolutely! I promoted U2 on their first tour Stateside … I have that original contract in my possession at home. So many others – The Pretenders, Pat Metheny …

What about the New York acts? Television, Blondie?

Blondie came through. The Grateful Dead, a bunch of jazz artists, The Kinks – so really a cross-section of what was happening at that time. My favourite bands were The Who, Stones and Zeppelin, that’s what I grew up on.

How exactly did you get to meet Gregg Allman?

Well I was doing work … actually with Roger Daltrey. And Roger, his business accounts in New York that were handling work for The Who and also the members’ solo careers, they also represented The Allman Brothers …

And maybe Leslie West …

I worked with Leslie for some years!

He’s on the ‘lost’ version of Who’s Next, done at The Record Plant … told me where to find it. I didn’t know about that. He just celebrated his birthday and I spoke to him a week ago.

He’s SO New York.

(Laughs) Leslie Weinstein! I got a call from the accountant saying Gregg was looking for a new manager. He’d interviewed four or five people, did I want maybe to speak with him?

I said I would love to be in the mix. Within a week or two, Gregg came through New York and this was with his solo band at that time and we met and spent about two hours together and he said to come down to the gig that night. So, of course, I went along as I was planning to go anyway! And before the show even, he said ‘You know what? I really

connected with you. Would you be interested in helping me guide my career?’ My deal is I never sign papers with anyone. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t we all go our separate ways.

He did need some steering …

He did need some steering, yes..and Gregg in his autobiography he says to me that he always thought the word ‘manager’ meant ‘thief’ and never realised that it could be someone who would help guide a career and be trusted! Really, it was my pleasure, because in the past he had been misunderstood. He had a drug and alcohol issue for so many years and I suppose I got him at a really nice time, when he was in a place where he was very clean and not drinking and just like a warm, kind person. This incredible musician with the soulful voice had been misunderstood and mistreated. All I needed to do, in all honesty, was take a little polishing cloth and polish what in reality was already there.

He had been for a while anyway, his own worst enemy, in some respects … and in some relationships. But as I know well, whatever heavy blows you receive from circumstance and other people, with luck you can still sing, play, create … no outside force or ex can take that off you … A quick digression! When I got him, he was also in a very stable marriage with his sixth wife and then had a stable relationship with what/who became his seventh wife towards the end of his days. But you’re absolutely right. What kept him anchored was his talent. And playing music for his fans. That also connected him to his brother throughout his life. There wasn’t a day he did not think about his late brother Duane.

Whenever we were together, he would always talk about his brother.

Funny you say that … on his solo albums like Laid Back, you can kind of sense the presence of Duane, somehow. I was a big fan of Duane and I thought his best work was adding to other artists’ tracks – John Hammond (Southern

Fried), Johnny Jenkins, Boz Scaggs … the greatest musicians can back others well. He was so tasteful, and Gregg spoke about his playing the way you do, full of admiration. It was never how many notes you could fit in, it was about leaving air and letting the song breathe. And never step on anyone. That’s why he was always off to the side of the stage. Gregg never felt he should try to own that stage when colleagues were with him. He just wanted to lay back and put the song over beautifully. For the last record, Southern Blood, Gregg went back to where it all began, to Fame Studios down in Muscle Shoals. This was where Gregg and his brother recorded some demo tracks.

That must have brought back so many memories …

Oh, incredible! For Southern Blood, which would turn out to be his final record, Gregg said to me he had two specific things to attain with this project – one, I want to make this album at the studio where my brother and I first started our journey together and they have all the old analogue boards there … and secondly to use his solo band on the sessions. He had honed that crew to the exact place he wanted it to sound and respond to the material. Now his prior solo record Low Country Blues cut with T Bone Burnett producing in LA had turned out well and all.

Sounded more ‘city’ to me … It did. And Gregg was upset, so he wanted to use his own band for the next one. So, this one is truly 100% Gregg, his heart and soul are in it. And he knew where he was in his life’s journey. Only his best friend and I really knew just how close Gregg was getting to the end of his life … so he recorded this around March, in 2016.

The Friends record, with all the guests … you can tell that everyone has come along to contribute and not grab some glory out of the venture. When I planned that concert, I didn’t really know for sure whether Gregg would be alive or not, such was the medical diagnosis, at that point. He decided to refuse all treatment,

he wanted to enjoy life. He was lucky he got five years more. About two years into it, we decided to do this show. Everyone signed on. The only one not available was Jackson Browne. He cancelled his vacation plans and came to Atlanta where we recorded that night. Those two went way back, as friends. At both rehearsals, the two had tears rolling down their eyes. Teenage pals … and they both knew what was happening. That was a great record.

‘Willing’ … ‘Out of Left Field’ … these were songs probably overdue for recording by Gregg, wouldn’t you say?

Definitely. These were songs that Gregg picked with Don Was. Overdue yes, but also songs that were particularly poignant. Because they told Gregg’s life story. There’s two original tracks on it. There would be very little duplication of songs in one way or another. That’s the link. ‘Song For Adam’ – well Gregg listened to and loved that song for years and years. Great song and very meaningful. We put Southern Blood down for a little bit and intended to come back to it after our Summer tour. Then Gregg became very sick and took his final turn. Late 2016 and early 2017 I was encouraging Gregg to listen back to the recordings. March of 2017 came and I knew Gregg was getting close to the end. So I flew out to LA and met Don Was. That was the first time Don really knew how sick Gregg was.

I met Don Was once and spoke to him at length. He can hear stuff going on in a record that others cannot. Then enhance or omit them. Exactly. You’re so right. We put up those tracks on the board at Capitol Records and we listened for about two hours, via big speakers. Then smaller speakers. And we both wept when we walked out of there. And Don said, ‘Everything is here.’

It does draw together all these threads It does.

Like an aural tombstone

Yes, it does. I agree with you. I didn’t quite realise it at the time.

Delbert McClinton

Like Delbert sings, ‘I ain’t old, but I been around a long time.’ He sure as Hell has. And this seasoned soul man’s blues wailing keeps pushing his stories out there in weathered, impassioned tones, and confidence, and experience – the kind that reflect the dues he’s paid these past six decades.

If you’ve lived with blues … R&B … country blues … rockabilly … a good while, and stayed close to it all, then you know all about Delbert. Well I have, and I do, but I didn’t, not really. Then I dug around iTunes and downloaded all this kickass stuff from the nearly 30 albums he’s recorded over the years, and was reminded I’ve been jammin’ to his music for decades.

And here it comes …His cover of Sonny Boy Williams’ ‘Wake up Baby,’ makes him the first white artist to get a record played on KNOK in Dallas, a black radio station he discovers at an early age – and got hooked on their music for life. This is in 1960. He’s 19, and he’s already blowin’ a mean harp. His searing harp solo that sets up ‘Hey Baby,’ with Bruce Channel, skies to the top of the charts way back in rock and roll’s infancy, and permanently sits in my heart. Then he and Bruce tour England with it where the young Beatles (with Pete Best,

before Ringo) open for them a few times.

‘Two More Bottles of Wine,’ a tale of mope and hope he writes after one of his girlfriends’ walks out on him – covered a couple of years later by Emmylou Harris, who takes it to number one! Wins a Grammy with Bonnie Raitt for best rock performance, duo, on her ‘Good Man, Good Woman’ (1989). His ‘B-Movie ‘Box Car Blues’ goes big time when John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd, The Blues Brothers, record it live for ‘Brief Case Full of Blues’ and perform it front and center in the movie. The album skyrockets to number one on the Billboard charts and puts R&B back on the map. ‘Giving It Up for Your Love’ charts Billboard’s hot 100 in 1981, and of course it goes into his gigs. And he brings the house down with it at Farm Aid, 1985, with his gutty harp solos taking it even higher. Delbert closes the Blues Festival in St Pete with it. And 3,000 people sing along with him.

He gets a Top Five with Tanya Tucker on ‘Tell Me About It,’ in 1993 – on the country charts. Writes and records ‘Weatherman,’ which is played under the opening credits of Bill Murray’s movie, ‘Groundhog Day.’

‘Been Around a Long Time,’ Delbert McClinton, ‘Blind, Crippled and Crazy.’

Then, two more Grammys … for best

The guy who wasn’t a prick

Verbals: Tim Arnold Visuals: Richard Lewis – Soulshine Photographix

Delbert McClinton closed the three-day Tampa Bay Blues Festival April 8, in St Petersburg, Florida, following Buddy Guy, Robert Cray, Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters, Beth Hart, Sugaray Rayford and many, many more rockin’ R&B bands.

contemporary blues album … for Nothing Personal, in 1992, and Cost of Living, 2002. And now, Prick of the Litter, released last year. This legendary talent and his range of music is beyond category.

I had the great pleasure of exploring some of this stuff with him, before, during and after the Tampa Bay Blues Festival. Even

Delbert can’t quite define Delbert: Well, I’d have to reflect on it … I would just say, I loved music from the time I can remember. I grew up in a fantastic period of music … soaked it up. My favorite music back then was by Hank Williams, and Lefty Frizzell … and black people.

He was born in Lubbock and grew up in west Texas in the 40s and 50s: ‘Smack dab in the middle, the hub of the plains. There’s not a fucking thing out there. Lubbock was the whole world to me.’ There must be something magic about small-town Lubbock –‘cause that’s where Buddy Holly, Mac Davis and Joe Ely came from, too. And Waylon Jennings, Jimmy Dean and Tanya Tucker weren’t far off. Delbert’s family moves to Ft. Worth in 1951.

“In the late ‘50s it was all on the radio – country music and western swing. Bob Wills was country swing,” says Delbert. “And country jazz. I couldn’t help being a part of that

growing up in Texas. In the big city (Ft. Worth), you were hearin’ all that stuff, plus B.B. King, Nat King Cole, Charles Brown, Billy Eckstein. What’s the connection of it all? I don’t know,” he’s telling me, “It’s all about expressing your feelings.”

When I moved to Ft. Worth, it was as segregated as it gets. But I was around a lot of black people. And then one day we’re in this department store, me and my parents, and I see two different water fountains … one says ‘white,’ the other, ‘colored.’ I had no idea what the Hell that meant. It was meant to segregate us all, accordin’ to what my mother told me – but I wasn’t segregated!”

Soon enough Delbert’s teenage house band is backing the likes of Jimmy Reed, Howlin’ Wolf, Freddie King, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley … out at joints like Jack’s Place on the Jacksboro Highway outside Ft. Worth. The rest is history. He’s still making it. And Delbert’s closing gig at the Tampa Bay Blues Festival proved it, again.

90 minutes of stand up, clap-yourhands and sing-to-it music, Delbert and his road band – Self-Made Men (and one woman): James Pennebaker (who’s been with him off and on since their late teens), on guitar; Dennis Wage, keys; Jack Bruno, drums; Mike Joyce, bass; Bob Britt, lead guitar; Quentin Ware, trumpet – and Dana Robbins on her killer tenor sax! And Delbert, and his harp: “We feed off each other. We are better together. And it always feels like they have my back.”

What’s it feel like, I ask, really kickin’ ass, on stage?

“… everybody’s sensing everybody … punctuatin’, accentuatin’ … comes naturally … you put yourself in these places. You’re trying your best to get 15 minutes of it, and if you can do that, you’ll play another 15 years to get another one of those 15 minutes. That’s what it takes … get there … know that it’s there… and you keep lookin’ for it.”

When you’re doing the blues, he’s saying, “Time goes away. Pain goes away. Blues is the expression of joy … and pain.”

Sugaray Rayford, a big man, in voice and presence, and girth, who lit up the

Tampa Bay crowd for Delbert right before he came on, with his gospel-fueled wailin’ and smokin’ and dancin’ and crowdpleasing set, calls it “sincerity … from your heart. ‘Real,’ as he told me.

Delbert and his songs and his stories are the essence of sincerity, too. McClinton commands the stage in his own, understated way. He’s larger than life and emits a kind of self-confidence – and sincerity –that connects with the audience in a way that exceeds live music and gets into life itself. Not particularly animated, or interactive with the crowd. But good eye contact, a smile on his face, and there he is, delivering his stories in his knowing, experienced fashion, and he’s got us in the palm of his hand. His persona, and his voice, assume the characters in his songs … the personalities … with a range too wide to hold a label. Hopeful, lovelorn, up on it, resigned, badass, nice guy, story teller, philosopher, poet. Hurtin’

Pain? Sure, he’s been there: “Well, if you’re drunk, fucked up, tryin’ too hard, fingers bleed, you blow your throat out, yeah, it hurts. But you’re off-track. You know, all guitar players make these faces when they play. Like they’re hurtin’ somethin’ awful. One gig my guitar guy’s mother comes up to him at break and asks, “Honey, does it hurt when you’re playing, ‘cause it sure looks like it.’

“No, it don’t hurt,” he says, “Just looks like it does. Feels good!”

What about ‘Two More Bottles of Wine,’ didn’t you hurt when you wrote that one?

“Yeah,” he admits, “it hurt. But I had a story I had to tell. Made it better.”

We trade stories about our adventures

A long time ago, I learned all you’re gonna have are memories, so you damn sure better have some good ones.

with ‘Saturday Night Live,’ way back when the Blues Brothers took off …

“Those guys would come around to the Lone Star Café, in the city (NY), when I played there. John would get up onstage and sing; Ackroyd would play harp. Belushi’s the one that got me on Saturday Night Live.”

Mine was an all-nighter with all those guys down at the Blues Bar, their private joint in downtown Manhattan. And, given the timing, I only missed Delbert’s first appearance by a couple of months. Anyway, I was talking to Danny, as we call him, about how cool the Blues Brothers were, how they’d brought R&B and blues back to public attention.

You play a badass harp, I tell him: ‘Yeah,” he says, “but I’ll never be a Delbert McClinton.’

John Lennon may have felt the same way back when the Beatles opened for Bruce Channel, and Delbert. They hang out and trade some harp licks – John’s lookin’ for Delbert to show him some of his finer stuff. You can hear his influence on Lennon’s harp in ‘Love Me Do,’ which they recorded soon after.

“I don’t hear it,” protests Delbert, from his naturally humble demeanor. But it’s there.

Delbert’s got another story, “We’re onstage at SNL, ready to play after the commercial break, and here comes John running out on the stage right in front of me, and he has this white shit all over his cheeks, and he says, ‘No blow till after the show!’ Then he turns around and runs off.”

About his two Grammys for Best Contemporary Blues Album, what is contemporary blues, I ask?

“I don’t really give much of a shit what it means … but … I would kind of define that as the generation of the blues after all the blues people they learned from were dead … or were dying. Like the position I was in … fortunate to be around several of my heroes, and learn from ‘em. I’m a contemporary of those people who are no longer here.”

Maybe it’s because he doesn’t overly rely on classic 1-4-5 chord progression blues. And he’s got those killer back-up

singers, sometimes harmonizing behind him, in fabulous studio mixes. How do you put a show together, I ask?

“Well, there’s no set list, not really. We play off each other’s suggestions, reminders. And yeah, we pretty much always do ‘Roll the Dice’ and then ‘Giving It Up For Your Love’ for the encore.”

Buddy Guy had no encore for the Tampa Bay Blues Festival. Neither did Robert Cray. But Delbert did. He tells me he’s got the basic tracks for nine new songs laid down, ready for some mixing – plus a few more he’ll write for his next album: “I write with a guitar, or piano, depending on the mood, the style. Sometimes my writing doesn’t come out a song, it’s just a story. It’s hard to find anything pleasant to write about. All that bad shit puts a rub on a good time … makes it hard to conceive of any kind of hope. You got all that to deal with … nobody wants to hear about that shit,” he says.

Here’s a man who has paid his dues like no other: failed record labels, misses –and hits; bankruptcy, marriages, divorces, children, booze, drugs, life’s obstacles, challenges, failures, heart surgery, sobered up … some, triumphs … and now, well he’s been around a long time.

I ask: what have you learned from all this?

“You gotta learn to live. A long time ago, I learned all you’re gonna have are memories, so you damn sure better have some good ones. Making good choices is important. Some people can’t live with some of the things they’ve done. That’s a horrible way to live. I’m not proud of everything I’ve done. But I haven’t done anything I can’t live with.”

There are Halls of Fame dedicated to every kind of music this guy’s been writing and playing for some six decades: rock, country, blues, rhythm and blues, rockabilly – and Delbert McClinton’s not in a single damn one of them. Well, he belongs in every one of them!

As a finale, I wonder, how do you want to be remembered?

“Remembered? As the guy who wasn’t a prick,” he says.

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.

Macmillan Cancer Support, registered charity in England and Wales (261017), Scotland (SC039907) and the Isle of Man (604).

MAC14175

The Blues on Mastermind Llyod Langford

Verbals: Rowland Jones Visuals: Supplied by artist

Comedian Llyod Langford appeared on a Celebrity Mastermind show and his specialist subject was Robert Johnson. Rowland Jones caught up with him recently whilst on tour to discuss all things blues.

My first introduction to the blues was through a school friend and the album by John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers with Eric Clapton, which I still have – in mono! Our local library held albums and that was how I heard King of the Delta Blues by one of your heroes Robert Johnson. So, what was your first introduction to the blues? My father plays the guitar and he has a big LP collection of all sorts of stuff. Blues, country, rock and roll, folk. I guess I kind of absorbed it from him, through osmosis. He’s more interested in the acoustic guitar blues I guess, fingerstyle stuff but I also remember him playing The Allman Brothers ‘Statesboro Blues’ from Live At The Fillmore East and thinking “What the fuck is this?!” I bought Captain Beefheart’s Safe As Milk and I think he told me I should listen to Howlin’ Wolf. So, I went to Spiller’s Records in Cardiff (oldest record shop in the world) and bought Moanin’ In The Moonlight/ The Howlin’ Wolf and when I listened to that, well, I realised that the Captain was standing on the shoulders of a giant! That voice and those guitarists. Hubert Sumlin, Willie Johnson, Jody Williams, Jimmy Rogers and Smokey Smothers!

We were lucky in Swansea as we had

the Adelphi Folk Club which featured UK artists like Dave and Joanne Kelly, Tony McPhee and Mike Cooper as well as visiting US musicians like Reverend Gary Davies, Arthur ‘Big Boy’ Crudup and Mississippi Fred McDowell. Did Port Talbot have a blues club, or did you have to move further afield?

I didn’t even realise there were such things as blues clubs! When I was about eleven I went with my dad, granddad and brother to Birmingham to see Chuck Berry & Little Richard. Fats Domino was supposed to play too but he couldn’t make it, because he was ill. It must’ve been pretty serious because even Hurricane Katrina couldn’t stop him. We were about as far from the stage as you could be (it’s like that old Henny Youngman joke “From where I was sat, the game was just a rumour”), watching Chuck Berry do the duck-walk through a pair of binoculars was pretty surreal.

My first ‘big’ blues gig was in Sophia Gardens in Cardiff: B.B. King supported by Fleetwood Mac, Duster Bennett, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee and hosted by

Long John Baldry. What was your first big blues gig?

In terms of big gigs, I went to see Van Morrison play at the Royal Albert Hall as part of the London Blues Festival. I mean, I’m not sure if it technically is blues? They always announce the lineups for the London Blues Festival and it’s like Sting and M People or something and I’m like “Shit, this isn’t The Blues!”. Anyway, Van brought out Chris Farlowe to duet on some John Lee Hooker songs. Farlowe started mugging to the audience and jumping in at the wrong time in the songs and generally cracking Van Morrison up. Van Morrison made him leave the stage! I thought that was great. Do you play an instrument? (Or would you like to play an instrument?) If you play guitar, which ones are your favourites? (EVERY guitar player I know has more than one guitar!)

I don’t play any instrument. And my fantasy instrument oscillates between the guitar and the piano. I can’t decide if I want to be B.B King or Otis Spann!

I know you’re a big fan of Robert Johnson, what about any other favourites either from the greats or from recent emerging talents?

Oh boy. This is tough. Completely unbidden, I’m going to give you my ten favourite blues albums that might be off the beaten track a bit. Because blues nuts don’t need me to tell them how great Muddy Waters’ Chess stuff is.

n B.B King – Live In Japan (in my opinion, his most underrated album)

n Luther “Snakeboy” Johnson –They Call Me The Snake

n Hayes Ware – Blues Ghetto Woman

From Mississippi to Chicago

n Phillip Walker – The Bottom Of The Top/Someday You’ll Have These Blues

n Various Artists – A Different Kind Of Blues: Music From Another Dimension

n Chain – Towards The Blues

n Johnny Littlejohn – Funky From Chicago

n Jessie Mae Hemphill – She-Wolf

n Various Artists – And This Is Maxwell Street

n R. C Smith – Clarksdale Blues

Chris Rea was once asked on Radio 4 how he felt about people who said white men can’t sing the blues. He replied succinctly “Bollocks”. What do you think?

I think whenever anyone says that you need to sit them down and play them all 13 minutes of Boz Scaggs’ cover of ‘Somebody Loan Me A Dime.’

Have you ever visited the Mississippi, Memphis, Clarksdale?

I haven’t. I was invited on holiday to Chicago by Rhod Gilbert and then he got offered a TV show and dropped out! So, I went on the holiday with his girlfriend and his best mate from school who I’d never met before. We went to loads of great blues clubs. I was sat next to Buddy Guy at the bar of his own club, but I was too nervous to talk to him. I’d definitely love to do a trip to the Mississippi though. I’ll ask Rhod, he owes me a holiday.

Can you tell me a bit about your show Every day I get the blues?

I think Chris Rock said “Stand-up comedy is the blues for people who can’t sing.” Though if anyone has heard Blind Willie Johnson, they might think the blues is the blues for people who can’t sing. It was a stand up show I did which was a mix of me telling jokes about the blues and also things that give me the blues.

Do you have plans for any more blues/comedy project?

Every Day I Have The Blues was only my second hour-long comedy show and I think I’m a better comedian now. So, it might be something I’ll revisit in the future. I had a radio comedy script commissioned where it was a guy interviewing obscure musicians. The first one was a blues man and it was full of gags and references to actual old blues musicians. Ultimately, it wasn’t picked up for a series, but I had fun writing it.

Big blues festival —

Fri 12 — Sat 13

october ‘18

Dr Feelgood

Ian Siegal

Sam Kelly’s Station House

Xander and the Peace Pirates

Rebecca Downes

Tom C Walker

Little Blues

Acoustic Stage

Early bird £40

Festival ticket £48 (from 1 Aug)

Saturday ticket £35

To Book

Online:

theatkinson.co.uk

Box Office: 01704 533333

Bishop Gunn

Bishop Gunn has been described as the best thing to come out of the south east of America with their blend of Mississippi Blues, and “a whole of lot of Muscle Shoals,” (Rolling Stone magazine). Their debut album, Natchez, which is named after their Mississippi hometown, was recorded at the legendary Fame studios, Muscle Shoals with Black Keys producer Mark Neill. Since then, the band has won plaudits in the American music press who has hailed them as the new voice of Southern rock following in the footsteps of legends such as Lynrd Skynyrd (whom they have just recently supported) and The Outlaws. The group consists of vocalist Travis McCready, Drew Smithers on guitar, Ben Lewis on bass and Burne Sharpe on drums.

Verbals: Paromita Saha Visuals: Anthony Scarlati

Thank you for speaking to Blues Matters! The band have been on quite a journey this year especially with the debut album, Natchez, and now you are supporting Lynyrd Skynyrd?

Burne Sharpe (Drummer): Thank you. We’ve done some shows with them and now we are also doing the Southern Rock cruise with The Marshall Tucker band, Blackberry Smoke, and Molly Hatchet. Next, we are touring with the Marcus King band for forty days and that takes us through the West Coast, Texas and Arizona.

How y’all feeling, and how are you dealing with the grueling touring schedule given that you are a relatively new band? BS: It’s a different type of work. It’s work that we enjoy. Our favorite part is seeing new places all the time as well as meeting incredible people out here, who love music as much as we do. Of course, we love playing. The more we play night after night, the band grows and we get tighter, and more intuitive, adapting to different situations. For example, one venue might be different from this one. How do you work around this stuff? It’s experience building in general, just like any job. Everything gets deeper and lighter.

How did you all come together as band?

BS: There was a guitar player and myself in late 2013/early 2014. We were in Natchez, Mississippi. We just jammed the blues and rock’n’roll stuff in his bedroom. We somehow secured a spot on the Great Mississippi River Balloon Race Festival in Natchez. We did not have a bass player or a singer. The word around town was that we should try to get this singer called Travis. So we saw him around the different bars when his band played and we tried to recruit him. Finally, he agreed to jam with us and we got it altogether. We saw the name, “Bishop Gunn” on a tombstone at the Natchez cemetery. So, we grabbed that name for our band. This was all for a one-off festival date as we did not have any plans to make it a full-time band. So, we played the festival. It stuck and we kept going.

Tell me about Natchez, which is a city in Mississippi, which is also

the title of your debut album. Ben Lewis (bass player): Natchez was settled in 1716. It’s a couple of years older than New Orleans. Before, it was the site of the Natchez Indians who had been there for a long time. It’s up on the bluff above the Mississippi river. There are a lot of antebellum homes there and it has a lot of history. When cotton was big, the plantation owners built these giant mansions on the bluffs on Natchez. It’s a historical town to see and it is well preserved. It’s a cool place to visit.

So, how is the city of Natchez important to the Mississippi blues?

BS: I think Natchez is very important to the blues. It is at the base of the Delta. For a lot of years, it was the main hub between New Orleans and Memphis. So, you had lot commerce’s travelling through. A lot of deckhands would get off at Natchez. Early on, you had musicians and people looking for good music, and they all ended up in Natchez. It had a lot of influences from all around and most of the times those people were travelling back up north through the Delta, bringing what they learnt from this area and that area. So, although, it might not be credited as Clarksdale, I do think it was an important hub city that spread culture across the area.

You call yourself a Nashville based band, but obviously you have this special connection to your home city. Why is Natchez important to the band’s identity?

BS: Our music is an honest representation of what we saw and who we have been around. So, Natchez is always our base. The big reason we are in the Nashville area is for the commerce side of music such as managers, booking agents etc. Natchez is where our families are, where our hearts are, the Mississippi river runs through there, all the architecture, the sights – it all adds up to what Bishop Gunn is and what our future holds. We have a festival there, every year, the Bishop Gunn Crawfish Boil (BGCB). We consider that a cultural festival. We invite people from all over that we meet when we are touring to see Natchez, to eat crawfish on the bluff overlooking the

Mississippi river. We just help Natchez whatever way we can. It’s so much fun to come back to our hometown. We see those first people that helped us out and celebrate with them. People from the UK will love it.

Lets talk about the songwriting process. How and when did you start writing songs together as a band?

BS: So, after the festival, I was in the process of building a studio in Natchez. I also needed someone to test out new microphones and new studio equipment. Travis had a catalogue of songs so we were able to get into the studios and try out these new mics and techniques while recording his own material. And, we just started working together and the next thing we have our own songs. We started playing our original songs at shows.

So, Travis you are the lead singer. What influences your songwriting?

Travis McCready (lead singer): There are a few songs on this record in particular one song that I wrote during my working days. I used to write at work, go home and turn the words into a song. One song on the album is called ‘Southern Discomfort.’ It’s about the blue-collar basic day-to-day paycheck lifestyle. You can hear it all in the song. There are a couple of songs about the road we experienced so far and now, that are coming to life, more so than when they are written like ‘Wheels’ and ‘Making It.’

The landscape of the Deep South seems to dominate your songs. For example, one of the songs, ‘Alabama,’ you sing, “I hope I don’t die in Alabama.” How has that been received by your fans in Alabama?

TM: That was a co-write. We took a different approach to writing and recording that song. There’s a friend of mine in Nashville that I sometimes write with. We sat down to write a song one day and I was actually writing material for the next album. I had this little blues riff from that morning. She turned up one morning and says I’ve got this one line, “lord I hope I don’t die in Alabama.” We went

from there. Usually, you write about yourself or your situation or something that you have just experienced. This was a three-way write. It was a fun song to write because why would anyone want to write a song like that about going to Alabama. There is a passenger and there is a ride. I wanted to paint this geographical picture. It’s like a ride across the South.

Tell me about your journey to Fame Studio, Muscle Shoals.

TM: In the last few years, we discovered that the whole soundtrack to the whole world was made there. Melodies on the radio – all these oldies that everybody knows were made there. We developed an appreciation and thought this is the place to go to. We were already going to the area and we had been there a couple of years ago and did a couple of tracks there, but we didn’t do anything with them. And, we caught word they were remodeling the Muscle Shoals sound studio, so we wanted to jump on that and be the first. You can imagine how many people want to record there. It will only get harder to get time there, so we thought we better get in there quick. We also knew the owners of the studio.

You do a cover of Jimmy Reed’s ‘Baby What Do You Want Me To Do,” on the record. What inspired you to cover that record and how has the Mississippi blues informed your sound? Drew Smithers (guitarist): Well, Jimmy Reed and Chuck Berry were the first true rock’n’roll songwriters. I don’t know how many times their songs have been covered. When we got into the studio, Travis decided, lets sing that tune.

You worked with Black Keys producer Mark Neill. How did that happen?

DS: We met Mark the night before we loaded into the studio. He flew up to Nashville to see us play. And, I mean what a producer. He got us in the studio, he would focus on what you are lacking and pull it out of you. I never worked with anybody like that. We are going into the studio with arrangements in mind and ideas. The final product that came out was completely different.

What are your expectations of a producer?

DS: Patience is definitely number one. Just trying to find the right fit for the right song. Mark was out on the tour when we were recording too. The recording process involved no headphones, no click track and all recorded live in one room. He whispers in your ear while you are playing. He made us super comfortable in the studio too, which was huge. You don’t want to be uptight. Mark Neill did half the record and Grammy awardwinning producer Casey Wasner did the other. They are amazing musicians in their own right. And, just to add to the Alabama tune, that song was recorded at Fame Studio, Muscle Shoals. And the amount of history that lives in those walls is incredible. Allman Brothers almost belonged there, who are one of my biggest influences. We recorded that tune on 2 January. We are heading to the studio a couple of hours from where we live (Leiper’s Fork, TN) and we get the call that the owner, Rick Hall passed away that morning. The line, “I hope I don’t die in Alabama,” was a pretty tense subject. We asked do we record? Are we walking on thin ice? Then we talked to his

son, Rodney. He was like “man, Rick would have loved this.” This all falls into the story. You can’t really make up this stuff. The recording reflects that. It’s a little eerie and spooky.

Are you comfortable with the term of Southern Rock?

DS: Absolutely. It’s like what Gregg Allman said. It’s like an oxymoron given that all rock came from the South. That whole Duane Allman and Wilson Picket thing came from Muscle Shoals at Fame. To be able to carry that torch in Southern Rock, whatever you want to call it. We are just playing music that we love and we are honest about it

Finally, do you have any plans about taking over the UK?

BS: We are working with management. The plan of attack is to come over as a support band for someone else. We are trying to find that right band to come over with. We hope in early 2019 that we are over there in some capacity.

Bishop Gunn’s debut album, Natchez, is out now.

Movin’ on Up

Shemekia Copeland

A week before Shemekia Copeland’s ninth album, America’s Child, was released, the first song on the CD ‘Ain’t Got Time for Hate’ debuted at number one on the Roots Music Report’s Top Song Chart that tracks radio airplay, two slots ahead of Buddy Guy’s ‘Old Fashioned.’ The following week, the song jumped from number 16 to 6 on the Americana Music Association’s singles chart ahead of artists like The Jayhawks, Nick Lowe, Boz Scaggs, Amanda Shires and John Prine. It’s the first time in her 19-year career that Shemekia has even appeared on the Americana chart.

Verbals: Don Wilcock Visuals: Arnie Goodman

Something’s going on here.

“The best part about making this record is it wasn’t about the genre,” explains Copeland. “It was about the music. Obviously, I’m a blues singer. Obviously! Because it’s in my DNA. That shouldn’t have to limit me in any way, that I couldn’t try and do any other things.”

America’s Child is being heralded as Shemekia Copeland’s bow to the Americana sound. And with contributions that include a duet with John Prine, African banjo playing by Rhiannon Giddens, Mary Gauthier songwriting credits, and background singing from Emmylou Harris, the album certainly is reaching into the Americana genre, but it’s even more universal than that.

Americana is the latest convenient term journalists use to describe a sound that does not fit comfortably into universally understood appellations given to easily defined genres. This albums cuts – sometimes slashes – through racial stereotypes, contemporary vs. classic human emotions and issues, and numerous styles of music.

Like John Lee Hooker’s The Healer, the 12 songs on American Child squeeze the juices from the muses of a diverse set of contributors all the while showcasing the powerful and instantly recognizable vocals of the ‘Ghetto Child’ Shemekia Copeland who grew up on the mean streets of Harlem only to rub shoulders with American political royalty, rock and roll legacies and some of the greatest songwriters, both famous and infamous – and some unheralded – wordsmiths. That their presence makes musical references to Mark Twain and Hank Williams within two of the songs seems only right.

“I just think it’s the message. It’s not me,” says the self-effacing Copeland. “I think the message of the song is what people are holding onto.”

The message on ‘I Ain’t Got Time for Hate’ is a clarion call for tempers to cool in America’s politically charged, current environment delivered from the perspective of a first-time mother. Copeland’s son, Johnny Lee Copeland-Schultz, was born in 2016. The other songs on the album are equally barbed

and intensely focused. Shemekia does not write any of the songs she sings on record or in live performances. “People ask me what the songwriting process is like. For me, it’s like going to a tailor and having a suit made because the songs are tailor-made for me. And what a blessing that is to have that.”

That ‘tailor’ is John Hahn, her manager and songwriter on many of her best numbers. He’s known her since she was eight years old and has managed her since she was 16 about the time her Grammy winning, blues singing father Johnny Clyde Copeland died in 1997. “So, yeah, they’re tailor-made because John and I talk all the time, and we have a lot of the same feelings about things, and we’re able to make beautiful music together because of it. John helped raise me, him and his wife. They’ve been there since the very beginning, helped shape me, helped me grow into the woman that I am.”

“(My wife) Cindi and I never had children, and Shemekia is our kid,” explains Hahn. “I told her from the very beginning, ‘If, God forbid, anything should ever happen with your voice or whatever, that’s not the end of you and I. You and I are together forever.’ This is much more than business, and I think it really helped us because I have such love, admiration, and respect for her that I think I’m a better advocate for her than other people would have been who maybe had more experience in management.”

John met Shemekia when he was a copywriter on Madison Avenue and recorded a jingle for Hanover Trust Bank with her father, Grammy-winning Johnny Clyde Copeland. Daddy was a dedicated blues singer/songwriter who lived a hard-scrabble life in Harlem raising seven kids and performing Delta-infused electric blues as if his life depended on it because it did.

Bubba Sullivan, Godfather of the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, Arkansas, describes Johnny Clyde Copeland’s playing one of their festivals in the early 90s. “It was 40 degrees with 30 mile-per-hour winds, but he was sweating through his blue suit like he was under a car wash.” The festival organizers called an ambulance because

they realized he was having one of his nine heart attacks. Copeland refused to get in the ambulance, came out and did four more songs and performed the next day at the W. C, Handy Awards in Memphis. He told this reviewer in 1981, “I try to put 100% of me in everything I do, not 99, 100! Whether it’s 20 people, 100 people, 1000 or one. I mean to represent the music right.”

John Hahn helped bankroll Flyin’ High for the senior Copeland that led to a fiverecord deal with PolyGram Verve in 1987, and John wrote his first song for Shemekia, ‘My Daddy Sings The Blues,’ a couple of years later when she was ten: “My daddy sings the blues/ the best blues in the world/Nobody sings them better except for daddy’s little girl.”

Hahn was the first person Shemekia called when her father died seven months after a heart transplant in 1997. A year later, she signed a record deal with Bruce Iglauer at Alligator Records. She was 19. John has continued to write many of her songs and has helped shepherd her through 19 years of critically acclaimed albums produced by such high-profile musicians as Dr. John (Talking to Strangers in 2002), Steve Cropper (The Soul Truth in 2005), and Oliver Wood of the Wood Brothers (Never Going Back in 2009, 331/3 in 2012 and Outskirts of Love in 2016.) Her albums have enjoyed multiple Grammy nominations.

She was crowned Queen of the Blues by Koko Taylor’s daughter in 2011 and performed for President Obama in 2012 along with B.B. King, Mick Jagger, Buddy Guy, Trombone Shorty, and Gary Clark, Jr. Asked by producer Don Was if she would sing backup for Mick Jagger on “Miss You” for President Obama, she shot back, “Absolutely not. Tell Mick I’m way too busy.” She paused and said, “Please,” I’m only kidding.” Hahn said to Was, “Now you know why I have no hair.”

John Hahn co-wrote six of the twelve songs on America’s Child: ‘Americans’ and ‘Smoked Ham and Peaches’ with Americana legacy artist Mary Gauthier, ‘Ain’t Got Time for Hate’ and ‘Would You Take My Blood’ with the album’s producer and guitarist Will Kimbrough, ‘The Wrong Idea”’with Willie

Morrison, and ‘Such A Pretty Flame’ with Oliver Wood. Steve Cropper plays lead guitar on Daddy’s ‘Promised Myself.’ Shemekia duets with legacy Americana singer/songwriter John Prine on ‘Great Rain’ that Prine co-wrote with Michael Campbell. You can hear John Prine’s wrinkles in his vocals, and you can feel the chemistry between him and Shemekia. “There was so much joy in that studio that day. We were just having so much fun, and I felt so honored. It’s like I just had this overwhelming feeling of I am standing in this studio with John freaking Prine.”

At the end of the recording, there’s a little aside where he says, “Take the rest of the day off.” Did Shemekia take the rest of the day off? “Unfortunately, we did not. He took the rest of the day off I’m sure, but we didn’t.” Shemekia also covers ‘I’m Not Like Everybody Else’ by The Kinks’ Ray Davies. And just for added flavor, Emmylou Harris sings backup on two songs.

Hahn is the contemporary Willie Dixon. His songs tell stories that are both universal and specific to Shemekia’s identity as a woman. ‘The Wrong Idea’ is an anthem for the #MeToo movement. Co-written by John Hahn & Willie Morrison, it’s a country song from a woman’s point of view regarding her repulsion of a guy coming on to her at a bar. She sings it with the same intensity and energy you’d expect from a seductive comeon but from the opposite point of view: ‘What makes you think you’ve got a shot of getting this good stuff that I got/There ain’t no way I’m giving you a taste/I’d rather see it go to waste.’ In our interview she says simply, “I never want to alienate any man ’cause I want the men to make sure we love them, but we don’t have to take their shit either.”

Hahn’s songs have visual imagery as when he describes the seductive but dangerous beauty of fire in ‘Such A Pretty Flame.’ They have hooks that stick in your mind like flies on fly paper. And they avoid clichés so often used in blues to describe American ideals. His imagery is outside of any boxes that tend to constrict genres.

‘Smoked Ham and Peaches’ features Rhiannon Giddens playing an African banjo

that cries out like barbed wire rolling through prairie grass in the spring wind. ‘When the whole world seems fake, give me something real,’ Shemekia sings. She explains. “Well, it’s about as Americans we get delivered a bunch of garbage, and we want something real. Instead of giving us garbage, give us something real. Give us something we can sink our teeth in, that we can really believe in, and they’re not doing that. It starts, ‘Are you under the covers with a flashlight like the rest of us now?’ We’re all kinda sitting in a bomb shelter waiting for World War III. That’s not a comfortable way to live.”

‘Ain’t Got Time to Hate’ is even more powerful. It has pinched and prodded a nerve in the American psyche. “I think the message is powerful, and I think really that’s what people are feeling with this, and that’s what I was feeling, too, when I made it, you know? I have this amazing child, and what kind of world did I just bring him into? I’m

frustrated, but I’m hopeful because this is my home. This is where I was born. This is where I was raised, but I’m hopeful that things will get better and do better for him as he gets older, and I think that message really comes across, and people are feeling it.”

John and Shemekia recently had dinner at Bodinger, the only Alsatian brasserie in Paris. At another table was an American family with a young child. Shemekia smiled at the kid and then looked back at John and said, “Do you think those kids have any idea how lucky they are?”

And John said, “I can tell you with a certainty, absolutely not. They have no idea how lucky they are.”

She responded, “Well, I know how lucky I am. My dad always promised I would get out of Harlem and he got me out. Most people are lucky to have one terrific father, and I’ve been twice as lucky. I’ve got two. I had my dad, and I’ve got you.”

Reflections of Blues Rick Estrin

A fun ensemble bursting with instantly recognisable sounds. The awardwinning Blues Band of the Year at The Blues Music Awards, Memphis, 2018. Stamp your feet and move to the beat of Rick Estrin & The Nightcats.

Imanaged to hook up with frontman extraordinaire Rick Estrin, before continuing his tour of America and Europe. He arrives in the United Kingdom for a few dates in January 2019. The conversation covered a lot of interesting topics; it went something like this…

Hey thanks for taking time out of your hectic schedule to talk to Blues Matters! How’s it going with you? Today we go to Pittsburgh, and then we have a little tour taking in the East Coast, then onto Switzerland. How are you?

Fine, looking forward to seeing you play in Edinburgh Blues Club next January. I’ve only been to Scotland once, it was in the 90s and we did a little tour with John Hammond.

What keeps you motivated?

The love of the music, I guess. It’s been my whole life. The music and the people, that’s what keeps me motivated.

How do you monitor success, is it by getting rewards or is it the number of albums sold? What does success mean to you?

That stuff is all good, but for me, it’s when the band is so good and clicking and everything

is just right. You’re in the moment, that feeling when everything seems to disappear and you’re in another place. That is something that feels like success. When I write a song and know it’s a good one, there’s nothing like that. As far as playing and compliments, that’s what I get from certain people. When I was young it was important. People like Muddy Waters and Junior Wells encouraged me. But I was young and pretty good. When I was in my thirties and early forties, I got to know Robert Lockwood and he said some nice things about my playing, he was a real friend. That kind of stuff means more to me than awards. Getting awards is good because it is a measure and it might get me more jobs! But other stuff I carry in my heart.

What would you say was the best advice you have had, musically and generally?

One time, Johnny Twist told me there are two things you have to remember about the music business, Ego and Psychological. He was talking about the music business and how to deal with people. That was important once I got to know what he was talking about, it was very helpful. Another thing a guy called Rodger Collins told me was to be yourself. No one else can beat you being yourself, telling your own story and making it interesting. Robert Lockwood told me, after we became friends,

Verbals: Colin Campbell Visuals: Bob Hakins

he would come to our gig; one night we were playing in the 90s when blues was popular, and the place was packed. He says, what are you doing with your money? I said, I don’t know. He says you need to buy you a house! Little Charlie had been saying this to me for a while anyway. When Lockwood said it, for some reason I did it. Before he died, the last time I saw him at The Biscuit Festival I told him I had paid my house off! He smiled.

What’s the best advice you could give to young aspiring musicians today?

If they’re playing blues or stuff like that they had better love it. If you just like it and want to do it, it’s a good hobby! But if you have to do it, it’s not an easy road. I’ve been very lucky. I know a lot of talented people that have struggled. I was lucky to come along at a time when blues music was on the up. Signing to Alligator records, I probably owe Bruce Iglauer a lot.

What’s it like working with Bruce Iglauer, head of the Alligator Record label?

It’s easier now than it used to be!! He likes to be hands-on and now with Kid Andersen (guitarist with The Nightcats) at Greaseland Studios, where Groovin’ At Greaseland was made. He may have some say in adjustments with the mixes, but overall, he lets us do what we want to do. I’m lucky he likes my song writing. I’ve heard other artists go through hell with him, trying to edit songs and that.

About your song writing: what comes first, the lyric or the tune, what’s the process? A lot of the lyrics are fun and possibly show the double entendre meaning of some blues lyrics. It could be either one. I could start with hearing somebody say something that triggers a thought. It might be the hook of the song or syllables may suggest a melody to make. I’ll sit down and mess with the guitar and try and fit a lyric to that. I write some humorous stuff and serious stuff! A lot of time the humorous stuff has a point to it. Each song is its own thing and takes a life

of its own. I spend a lot of time on a lyric trying to make it sound like I didn’t spend a lot of time on it. I edit it, so it flows naturally. It sounds conversational, you know.

Some songs on your newest release sound autobiographic is that meant? Do you have any favourites?

Most songs are to various degrees! I like ‘The Blues Ain’t Going Nowhere’. This came from people asking me “where do you think the blues is going” and all that. I thought about what the blues is really about. It’s a political song really. I’m going to try and write songs along those lines cos it’s a mess over here, man. There’s a lot of greed that’s caus ing a lot of hard times for people. It’s not that money’s not being made; it’s the people that own everything, they’re not happy with that, they want more. At this point of my life I’m probably a Socialist! We have an evil moron as President of the United States.

Why did you choose the blues as a musical genre?

Like you, I’ve always liked the lyrics and sound. It seemed real. I had an older sister who was like a beatnik. Instead of having records by Perry Como and Ricky Nelson she had blues records, man! She had Mose Allison and Nina Simone, Big Bill Bronzy and stuff like that. So, I heard that stuff at ten years old. There was something that brought me to it. It seemed more real and exciting to me than pop music.

What made you choose the harmon ica as a musical instrument to play?

I wasn’t even thinking about it. Some guy gave me a harmonica. There was a house down the street near my mother’s house that a band lived in, a commu nal house. The band was trying to be a British invasion band, only American! The guy whose house it was gave me a harmon ica and told me you’re gonna learn how to play it. I locked myself in a room in his house and stayed there for a long time. When

I came out of the room I could play pretty much like I do now! Naw, just kidding. I decided in that room I can do this, and at the time I needed something in my life I could focus on that wasn’t getting me into trouble.

What age were you then? What was the first band you were in?

I was about fifteen. My sister had some Jimmy Reed records, so I heard the blues harmonica. I dug up her records and got hip to Sonny Boy Williamson, Little Walter and stuff. I was in a little band when I was a teenager, can’t remember the name. But when I turned

eighteen I joined Fillmore Slim’s band. Then Travis Phillips who made the original ‘She’s Got Eyes Like a Cat’ – I played for a year, five times a week. Then I knocked around, went to Chicago and back to California for several years playing with different people. In Chicago I played with Johnny Young, Eddie Taylor, Sam Lay. Then last time I came back to California I met Little Charlie. We joined together in 1976, I think, when we started playing together.

What kind of things make you proud?

I’m proud I’ve lived this long goofing off on a child’s toy for fifty years! That’s pretty great man. I’ve avoided the labour pool for the most part. Had a couple of jobs early on but soon as Little Charlie became popular I quit these jobs. When I came to Sacramento I worked in a rice mill. I was also a janitor. Soon as I could make

a living making music that was it. Prior to that I would try and find a girlfriend with a job.

You’ve said in the past that all the best harmonica players are dead. Do you still think that?

There are some excellent players around just now, but yeah, I believe the best ones are dead. There’s nobody as good as Little Walter. Even James Cotton, he’s dead. He was a friend, I played at his memorial. He was an influence on me. I got to see him a lot. By the time I got to Chicago, Little Walter had died and Sonny Boy also. There was something about James Cotton’s playing that was really expressive to me. It was frightening too.

You certainly notice that in your performances you make the crowd take notice.

You are one of the better frontmen in a band, how did that come about? What made you want to be a frontman?

I learnt and paid attention to the folk that were good. I learned certain principles from people. Especially Rodger Collins where I learned about being an entertainer. But I also found I had to find my own way of doing it. If you be yourself you can’t mess it up, you’re free on the bandstand. It took time; the way I started to play was by copying guys I saw, and records. I wanted to sound like the real thing. I noticed the little details that lifted the sound up. It’s not just about the licks. Sometimes you have to practice until it’s natural. But I want it to be natural by the time you hear it!

Is the harmonica easy to play?

Depends on what you want to sound like. If you want to sound like Bob Dylan, it’s easy to play! But Little Walter or anyone that can really play, it takes as long a time as any other instrument, a never-ending journey.

What’s the blues scene like in California now? Any artists you like?

A lot of good players here, the scene isn’t as good as fifteen years ago.

Andy Santana is good. There’s a kid here in Sacramento, Kyle Rowland, known him since he was twelve, he plays the blues! He’s got a lot of fire in his playing. I also like Marquise Knox and Quon Willis. They make me feel good and play what I think is the blues. There’s that connection. It’s the real shit. It moves me. I was a fan of the blues first.

What would you say to yourself now, looking back to when you started out?

Lucky, I survived my own stupidity! I was a nut. Don’t know if I should say but I’ve injured people severely. Lucky, I didn’t kill anybody. I’ve done armed robbery with a squirt gun. I thought I had something to prove.

The statute of limitations has run out, so I guess it’s okay. I’m so lucky to have survived. Now I’m pretty old but feel okay, I’ve got a good life.

Any thoughts about the music business?

It’s not what it used to be. I’m glad I’m not starting out now. When I started with the idea of this is what I want to do, nothing else. I’ve no skills, no education, but I decided on this. Back then it was a stupid idea, now unless you’re so supremely talented and have a compelling live show to put on, it’s just a different world now. So many entertainment options are available. When we started out playing bars and clubs it was a different time. It was something special to go out and see a live band. Blues audiences are as old as me, so consequently half of them are dead and a lot are not ambulatory!

It’s been great talking to you good luck for the tour. Look forward to meeting up with you in Edinburgh. Thanks for talking with me, see you soon.

For further information see website: rickestrin.com

Discography

Groovin’ In Greaseland – 2017

You Asked For It – 2014

One Wrong Turn – 2012

Twisted – 2009

Nine Lives – 2005

That’s Big – 2002

Shadow of The Blues – 1998

Deluxe Edition – 1997

Straight Up – 1995

Night Vision – 1993

Captured Live – 1991

The Big Break – 1989

Disturbing the Peace – 1988

All The Way Crazy – 1987

It’s about playing the song

Tas Cru

I got the chance to chat with Tas Cru on the telephone at home in uptown New York City. He has just brought out an acclaimed release, Memphis Song, on the re-established Subcat label. A consummate singer-songwriter, blues educator and guitarist, his lyrics are the centre point to his music. We certainly had a lot to talk about, read on…

Where are you today?

Sitting watching Lake Ontario in uptown New York State having a cup of coffee, very very nice.

What’s giving you most pleasure just now?

My new release, Memphis Song. I feel the last three CD’s, I’ve learned more about

song writing and recording. I was able to apply that new sensitivity and understanding, that’s why I love that one.

How do you start writing, is it a lyric, a tune or what?

Sometimes the lyric, someone might say something that’s just a little odd to me. It catches my ear and I listen to that. The song ‘One

Verbals: Colin Campbell Visuals: Sandy Roe

Eyed Jack’ on the album is based on a friend saying, “if life was a game of cards, I’d just have to learn with the cards the Lord dealt me, but it seems like the Devil is always stacking the deck!” My imagination caught this, and I wrote a song around it. An idea can start with a melody. The song ‘Fool for the Blues’ has a great riff and I wrote the song around that. It can also be a concept that inspires me. This is noticeable in the title song, ‘Memphis Song’. You can still hear blues music and its part of the city’s art culture. I’ve been going to the International Blues Council for many years in Memphis; I meet a lot of Musicians from all over the world, but people who come for the first time are taken by Memphis. They say, I love the blues community then I left and went back to wherever (say Glasgow) and it’s like, wow, the feeling has gone, with being around people who love the blues. The concept of Memphis Song is people hear it calling them back, where you feel at home. It blossomed from there. There is a spirit in Memphis; you had all the guys on Sun label, and Elvis, of course!

Talk about the new album, it seems specially a blues album, and you called in some friends. It has a happy feel to it is that the case?

That was a conscious effort on my part. I have a tendency to go all Americana-rootsy thing with some of my songs. I rejected three songs from this album; I didn’t think they fit the way I wanted them to. Yes, Victor Wainwright and Tom Harrington have been long-time friends; met them at Festivals; we get on stage quite often. They are great fun; it feels natural to play with such good musicians. I used a lot of the same players I have done before who are comfortable with each other. We were relaxed, not in a hurry to make it. The concept had a way of being inspirational. We play the music for the feel of music, not being cute with it. The solos are subtle; it’s not an album to showcase a blazing guitar player or such. To a new bass player, I’ll say “when you work with me I don’t want you to think of yourself as someone that plays the bass, I want you to think of playing bass in a song. It’s about playing the song not the instrument” The concept was to make

songs sound as good as they could. Toronzo Canon said what I say to audiences, “please listen to the words of the songs and enjoy them”. My song lyrics are not just so you can get to the guitar solo, they are important!

What makes you unique as a songwriter?

I love language; I listen to language that is unique and colourful. I read a lot, that helps. I’ve had an easy time writing. My family all loved language, sang songs all the time. I had a rich upbringing

What got you interested in music and its many forms, particularly blues?

I came from a traditional American middleclass family. We listened to music, it was important. I was a rebellious teenager, so I started to do the school music thing but didn’t pay attention. I goofed off and even my music teacher gave me a kick in the pants. I was more interested in the music of my time, like the Rolling Stones. I played in bands when I was really young. My uncle loved blues music, he used to play records, and I hung around with him, I didn’t know what these records were. He let me take a puff on his Lucky Strike cigarette and get a taste of Bourbon. I was about ten years old, I eventually found out he was a big fan of Howlin’ Wolf. I loved the Sun Records music when I got older. I saw connections between the blues and rockabilly. I find it interesting to this day, young musicians know about the music like Rolling Stones and John Mayall. When I was in my twenties there was no way that I knew or appreciated the music of my parent’s generation. I knew about Big Swing bands but wasn’t that interested. In blues I found music I could respect so much. I realised it is the root of all the music that I came to enjoy and love throughout my life.

I usually ask this question, what is the best advice you have received and the best advice you have given to aspiring musicians?

Advice from older and wiser people is just be comfortable, a musician being who you are, don’t worry about sounding like someone else. Learn from them but don’t try to copy

them. Even today I see so many young guitar players who want to be Stevie Ray Vaughn. One thing he did was tune his guitar lower than standard tuning. I see a lot of kids do that and I ask them why they do that; they say, “I don’t know”. It’s good to emulate but we don’t want to become them! From the perspective of a blues educator rather than a musician, one time a mom asked me about her daughter who plays blues. She asked, what would help my daughter become a better musician and I said why don’t you let her carry her instrument in and out of the gig herself. What I was saying was your daughter has to own what she is doing, not you. If this is about you, not her, she won’t get any better. She has to be the one who wants this.

You do a lot of Blues in the Schools programmes, what is the feedback you get from your pupils, especially regarding playing blues music?

If it is not indigenous, then it is strange for them, but they love the feeling of it. They’re young and no one’s told them they’re not supposed to like the blues yet. I make sure when I start a blues programme that I show videos of people of their age playing blues music. I don’t want to give the impression of an old guy playing this music. For kids in Southern states a lot gravitate to the blues because they are familiar with Church music.

In Memphis, the kids didn’t get the connection between Gospel and blues music, strangely. I’ve never had a bad programme cross my fingers! I get into more technical aspects of the blues with older kids as their teachers want them to know how it fits into the whole musical tapestry. I talk about call and response; the blues scale, that type of thing. The most challenging programme I must tell you. One time there was a school that was having to learn banking. They did an iron chef competition, a cooking contest. Here the theme was African American History month. So, they had to come up with recipes made with food in blues songs! They asked me to play songs. This was hard singing to thirteen-year olds because as you know most blues songs where food is mentioned it is not as written. It’s double entendre, pupils pick up on this, but I enjoyed it.

But you have been known to be an expert in triple entendre?

It means they take the literal meaning, the writer’s meaning and the personal meaning of the word. It was all to do with the lyrics.

Do you enjoy touring?

Yes, and love meeting new people and going to different places. The thing about touring that some people may not understand is for a tour to be successful financially you have to be on the move all the time. So, you might get to visit some good cities, but you don’t have time to get to know the people well or see the sights. You get a sense of how the people in different parts of the world are unique in subtle ways. In my country there seems a big division among people and how they are politically. When playing, music brings us together. We are all human beings with challenges. Music seems to elevate, people rise above what makes us testy with everyone. The blues is more unique with dedicated music lovers.

Have you any favourite or interesting venues you have played?

Yes, and not because they are huge or wellknown venues. It might be the setting. I recently played a festival in Kincardine, Ontario, The Lighthouse Blues Festival. My

stage time was such that I looked over the lake as the sun was setting, beautiful! In Memphis there is the Rum Boogie Café on the corner of Beale Street. They have hundreds of guitars hanging from the ceiling. The management gave me one at one concert. Last year I played the Blues Music Awards in Memphis.

Do you prefer playing solo or in a band, and what keeps you motivated?

The band! I like to create the sound you get on the album. When I play solo or duet, there’s an intimacy with the audience. I love having an organ player, and backing singers, it creates a full rich sound. I love when you’re in that moment on stage when you can do no wrong. You’re lost in the moment and the audience is with you. Duane Allman called that being in the note, when you’re not aware of concrete things around you. Luther Allison said, “If you’re thinking, you’re stinking”. You know you’re creating and forming art, you’re not just playing your guitar and singing. There’s nothing like bringing an audience to their feet and being intimate. Queen of Hearts brought the Kincardine audience to a stunned silence. We were all in that moment.

Are you proud of being an American and how does this affect you as a blues player?

I’m very proud to play music that first was born in America. Also, how other cultures and people have embraced it and added their ideas to keep it going. I’m proud the blues documents the short history of my country good and bad. The first to do this was John Mayall and The Rolling Stones, even The Beatles had some blues. Early British rock bands didn’t try and copy the American style. In blues you don’t have drummers like Ginger Baker or John Bonham!

Talk about the Subcat Studios: are you the first artist on that label, how does that make you feel?

They do a lot of recording for well established artists. This is the third album with the studio. But they re-established their record label using Memphis Song as the first release from that. They are hoping if my album

gets enough attention it will get their studio attention and they might get other artists to come. I am presently producing other groups and artists to support this venture.

In your back catalogue you wrote a song ‘Tired of Bluesmen Cryin’ – was that a knock at traditional blues songs? It was not my idea at all! I was doing a blues education programme. It was an after school one. A student interviewed me, a fourteenyear old girl who sung some blues songs. She asked me about songwriting as she wrote also. I ended up interviewing her. I asked what do you write about? She said she wrote about things going on in her life. I don’t write copycat stuff that I’d never experienced. What I know about those old folk, who played the blues deserved all the bad things that happened to them. She said I’m tired of bluesmen crying! I was stunned. I thought it was fantastic. She pointed at me and said I don’t know if you know, but there’s a lot of blues in a fourteen-year old girl’s life! I listen for these kinds of things.

Last thing, what does the blues actually mean to you?

Blues is a universal music, that’s what it means to me. It builds a sense of human community.

Anything you want to add.

Yeh I love the title of the magazine. Blues does Matter! Keep up the good work. It’s hard to expand the audience; we all need to work together.

For further details see website: www.tascru.com

Discography

Memphis Song – 2018

Simmered & Stewed – 2016

Doggone Blues – 2016

Even Bugs Get The Blues – 2015

You Keep the Money – 2014

Speaking of The Source Tony Joe White

The spark that originality lit Tony Joe White’s muse was The Blues and now he has made an elemental, stone blues album called Bad Mouthin’ to make that very point. His distinctive guitar playing, and unique voice have made him a global legend of music. Pete caught up with Tony again for the lowdown…against the background of what sounds like macaws and an electrical storm.

I’m still grateful for the unedited version of ‘Polk Salad Annie’ that you played for me at The Borderline! How are you, maestro? Oh yes, I remember that…the 45 single did fade pretty fast! – but you asked that night and you got, Pete…

And whilst on that night, how is your lad Jody? It was fun bearing witness to your gig over here with Jeff Beck and Lou Reed! (Laughs) Yep – and he had to hear it from you, to believe it happened! He wasn’t around then to be at Crystal Palace. Yes, we did talk about my time with Elvis, I recall?

Yes, when Elvis recorded ‘Polk Salad Annie’ live and wanted you, the writer, there!

Yep, he flew an airplane down to Memphis to pick me up, that’s me and my family. We got to see him, and the band record the song. In fact, he recorded it six times. Then every night we’d get to hang out in the dressing room, play a little guitar.

It was good, man! Good times with the King…he always treated me good.

This album of yours, Bad Mouthin’… is what I would term absolute stone blues, in all respects. Have you been wanting to do this for a while?

Yes. I had in mind to make this kind of album for quite a long period. You know, when I was young I was just so struck with Lightnin’…with John Lee…affected my playing, the way I sang, everything, I guess. When and where I grew up, blues was just about the only music I heard and truly loved. So, I’ve always thought of myself as a blues musician, bottom line, because the blues to me is real, and I like to keep everything I do as real as it gets. So, yes -– I thought it was time to make a blues record that sounds the way I always loved the music, the feeling of it, the impact.

On this record, a lot of it sure sounds like your ’65 Strat. (Laughs) Sure is…my best friend, that guitar, plus a coupla others, on some tunes on there… so, I know how to play it, I know how to

Verbals: Pete Sargeant Visuals: Joshua Black

sing it. We moved my studio around, here at the house. We fixed the barn up, so we could have the space in there and some of the gear. Then we could get the best sound on the acoustic guitar and the harmonica… and the foot tappin’ on the ground, plus we used drums on a couple of the numbers.

That Strat and that wah pedal – that’s the sound of Swamp Rock, to me. Yeah – and the Tone Bender, which I got over in England, around ’65 I guess

How did you get such a clean guitar sound?

I made it work. Oh, and there’s kinda two rooms in the barn. So, with me and the microphone over in the control room and the Fender amp in the other…well, you can get the separation easy that way and record.

Do you remember the Excello record label? They had Slim Harpo and got a similar sound on the recordings. Him, Jimmy Reed…that’s a model for the sound BUT I don’t try to sing like them, I am going for my own delivery, my way of doing it. The blues guitar

Discography

Tony Joe White has an extensive back catalogue, so we have only listed his more recent albums here.

Bad Mouthin’ – 2018

Rain Crow – 2016

Hoodoo – 2013

The Shine – 2010

That On The Road Look “Live” – 2010

Live In Amsterdam – 2010

Lake Placid – 2009

The Path of a Decent Groove – 2009

The Train I’m On – 2009

Tony Joe White – 2009

I’m playin’ has a lot of Lightnin’ Hopkins. That’s the way it kinda worked out!

When you were young, did you hear these records on the radio or on the jukebox?

Mostly, Pete, on the jukebox. Down in Texas, I was living in Texas. There was an old blues club out there and they had the best jukebox in the area. Reed, Hooker, Wolf – you name it. Then later in Nashville there was a very cool record store. There was a radio show from it and I would stay up till twelve or one o’clock and that’s what they played – The blues. Back then, we didn’t have television. There wasn’t much to do anywhere, really – except entertain yourselves. So, we could play music, to stay sane and stay keen. My Mom, my Dad, my brother, all played and sang. Could be Country or Gospel songs. Then my brother brought home a Lightnin’ album when I was sixteen and that was it for me.

I do a Hopkins song called ‘Hello Central’…sounds so fresh, even now…albeit rearranged a bit. Great song. After I started writing and doing my own stuff, I still wanted that blues guitar happening in there. It’s in my bones.

You have a song on here ‘Cool Town Woman’ – reminds me of Lead Belly. Skips along. Puts a little breeze in the room…that lighter thang.

I don’t know whether you know Taj Mahal?

(Warmly) Yeah, I met him. I’ve played with him on shows here and there. Not together but on the same bill. England, Belgium, Germany.

The other song that really turned me on here was your version of ‘Heartbreak Hotel’. That’s another tune I feel in my bones. They all come from upstairs, somehow.

Bryan Owens, your drummer here, he has such a great feel.

Been with me about fourteen years now. Can play blues, ballads, and yes, he has just got such a smooth feel to what he contributes.

Could you tell me about ‘Stockholm Blues’, on the album?

‘Stockholm Blues’ is about the early days, playin’ around Europe. I think it was probably my second trip over. We got to Stockholm and played in a club, for a bunch of radio people and others. All I had was a guitar and a Coca Cola box! It’s about keeping on, finding the resolution to do that.

I’m glad you included ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’.

Tony Joe White Bad Mouthin’

Yep Roc Records

Our man heads straight back to elemental blues for this release. His voice if anything is even deeper and more grizzled than before and his mainly electric guitar rich and spiky. Some tracks have drums, and some are acoustic. His son Jody engineers. White rips into Baby Please Don’t Go with such firmness that there’s no way the lady is leaving!

Hooker’s Boom Boom gets the lowdown dirty treatment and other titles such as Bad Dreams, Down The Dirt Road Blues and title cut Bad Mouthin’ deliver exactly what the listener might expect. Stockholm Blues is an autobiographical tale about playing in Europe. Big Boss Man sounds tough as nails. Cool Town Woman has a biting vibe about it. The sound is captured clean but raw, as my chat with Tony makes clear. But the crowning glory is the weighty, monochrome reading of Heartbreak Hotel...the blues don’t come more desolate than this, good people.

Pete Sargeant

Now that had to be on there, because I always loved Lightnin’ Hopkins’ version of that song. That many people have done, of course. Mose Allison, man – he used to do it.

Is ‘Boom Boom’ a favourite?

Ah well, we used to do that with the full band – organ, bass, drums and all. But this time I wanted to cut it right back to basics, for this album. A little slower, a little funkier.

Johnny Cash must have heard very similar music to you, early on. Y’know, when I was young I would not make any effort to listen to country music. Never. It was that blues radio. For me, sounded dangerous. When you’re a little kid growing up down in the swamps, and you step on a cottonmouth… that’s real.

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

GUIDE TO THE BEST COUNTRY BLUES

Albums, DVDs & Books

The big blues reviews guide — accept no substitute!

Mojo Hand

Mojo Hand

Independent

This is as ‘down home’ as it gets. You serve your time in a dedicated fashion, polishing your musical skill as buskers, then realise when the accolades pile up, that it’s time to go into the studio. This impressive acoustic duo, Mojo Hand, are Jon Van Cowler and Peter Webber, doing what all true blues aficionado performers dotaking the classic blues and making it their own. Recorded in one take in February this year Mojo Hand give us the blues gems, 11 songs including Wolf’s Killin’ Floor, Robert Johnson’s Stop Breaking Down and Ramblin’ on My Mind, as well as Wilbur Harrison’s Let’s Work Together and Fred McDowell’s Highway 61. On acoustic and resonator guitars, they play like a dream, and judging by those aforementioned accolades, e.g., BBC 6’s Tom Robinson on Peter Webber; “a killer slide guitarist who knows his way round the frets like most of us know our front garden” and Acoustic Guitar Magazine; ‘a rolling acoustic firestorm’, then you’ll know what to expect and you’ll not be disappointed. The success of this CD could lead to an intended follow-up of original material, so support Mojo Hand - they’re a worthy blues cause indeed.

Roy Bainton

Renee Austin Songbirds And Angels

Independent

Award winning Minneapolis blues singer Reneé Austin was a rising star in the music industry signed up to Blind Pig Records when in 2005 the Christian Church worship leader lost her voice after her left vocal chord became paralysed due to a routine surgery. Now, after an amazing miracle, Reneé is able to sing once again hence this latest album. Not surprisingly there is a gospel, evangelical emphasis to the album with fulsome praise to God for Austin’s recovery. The hard rocking title track celebrates Austin’s comeback with a bang, her vocals more powerful than ever while In Your Wake, with its succession of crescendos, confirms the impressive vocal range remains intact. The moving duet with Pastor Douglas A Smith, Destiny, is a reminder that this was never going to be a mainstream blues album but genre definitions are less important than deeply felt experiences and heartfelt emotions. Highlights include I’m A Penny, Mark Arneson’s saxophone on Real Good Feelin’, Renee’s vocals and piano accompaniment on Butterfly and the lyrics of The Roses Are Crying. All thirteen self-penned tracks benefit from the dynamic band supporting Renee and the superb recording,

production and engineering team. Renee Austin clearly believes in miracles and this inspirational, celebratory album is testimony to her faith.

The Bishop

Memphis Minnie

Killer Diller Blues

[Her Best 24 Songs]

Wolf

Led Zeppelin famously loved Memphis Minnie’s When The Levee Breaks so much that they thought they had written it themselves. Astoundingly that track isn’t on this compilation, which features tracks recorded between 1929 and 1953, but other Memphis Minnie classics like Bumble Bee, In My Girlish Days and Me And My Chauffeur Blues, songs which have been covered by the likes of Jo Ann Kelly, Ottilie Patterson and Maria Muldaur, are included. There’s still a historically inaccurate tendency amongst many blues fans to associate women blues performers solely with classic blues but Memphis Minnie was not only a tough, uncompromising singer but an expert guitarist who in fact late in her career played electric blues. Most of the songs here compiled are collaborations with either her second husband Kansas Joe McCoy or her third husband Little Son Joe, who both played guitar, but other musicians like

Shemekia Copeland America’s Child

Alligator Records

Shemekia Copeland is arguably the leading contemporary female singer and her latest album includes material that ranges across blues, soul and Americana. Recorded in Nashville and produced by Will Kimbrough (who also handles guitar duties) the album features songs written by Will, Mary Gauthier and John Hahn plus some covers. Although Shemekia does not write the songs she delivers them with passion and conviction so we believe in every word. Opener Ain’t Got Time For Hate is a rocking condemnation of prejudice with pedal steel accents by Al Perkins (Manassas, Flying Burrito Brothers) and Americans celebrates the sheer diversity of the States over a slinky New Orleans rhythm; Emmylou Harris is among the backing vocalists on both tracks. Would You Take My Blood? finds Shemekia on great form vocally, another song about irrational prejudice while Smoked Ham And Peaches is a gentle acoustic number that looks back to simpler times when truth

was inviolate; Rhiannon Giddens (Carolina Chocolate Drops) plays African banjo. Shemekia deals with an unwanted suitor in The Wrong Idea with fiddle taking the central solo, a standout track which in past times would have made an ideal single. Shemekia always includes one of her late father’s songs and the soulful ballad Promised Myself includes Steve Cropper on guitar. John Prine duets with Shemekia on his own moody Great Rain and Shemekia transforms The Kinks’ I’m Not Like Everyone Else into a slowburn blues belter. In The Blood Of The Blues (Derrick Procell/Terry Abrahamson) is another standout track with a towering vocal from Shemekia who lives every word of the interesting lyrics and she closes the album with a lullaby for her young baby son. This is a fine album, full of strong songs and performances – recommended!

John Mitchell

her first husband Casey Bill Weldon (steel guitar), Charlie McCoy (mandolin) and pianists Sunnyland Slim, Little Brother Montgomery and Black Bob also appear. Many of the songs, including My Butcher Man and the aforementioned Bumble Bee and Me And My Chauffeur Blues, feature entertainingly brazen double-entendres while on Crazy Cryin’ Blues her repeated cry of pain over her lover two-timing her is harrowing.

Trevor Hodgett

Memphis Slim

Live In Paris May 27Th 1961

Body and Soul

Considering this live recording is slightly older than myself it’s amazing just how fresh it sounds. From the opening track Chicago Boogie Woogie you realize just how good Memphis Slim really is. A great opening track for the gig in Paris. As he mentions in the intro to the song it’s part him and part Jimmy Yancy playing the

piano. Not only is he a superb boogie woogie player but he also is a great orator of blues. Regaling us with stories from decades earlier of how blues had had such an impact on his life. How Long How Long Blues written by the legendary Leroy Carr you grasp that he’s not only a fine boogie man but he can also play and sing the blues as nature intended. Beer Drinkin Woman is just another example of that. Listening to Slim tell the story before he starts playing makes one feel like you are attending a blues school and he’s the teacher. Shake Rattle and Roll is performed in a much slower bluesy style than the one recorded by Bill Haley. Originally written by Big Joe Turner and recorded by Jesse Stone in 1954 this is by far my favourite version. Keep Your Hand on Your Heart by Big Bill Broonzy gets such fine treatment from Slim. Such a powerful delivery of a blues classic you can feel the audience enthralled with every note. Kansas City Blues is given three different tales of how blues and jazz had such an effect on the city. Again, it’s like having a history lesson told three different ways through blues and jazz. As well as performing songs by other artists Memphis Slim also does his own stuff. Three Women Blues, for me is the best song on the album for it’s sheer force and deliverance by Slim. Add to that a stunning rendition of I Just Want To Make Love To You this is really a superb live album. I could listen to this for days on end.

Stephen Harrison

Steve Hill The One-Man Blues Rock Band In Concert

Manhaton Records

With a musical career spanning over twenty-five years, Canadian multiinstrumentalist, Steve Hill has brought out probably the best live release this

year. Recorded at La Chapelle Quebec in November 2017, this is a fourteen track compendium, by one of the best exponents of the one man band musical genre. Listening to him, it is just mesmeric to think he plays all instruments himself. There are no holds barred here and no place to hide, no over dubs or other gadgetry included, that’s the way this man and his adoring fans like their music. Singing style is rough down and dirty, plays drums with his feet and his guitar playing is raw and traditional when required. Rhythm All Over opens things, with a masterclass of how he operates. Moving on to, The Collector which is heaving with emotion and vitality, a song of resilience. Damned is straight rock as it should be played, with biting vocals and guitar shredding. Tough Luck lowers the tempo a slow acoustic take with gritty lyrics and this time with added harmonica. Never Is Such A Long Time has a jaw droopingly good guitar solo, a love story of sorts. The sound throughout is crisp and clear and he manages the percussion in ways that no other one man band does. Emily softens the tempo, a more melodic tune. Then he offers up some Delta blues on Nothing New. His slide playing on Out Of Phase is astonishing and vocals are raspy. Dangerous is another rocky highlight and he even finds energy to cover Jimi Hendrix Voodoo Child (Slight Return) at the end. Those already converted will love this but to the uninitiated go out and get this, a wonder to behold,

Colin Campbell

Various Artists

Mighty Instrumental Hits R&B Style

Rhythm And Blues Records

This is a tough one to review as what can I possibly add to the huge amount of material already written about the

Andy Watts Blues On Fire

Independent Release

I’m familiar with Andy Watts as an outstanding guitarist with his regular band Blues Rebels, so was very pleased to receive a copy of his solo album to review. It would be easy to assume this might be a typical guitarists solo album from the title, from the fact it contains half a dozen covers, some being instrumentals and by the similarity that Andy has to SRV on the cover image. All of those assumptions absolutely do this fine release an injustice. What we have here is a collection of classy performances, tasteful guitarmanship throughout and superb production and arranging. Opening instrumental Full Throttle sets the tone, a lovely jaunty tune with the unexpected brass section giving it a wonderful Texan feel, something that comes to the fore across the whole project. Title track Blues On Fire follows with guest Joe Louis Walker nailing the vocals to the mast. Andy’s playing is subtle and understated allowing all the other instruments space to shine, and shine they do. The Peter Green composition Looking For Somebody is up next. Vocals this time by the highly respected Ilan Hillel who’s interpretation

reminds us of how great those early Fleetwood Mac albums still are. The SRV instrumental Riviera Paradise is simply sublime, the addition of Gregory Rivkin’s trumpet taking it to a different dimension. Special mention for Eyal Klein on keys on this too, just perfect. I really enjoyed Ron Young singing JJ Cale’s I Got The Same Old Blues, it reminded more of the Captain Beefheart version rather than the original, not a bad thing in my book, but once again Andy’s playing is tasteful and classy, more about feel and interpretation of the song than being flashy or overblown. Next is Voodoo Chile, like many I think I’ve heard so many poor covers of the Hendrix classic to last a lifetime. Never fear, this isn’t one of those. An energetic vibrant delivery with Blues Rebels Dov Hammer delivering the vocals with aplomb. The old Jericho Jones number Junkies, Monkies & Donkies from 1971 is then given the Andy Watts treatment with original singer Danny Shoshan proving he still has the chops. A slightly psychedelic feel but made to fit perfectly into the overall vibe. Final track is another Hendrix cover Who Knows. Treated respectfully and Rivkin’s trumpet again adding something new to the mix. This is certainly an album I’ll be returning to often and hats off to Andy Watts for creating a situation where so many top-quality musicians can shine and for avoiding so many potential pitfalls in such a classy way.

Steve Yourglivch

masters of big band swing, Basie, Ellington, Hampton, Gillespie and Goodman? Then factor in Ray Charles, Booker T, Little Walter, Jimmy Smith, James Brown and many more wonderful artists spread over four CDs, a hundred and seventeen tracks and you can begin to understand my problem. As the title indicates there is not a vocal to be heard throughout. Instead we are treated to some wonderful music covering the years 1942 up to 1963. All the major labels are represented here but a lot of the smaller outlets have the best and most interesting cuts. The extensive notes

Brother Dege Farmer’s Almanac

Psyouthern

WOW! Yes I do mean that. Every now and again a record comes along which just grabs you by the ears and absolutely demands that you listen to it over and over. I love this completely. It is fresh, challenging and yet at the same time totally familiar. Strange how things work out but as with a previous review the album opens and closes with instrumentals Partial

To The Bitters 1 & 2. Again they are both kind of wild-west cinematic in grandeur and throughout the album the slide playing is excellent. I think it fair to say that broadly speaking this is a concept album opening a window to the hard life of the backwoods and those scratching a living out of the poor soil of the dustbowl States. Lyrically descriptive with a raft of musical tapestries the characters just jump right out at you. From the blurb which came with the album it appears that this Louisiana native

include recording dates, composer, artist, original catalogue numbers and chart entry number/date. Wait I hear you shout, surely there are vocals from Ray and James! Well on One Mint Julep there is what only can be described as a shout from the band whilst James growls a bit and at the beginning of Night Train calls out some station names so that’s about it. This track is also included by Jimmy Forrest the writer and it for me is by far the better version. It is much more redolent of a hot steamy night in the Deep South and therefore by extension a far sexier piece.

Old Time Shuffle Blues is piano led by Lloyd Glenn, whilst The Huckle-Buck is so far away from the pop crossover single of my teens by The Royal Showband as to have come from another planet. There are just so many great tunes here that at times you could be overwhelmed but you’ll be dancing and smiling so never mind.

Graeme Scott

Matty T Wall

Sidewinder

Hipsterdumpster Records

has had himself what could be best describes as a troubled life having been through more rough experiences than you can imagine. However out of those times he draws on a wealth of knowledge to write some cracking tunes. The Shakedown, No Man A Slave, The Early Morn, Bastard’s Blues and Whiteboy are all brutally honest. Maybe that comes from the personal or perhaps the observational but whatever the source vein Brother Dege is a great writer. Is this a happy album? Hell no! It is dark and rich in realism of a country where there are huge extremes in human existence. Life on the edges of society is tough and this superb album allows just a wee insight into that world, a world that Brother Dege has brought brilliantly to our doorsteps.

Graeme Scott

Matty T Wall is another Australian guitar slinging virtuoso performer who has targeted the Blues as his route to fame and fortune, on this release he is supported by Rick Whittle and Stephen Walker on Drums and Bass respectively, he has additional guest performers who add some horns and strings on one or two tracks but the main thread of the band is the three piece rocking Blues format. The opening instrumental track Slideride starts like a formula one car initiating its DRS, a breathless guitar fuelled couple of minutes which sets the tone nicely for the rest of the album albeit Matty does throw in several slower more laid back tracks, of particular note are Sam Cooke’s Change is Gonna Come and the self written Ain’t That The Truth on which Matty shows that he is a competent vocalist with a soulful touch. I perceive Matt’s forte to be the driving Blues rock sound which is evident on the cover of Going Down which is one of the heaviest versions I have heard of this song, as noted above there are several slower more melodic songs on the album on which Matt demonstrates there is much more versatility to his music than just guitar slinging, the song Something Beautiful has incorporated all aspects of his music with the core song being closer

to Pop than Blues but the closing guitar solo brings it back into the rock stream. There is some sparkling lead and slide guitar throughout the album and clearly Matt has looked to add some variety to his musical output which he has definitely achieved, going forward he may need to carefully manage the balance between the driven rock formula and the more laid back material. This is Matt’s second album release and it clearly highlights improvements in both his vocals and song writing following on from his debut in 2016, very promising.

Adrian Blacklee

Kat Riggins In The Boys’ Club Bluzpik

Described as “the spiritual granddaughter of Koko Taylor”, Miami born Riggins blends blues with hip hop, rock, pop and gospel, all of which come together as she belts out the opener, Try Try Again. Guest guitarist Josh Rowand also features on Troubles Away with a sublime finger pickin’ solo while Kat sings about drinking her troubles away. The powerful ballad Hear Me is pure Etta James meets Tina Turner but with Riggins’ distinctive, piercing vocal sound. The pop rock Second To None features the talented Darrell Raines on guitar and keys, the latter simulating a horn section. Albert Castiglia is lead guitarist and shares the vocals on Kitty Won’t Scratch, one of the album’s many highlights and a contender of blues song of the year. The driving rocking, harp infused Johnnie Walker and the slow burning Don’t Throw Me Away are close behind. The four photographs on the album portray Kat as a confident, no messing, whisky drinking, cigar smoking blues woman capable of busting down the door to this boys’ club. With

Curse Of Lono As I Fell

Submarine Cat Records

I remember this bands’ previous album which made a big impression and was so listenable. Here we have something of a ‘soundscape’ of an album in concept and performance. It took me by surprise, but it had me riveted to the speakers with the sounds they emitted along with the production levels. Curse Of Lono come from the man who was largely responsible for the original Hey Negrita. Felix sounds like he has been through induced hell and back, and even though he is over all that it does not let him escape completely, but it does have an impact on the wide-reaching creativity we experience here. The sleeve is a better-quality Digi-pack than many and the twenty-fourpage booklet is also well done, good images and lyrics. The album opens with Valentine, striding bass guitar and voices in harmony singing of “I got a bad trip for your valentine”. A lovers title gives way to images of death as they

sing “I got a dagger for your lover’s heart” and ends suddenly after a searing guitar solo. The Way To Mars vocal sounds more in line with Velvet Underground as the song bounces along, again neat guitar break, clapping and off to Mars. I’d Start A War For You toddles along with foot-tapping ease and bursting soaring guitar break over the bubbling rhythm and haunting harmonies. Lots of hidden subtleties in the soundscape that ends so suddenly. I am loving this album but finding it hard to call it a blues album. Where the guitar comes out to play it is so effective as it soars and slides its’ way through the sometimes dreamy and other times lyrically gloomy and threatening songs that do not sound that way until you focus on the words. If there is a favourite track it is Blackout Fever with it’s almost Wild Thing bass lines, Lou reed like vocal and wonderful guitar work.

Toby Ornott

the outstanding Blues Revival band alongside her there is no limit to what Riggins can achieve as she rightfully takes her place alongside Hart, Schorr, Fuchs and Magness in the pantheon of great contemporary chanteuses.

The Bishop

Ted Hefko And The Thousandaires Gas Station Guru

Onager Records

Ted Hefko was born in Madison,

Wisconsin but studied saxophone at university in New Orleans. After several years playing in New York City he has now returned to New Orleans and Gas Station Guru, on which he wrote most of the songs, is his fourth album. The music predominantly has a relaxed, easy-going vibe but perhaps rather too much so at times and songs like Tell Me The Truth can feel a bit aimless, a bit uneventful. The Next Train, which features guests Lance Caruso and Latasha Covington on accordion and rub

BLUES Top 50

board respectively, is somewhat livelier than most of the tracks and the versatility of the band is shown on the interpretation of New Orleansjazz pianist Clarence Williams’s Ain’t Gonna Give You None O’ My Jellyroll which features a lovely piano solo by Joe Welnick. There’s also a competent version of Billy Joe Shaver’s weather-beaten Ride Me Down Easy, a drifter’s song, and a disappointingly dull version of Steve Goodman’s City Of New Orleans. Guitarist Mem Shannon guests tellingly on Two Vices and Hefko himself plays effectively on tenor sax and clarinet and is a pretty hip-sounding singer.

Trevor Hodgett

Connor Selby Made Up My Mind

3MS Music

Connor Selby describes himself as a “guitar and music fanatic for as long as he can remember”. Having first picked up a guitar at the age of eight, he has been working and honing his craft to reach this point; his debut album, Made Up My Mind. Released by 3MS Music, a company created and run by musicians, this seems to be the perfect place for Selby as this whole of this release just drips with quality. Whether it is his vocals, his guitar playing, the quality of the songs themselves or the overall production, this is a truly superb body of work for a debut album. There is a degree of maturity here which is rare in someone so young. Connor is heavily influenced by the Blues guitar work of many of the old school, citing Clapton, both in the Bluesbreakers and Cream, Kossoff, Green and Moore as well as the Kings, (B.B. Freddie and Albert) amongst his favourites, yet there is also a great deal of alternative influences in his music, from Soul, R and B and Gospel and even Country and Western. Sadly

there is no information with this promo copy to tell us of supporting musicians or of what instruments Selby plays, just the list of eight tracks, weighing in at around 38 minutes. The title track opens the album with mode setting bass thumping before simple yet scenic keys and guitar fill out the sound for a song telling of lost love and a need to move on. Possibly the best track on the album follows, This Old World, a funky tune that has more groove than the Grand Canyon. Simple yet so effective, I defy you to sit still, I keep returning to this song as I love the feel of it. Throughout there is some quality guitar work. See It Through reminds me of early sixties R and B, a Shirelles meets Spector type of pace and activity, and then the pace changes completely for You Hurt Me, a slow Blues that oozes with a Peter Green feel. There is only one word to describe this album, “quality”, as this is lining up as my album of the year, so now to see him in the live environment.

Merv Osborne

Victoria Ginty

Unfinished Business

Blue Door Records

Formed in the Spring of 2015, Victoria Ginty and her band Ladyhawke have been getting a lot of notoriety around the Florida area. Victoria is the leading lady with a voice as sultry as silk and very evocative of classic soul singers. On this new release there is an eclectic mix of styles and genres spanning eleven tracks including three covers. There is passion galore on this classy release. Title track, Unfinished Business fuses flintiness with a finer bass line. There is a Gospel edge to, Take Me Down, starting with a haunting acapella style then Victoria testifies, a redemption song. Hard To Move On conjures up

relationship break up, things move on, some gutsy guitar on this mixing with resounding vocals. Highlight song has to be You Don’t Love Me No More, full of angst and anger by the betrayed woman, it is punctuated full of bitterness just divine. This flows freely into the Jimmy McCracklin cover of Every

Night And Every Day

a slow driving guitar solo brilliant on this by Grace Lougen, harmonising with B Decker’s Hammond organ. Give It Up is an upbeat number showing Victoria’s powerful vocal range. Again there are Gospel intonations on Water, co-written by Michael Alan Ward a slow paced grower of a tune. Covering Terrance Trent D’Arby’s Sign Your Name is difficult but the band takes a Latino stance on this and it’s an interesting reinterpretation. Another highlight is Lying (In Each Other’s Arms) another cover, blues full of soul here, straight from the heart. Do Me Right rocks along with a catchy chorus and trombone solo. The release finishes with The Blues Found Me; this is another warning tale of choices people make. Highly recommended, a tonic for your soul.

Colin Campbell

The Swinging Dice Let’s Pick Up The Tempo Celebration Days Records

The Swinging Dice, play with a swing and their second album Let’s Pick Up The Tempo reflects the heart and soul of the band. The band are from Picardie and have toured Europe with an up tempo vintage jump jive vibe. The music they love to play is captured across the eleven original tracks including two instrumentals. They certainly do pick up the tempo on an album that will have the whole party dancing, laughing and having fun. The groove is deep with broad with bass lines and guitars that lick the

Elvin Bishop’s Big Fun Trio Something Smells Funky Round Here

Alligator Records

Well Elvin has done it again, brought out another really highly polished slice of rhythm and blues with punch, vigour, tongue in cheek lyrics but more than that, just that feeling of real fun. His second release with his two handpicked troubadours, Bob Welsh on guitar and keyboards and Willy Jordan on cajon (Box shaped drum) and vocals is a follow on from their much lauded first release. This is a powerhouse trio make no mistake, they blend so well on this ten tune tonic. Title track is a real statement of intent to upset particular political interests. Lyrics are smart with a funky passion. Higher And Higher the Jackie Wilson cover grooves

and slides with Willy’s falsetto scale at one point outplaying the original. He also belts out Ann Peebles I Can’t Stand The Rain very well, a good addition to this organic release. Elvin revisits his own tune Right Now Is The Hour with duelling vocals and guitars with Willy which is stripped back and full on. Another Mule takes the listener to New Orleans a laid back melodic tale of a cheating partner, sweet guitar work and bold vocals. Blues with soul on That’s The Way Willy Likes It blends in with next track devoted to the keyboard man on Bob’s Boogie. Stomp is another instrumental with incredible slide that keeps the tempo up a pace. Lookin’ Good is a homage to getting older. Here Elvin tells his story of how lucky he is to be here. Piano mixes in well with the narrative. Last track is My Soul with Andre Theirry on accordion a real eclectic gumbo of sounds mixing Cajun and Chicago with Willys full throttle vocals, leaving the best to last.

Colin Campbell

this catchy band, Seul, and our dancing shoes are fired up once again. This is a feel-good album high energy dance music that is full of authentic energy captured in the music.

Liz Aiken

Mike Fall Born In A Different Time

Independent

lyrics into shape as we shout out long live rock n’ roll of this calibre. They open with a honky tonk piano refrain as the say I’m Gonna Take A Train. We will be joining on the train journey and explore your music. With the tempo rising the music is getting into the swing as they launch into Swing Time. Where is the dance floor? This is made for dancing not sitting and listening to you want to move with the beat and swing those hips. Then the click of the finger and slower timing

of Annie as we hear Pierre on vocals this is a darker number giving the album a range of sounds and keeping the listeners interest. With music that inspires memories will always fit into collections of people who are inspired by blues, swing and more and It’s Alright captures the mood perfectly slow and smooth cools the tone. The title track is a party track that makes sure that you are in the mood as they sing Let’s Pick Up The Tempo. Now it is the final track from

This is a slightly unusual album. Not musically but for the inner sleeve details. It’s the first time I have seen the lyrics with verse 1 verse 2 chorus and the bridge explained where they fit into the song. I like that. I like that a lot. Musically this is an exceptional offering. Born in A Different Time is the first track. One is immediately transported back to the 1920s in downtown New Orleans or downtown New York. Blues/jazz at its finest. I Can’t Trust Nobody No More has such powerful lyrics and a very powerful delivery effortlessly guided along by the upright piano inclusion. A man howling his tale of woe ably assisted by this awesome group of musicians. Who Do You Think You Are has a definite Minnie The Moocher feel about it, great backing vocals complimented by even more harmonica playing by Fall himself. I Can’t Get Satisfied propels you too a juke joint with strong whiskey and smoke whirling around the room. Without taking anything away from Fall and the band this could so easily have been performed by Billie Holiday herself. It’s that good. That in itself is testament to how good this album really is, not least because all lyrics music and arrangements have been done by Mike Fall. The last song on the album Story of a Man does exactly what it says on the tin, a tale of a man’s struggle with life’s adversities and pain. This may not sound anything special from a blues tale but when you realize that Mike Fall is from

the south of Sweden you then understand how effortlessly he makes you feel at home in the deep south of New Orleans. It is very hard to pick a standout track on here because the album is littered with them. I cannot say anything else except do yourself a favour and add this too your collection. Enjoy. I certainly did.

Stephen Harrison

Keith Stone With Red Gravy Keith Stone With Red Gravy Independent

First things first: Crazy In Love With You, one of the finest slow blues this reviewer has heard in some time, is by itself worth the price of the CD. It’s an aching blues with wonderful lead guitar, fine piano work and a sax solo to die for. Point two: virtually every other song on this album of New Orleans-inflected blues and funk is also a winner. When Red Gravy began, the musicians playing behind Stone changed virtually from night to night, in true New Orleans fashion. But then Stone assembled a group for a brief tour of Florida, and suddenly everyone realised that, instead of backing musicians, he actually had a band. Everything gelled. That’s the line-up used on this album: guitar, keyboards, bass, drums, sax and slide: The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And Stone’s vocals are authentic blues. All 10 songs are originals, credited to Stone and the band. That cohesion shows on every track. Ain’t That The Blues is marked by the superb interplay of guitars, including stellar slide, and excellent keyboards. Love Done Put Me Down has a funky beat: ‘Love, love, love done put me down/Guess I’ll pack up my suitcase/Put my feet to the ground,’ Stone sings. You ain’t Got Nothing is a slower song with a darker sound. ‘You Ain’t Got Nothing/

Nothing I want,’ he croons in a song marked by a great sax solo. And BlueEyed Angel has a very funky beat augmented by drumming that suits the occasion perfectly. ‘Well you take me up to heaven and I don’t have to leave my room,’ Stone sings. Perhaps the weakest track is Red Gravy, a song about a New Orleans culinary delight. This reviewer is not a fan of food songs. But come on in, the music’s fine. Again, the song has a funky beat. The electric organ is punctuated by fine rhythm guitar and piano. Lyrics aside, this song will get your

feet tapping for sure. This album’s tasty from start to finish. A wonderful addition to any blues collection.

M.D. Spenser

Purple Bluze Without Any Doubt

Purple Bluze

Purple Bluze are a three-piece Austrian Blues band led by Harald Federer who plays some funky guitar and undertakes all the vocals, as well as producing, recording and writing all the material on the album, he

Eric Lindell Revolution In Your Heart

Alligator Records

Upon hearing the first track I had a feeling of west coast laid back introduction to the album. Shot Down being the opening track is surprisingly short for an opener but effective nonetheless. Writing all the songs and playing all the instruments except for drums, Eric Lindell is certainly a very accomplished singer-songwriter and musician. As the album progresses you get more of a Laurel Canyon 70’s feel that makes for very easy listening. Heavy Heart is a perfect example of this. This track is a mix of laidback groove and earthy blues that gets better with every note. Big Horse for me is the finest track on the album. Smokin’ hot guitar sharp lyrics and a storming beat, I’d love to see a band around him performing this live. Awesome lyrics and great playing combine to make it stunning. From there to the next track Pat West, you are brought back down to Sunday morning easy listening with the Sunday papers

and a mug of coffee. There are plenty of short catchy tunes here but don’t be put off by that. As with Kelly Ridge, a short toe-tapping ditty at 2.24 long it really put’s a smile on your face does this. Deviating slightly into the country blues style on Millie Kay, Lindell is joined on piano by Kevin McKendree. Showing the diversity of song-writing and adaptation in arrangement I really like this song. Wonderful mix of vocals and instruments running all through this album makes it one of life’s pleasures. Ending the album with The Sun Don’t Shine which is a very cheery upbeat number. Guitar, harmonica, great vocals, and fine lyrics make this a fine way to finish a fine album. This being the 4th album released by Eric Lindell. I shall certainly be delving into the back catalogue of this truly unique artist.

Stephen Harrison

states his influences among others include Jimi Hendrix, Deep Purple and Free, their styles are not directly evident on this release though. The centre of attention of the album is the epic nine minute plus song interestingly titled Sorry For Your Headache which includes a haunting Gospel style vocal backing and some tasteful lead guitar, mixed in with a free form jazz framework which includes a guest appearance from Francis Key Scheidl on Keyboards, another interesting track is To Cast Prudence To The Wind which includes an original word offering from the late great

John Lee Hooker, it is fairly spooky to hear his “Boom Boom Boom” vocal especially as it is in stark contrast with the rest of the track but it works well and catches your attention. What makes this album so interesting is the variety on offer while it all sits under a loose Blues Rock tag there are elements that surprise you and is one of those albums that definitely grows on you with repeated listening, Harald sings in English and does it very well, his lyrics are good but it is just some of the song titles that are challenging, the opening track is called There’s An Alien In My Café! I

George Bowley and Laurie Dupuis

Guitars In Sync

Sync CD

When I was discovering music in the mid-1950s I found a 78rpm in my Dad’s record collection called Vaya Con Dios by Les Paul and Mary Ford. It was so unusual and ethereal I almost wore the disc out. Laurie Dupuis is George Bowley’s youngest daughter, and together they’ve been recording for over three decades in the pristine style of the great Les Paul and Mary Ford. This isn’t a blues album. Yet the blues as we know it today (and popular music) owes much to the pioneering work of Les Paul. After all, one of the greatest

Gibson guitars bears his name. Les Paul was also a champion of the art of overdubbing and multi-tracking. There’s a detailed description of these and other revolutionary techniques in the detailed sleeve notes. Whatever Les Paul and Mary Ford achieved has been well replicated here. In fact, in 1997 Les Paul himself called George and Laurie ‘the only two people who have duplicated the sound that Mary and I had in the 1950s.’ From the opening track, Some of These Days, we’re led through a jewel box of sound and arrangements including I’m Sitting on Top of The World, a fine performance of Patsy Cline’s Crazy, and, I’m pleased to say, Vaya Con Dios. This is beautifully played and engineered, relaxing music which puts the Les Paul guitar on its original pedestal. Musicianship plus authenticity - it’s a powerful combination, and it works.

Roy Bainton

believe this is the band’s third album release and besides being enjoyable it offers a lot of promise, Harald Federer is a very talented musician and this release showcases him well and will put Austrian Blues firmly on the map.

Adrian Blacklee

Billy F Gibbons

The Big Bad Blues

Snakefarm Records

Billy F Gibbons returns with a bluessoaked collection of songs, some well-known, some less so, some originals. Safe to say that some of you good people who got into the first clutch of ZZ Top album releases may well like what is happening here. Missin’ Yo’ Kissin; gives that reverbed boogie sound we know and love, with muscular drumming and rounded emphatic bass. Gibbons knows exactly how this stuff ought to sound, fuzz and delay to the fore and @ 1:30 a harp run that sounds exactly right. On to My Baby She Rocks with the harp – some of it’s Billy and some James Harman to the fore and Billy hitting a Jimmy Reed rolling beat. Mental images of shapely females dancing in Southern clubs just cannot be resisted! The guitar lines are unhurried and sharp, the backbeat always there. You could hardly sound more jukebox. Second Line is a lively chug and addictive as hell, would certainly suit any ZZT release. One of my favourites on this set and the guitar is drenched with T-Bone Walker licks, albeit with that gritty lower register smoking away. Of course it’s Muddy Waters that the song Standing Around Crying brings to mind, and for me, Johnny Winter maybe. Here, Billy whacks on the reverb and picks up a slide and sings it throaty and straight. I think the drummer has heard Big Eyes! Let The Left Hand Know is another Reed moment, the beat loud and steady

and the vocal heartfelt and relaxed, a great listen. Bring It To Jerome brings back memories of Bo Diddley ep’s, Gibbons giving a pronounced sinister bite as the rusty guitars grind away over the trilling harp. That’s What She Said rocks like a bitch, a weighty lope making this my favourite cut. Mo’ Slower Blues adds piano to the grimy ensemble, to great effect. Next up is Hollywood 151 a sprightly nod to Elmore, surely? The old traditional Rollin’ & Tumblin’ has been done by all and sundry. The best I ever heard was by Captain Beefheart with the Strictly Personal band, back in the day. Gibbons tackles the tune at breakneck Winter speed, that pounding group sound doing the number justice. Closing tune is Crackin’ Up a lovely rhumba with guitars on amp tremelo setting and a Coasters approach to a Bo song. It’s one of those records where not one lick or tone couldn’t have been heard in the Sixties but that’s no crime, is it?

Pete Sargeant

Dom Pipkin

Smokin’ Boogie

The Live Bootleg Sessions

Independent

So you like some boogie piano!? We seem to have a bunch of fine players around now and one of those is this cheery chappie Dom Pipkn who almost sounds like he fell off the end of the keys during the opening track here, Willie Dixon’s Big Three Boogie, but saved himself and ran the notes back the other way. One man and his keys can certainly entertain you as is evidence here. The fourteen tracks here were recorded during his Smokn’ Boogie tour. I’m not totally sure but I think you can only buy this CD from him at a gig or online. The one original track here is The Landlord Blues, starting as a

JCM Heroes

Repertoire Records

Music fans who grew up in the late 60’s with a liking for some jazz in their rock had US acts like Blood, Sweat & Tears and early Chicago but in Europe Colosseum was the band to see, so when a new album featuring three former members was announced it was great news. Who was to know that the album, intended as a tribute to former band members and contemporaries, would end up as a memorial to Jon Hiseman who passed away soon after its release. The album is a trio performance with Jon on drums, Mark Clarke on bass and Clem Clempson on guitar; Mark handles most of the vocals, Clem chipping in on a couple of songs. Melodic tunes include Gary Moore’s Rivers and Jack Bruce and Pete Brown’s Weird Of Hermiston; heavy rock comes in the second Bruce/Brown number Grease The Wheels and Ida Cox’s (via Humble Pie) Four Day Creep and there is a torrid slow blues in Graham

slower, tumbling piece it soon sets off and does have a slight Keystone cops edge to it, lovely and made me smile. Curtis Mayfields’ Louisiana features and tells how he wants to settle down in his own home town but ends all too quickly for me. Titus Turners’ All Around The World finds Dom causing us to smile more with his interpretation. It was good to hear You Know It Ain;t Right from the boogie piano for sure. Little Walter wrote a cracker there! Dom winds up this set that was selected from five of his gigs through tours in 2016/17 with I’ll Be

Bond’s Only Sixteen.

As

well as being a magnificent drummer Jon also composed music and lyrics and many of the songs here are his: Yeah Yeah Yeah from the Ollie Halsall era Tempest is superbly catchy and the powerful instrumental The Inquisition takes you back to the jazz-rock era, like vintage Al DiMeola; The Kettle (from Colosseum’s Valentine Suite) is reprised as a tribute to the wonderful sax player Dick Heckstall-Smith. Perhaps the most poignant track is Larry Coryell’s The Real Great Escape which, in the sleeve notes, Jon recognises as being about death, obviously not knowing how sad those remarks are now. The musicianship throughout is first class and the combination of blues, rock and prog will gain nods of recognition and enjoyment from many BM readers.

John Mitchell

Seeing You. I hope a few more events will give Dom and his Boogie fingers the chance to play for you soon.

Toby Ornott

Brigitte Purdy Still I Rise

Independent

Los Angeles born and bred, Brigitte has a strong and flexible voice, which is well showcased here on a nicely versatile collection of ten nicely original blues and soul numbers, the result of a close collaboration with southern

Californian guitarist Dave Osti, and with a very tight band in support, with organist Drake Shining of the Sugaray Rayford Band very much in evidence and adding a strongly individual touch. Brigitte herself can range from the straight Texas blues shuffle of Home Is In My Heart to the impassioned deep soul of Last Time, taking in the likes of the tough Get It Understood, the 70s soul inflected Blues Angel, with a very clean vocal a little akin to Minnie Riperton, and the modern, breathy R&B ballad approach on the attractive If I Could (think of latter-day Tina Turner in her mellow moments, if you can, for this one) along the way, whilst the title track is an excellent slow-build ballad. Blues purists might expect to go for the BB King tribute Lucille Don’t You Weep which is a strong number, though musically not quite what you might suppose – there are some nice gospel touches alongside the more expected guitar licks. Then again, Louisiana’s Kenny Neal supplies some appropriate harmonica playing to the opening, tough, romping ‘Hoodoo’, which also sports some fine slide guitar. This CD is nicely focussed throughout, though with plenty of variety and always listenable and enjoyable. Fans of the modern blues will definitely find a lot to enjoy here.

Norman Darwen

Jack Blackman Too South For Heaven

Tuery Records

As an example of the capabilities of Jack Blackman, this album is a pretty good showcase. Singer and songwriter, not to mention his guitar playing ability and you have a full deck here. This young man has an abundance of talent, probably unfairly since it is a bit inequitable for one man to have so many gifts and this c.d. is all his own work with some help in the

mixing. The album opens with Watch Me Fall and features quite superb guitar work and vocals which have an almost “Dylanesque” character. If this is the standard he produces then he is not going to fall under any circumstances. Track seven No Stranger To Misery was lyrically the most profound for me, allied to his dexterity on the guitar I suppose you could say it was a favourite of mine. That said all of the tracks were of a quality that would justify the purchase of this album. It seems almost churlish to highlight individual tracks as being particular favourites since I enjoyed the full offering. Overall though track eight also touched all my senses with Maybe I’m Wrong and the title is almost an oxymoron since I don’t think either Jack Blackman or me are wrong. The c.d. is a sort of cross-over of folk, roots and acoustic blues which only further highlights in clarity his ability as an all-round performer. At his relatively tender age, you’ll hear a lot more about this musical maestro and if you see him near you then get along to the gig, it will be worth your while.

Tom Walker

Travis Bowlin Secundus Independent

Travis Bowlin is an exciting young artist that I feel sure we will be hearing a lot more of in the near future. Secundus is Latin for both the second and for being favourable or lucky, fitting as this is Travis second full length release. He really seems to have found his feet and gained in confidence as a writer and as a performer. He is an excellent guitarist with a very good vocal delivery. The album opens with Strange Vibes, a rolling funky number with a Wilson Pickett feel. In The Worst Way is next. I like the slightly menacing rhythm

intro to this gritty rock blues work out. Dancin’ With The Devil Again is high quality straight ahead rock. Travis has more strings to his bow though, All Over Again is more restrained, a bluesy tale of regret. Vicksburg Blues is more traditional, a dirty low down blues augmented with an outstanding piece of harp adding to the feel. Casaurina Sand has a sultry almost jazzy thing going on that sits nicely in the overall album. Slow Cooker Man is the closing track, one of my favourites on here and one I can imagine as a live showstopper, it builds on its dirty blues opening to a full crescendo. This is a very strong, very enjoyable album with clear, crisp production and it’s great that contempory young gifted musicians like Travis are connecting with and keeping blues alive.

Steve Yourglivch

Billy Hector Some Day Baby Ghetto Sure Music

Billy Hector is a veteran guitarist with roots in Asbury Park and describes himself as “a workingman’s musician”. He has released sixteen albums to date and the release Some Day Baby is definitely one to be proud of. It opens with a blues funk number entitled Wizard Of Babylon, which has some powerful horn backing and some powerful guitar work, leaving the listener in no doubt about the strength of the music about to come. Some Day Baby, the title track, has a simple heavy bass riff, which continues throughout the song and is again accompanied with very meaty brasswork and some more great guitar work from Billy, this time making great use of the wah wah pedal in conjunction with his vintage Fender Stratocaster. I’m not sure if Billy is serious with his invitation on the next track to get Butt Naked and Funk, but it certainly

Luke Winslow-King

Blue Mesa

Bloodshot

This album touches on so many genres and styles that it is difficult to know what to expect next. Except you can expect more finely crafted and beautifully played music for track after track. Luke Winslow King has a soft voice, very expressive and works well whether he is singing a ballad like Blue Mesa or a boogie such as Leghorn Woman. He is also a very capable acoustic guitarist and songwriter – all of the songs here were either written entirely by him or co-written. So, to the music – there isn’t a weak track on the album, no filler and nothing thrown in to try and make a statement. The album opens with a hugely soulful piece, You Got Mine, a wonderful guitar line from Roberto Luti and a sweet whispering organ from Mike Lynch – reminiscent of Ry Cooder of Into the Purple Valley era – and that

leads into the freak out boogie of Leghorn Woman with touches of CCR and a swing that just cannot be ignored. Break Down The Walls has really grown on me for its intense softness and inner power. Winslow-King has been in New Orleans since he turned 19 years old and the Crescent City definitely has its hooks into his music – just listen to a number like Chicken Dinner and try to imagine that it was written anywhere other than NOLA. Personal favourite though is the title track – a slow Blues with real warmth and a sense of space, wistful but regretful together. I found the album intensely satisfying, a really pleasant surprise when there is so much dross about.

Andy Snipper

Ben Poole Anytime You Need Me Manhaton Records

conjured up some interesting images as I listened. That apart, it’s a really funky track that will without doubt get played in many a seedy downtown bar and is probably destined to appear as a soundtrack to some bar scene in quite a few films to come. Hit The Road slows down the pace a little and is a very controlled piece of playing from both the guitarist and the backing horn section. Busy Man returns to a funky blues groove and has an infectious beat. Moonlight in Her Eyes is a much more rocky number, with some very deft guitaring, with great use of distortion on both the guitar and vocals. Bareback is a great blues shuffle instrumental à la Stevie Ray. It

really pulls it off and is a real showcase for Billy’s virtuosity. Jolene is another riff-based rock number and is again accompanied by some choice horn backing. Alabama Bound features some great harmonica playing from Dennis Gruenling in duet with some lovely slidework. The traditional song On Your Bond is a rocky slide guitar based spiritual, with a message for us all, but delivered with feeling. The other tracks on the CD all bear listening to. This is an excellently produced album from someone who deserves to be much more well known than he is. This CD is for you, particularly if you like the funky side of the blues.

Steve Banks

Poole returns with a new studio album, almost entirely own material therein and production by drum ace Wayne Proctor. I think I have known Proctor some twenty years now and his forte is capturing a crisp but rich sound for many artists, in the studio. He listens to the songs and creates an enhancement for each composition, working much in the manner of a tailor fashioning a garment from cloth. Because every artist has a different vocal timbre &/or phrasing approach, this does call for some acumen and effort. A quick look at the titles hints at songs on The Human Condition than any tales of gnomes and sorcery. Starting track Anytime You Need Me uses a steady funk tempo and Ben’s voice is definitely in the Train/Maroon 5 range which suits the choppy beats and deep bass runs of the tune. Take It No More features grinding Hammond and fuzztone guitar for a fat sound whereas You Could Say brings in UniVibe tones for a very American sound for the instrumentation but not the vocal. I Found Out The Hard Way is steady but eerie and has some lovely almost confessional vocal work. The fuzzy motif of Further On Down The Line sure makes it sound like a set-starter, a Stevie Wonder tinge? Dirty Laundry is of course the old Don Henley workout taken here as a deliberately concise tempo, for impact. Start The Car is naturally a driving song and sounds like a good setlist pick. Don’t Cry For Me works in Cray territory with exquisite bass and a moody vibe. Let Me Be brings a filthy, rusty sound and might be the most heartfelt song here? The 3-D production does bring it home. Last cut is Holding On, a heavy groove, a real band sound and my favourite inclusion on this meaty collection.

Pete Sargeant

Big Apple Blues Manhattan Alley

Stone Tone Records

I considered myself very lucky to have had to review the 2015 release, Energy, by Big Apple Blues. That album was consistently on my system and to this day is still a favourite. So imagine my joy when I discover I have the follow up release, Manhattan Alley to review, like a small child with a bag of sweets I couldn’t wait to unwrap the CD and put it into the player. The result, another blast of genre crossing music. Big Apple Blues don’t do lyrics or vocals, a positive in my eyes, just five incredibly talented musicians, all with a taste to take the lead if necessary, but all geared to enjoy the swirl of instrumental that they create. Theirs is a fusion of styles, whether Blues, jazz, soul, funk or rock, rolled into one but always with a solid backbeat that defies the listener to ignore it. Based around the core of bass, drums, guitar and Hammond B3, the addition of guest musicians truly adds to the mix. Think 70’s Crusaders when Chris Eminizer flies away

Buddy Guy

The Blues Is Alive And Well

RCA/Silvertone Records

Getting in touch with your own mortality comes hand in hand as years go passing and now at the prime age of eighty-one Buddy Guy is doing just that again. Sequencing fifteen new songs written or co-written with Producer and drummer Tom Hambridge at Nashville, this his eighteenth studio release, he just keeps breathing life into his music and keeps

with his sax and the addition of congas, shakers and tambourine on all but one track gives the feel of polyrhythm’s to the whole. As with Energy, I struggle to pick out any track over the others, all tracks being originals and just like the 2015 release, draws its inspiration from the life of New York City, the album was recorded live in one big room. The energy throughout doesn’t let up, Jim Alfredson on keyboards a master whirlwind of vitality, laying thick swathes of sound over the drums of Barry “the Baron Of Blues” Harrison and the bass of Admir “Dr Blues” Hadzic. The closest to a Blues is Love As I Know It, a slow burner that mixes emotion with tasty guitar from Zach Zunis. There is only one fault I have with this release boys, I love it and some tracks fade too quickly, in fact I gotta say the album ain’t long enough!

Merv Osborne

in on harmonica with deft style, a highlight track, with Buddy’s narrative, blending well with laid back piano by Kevin McKendree. Drinking songs continue with the syrupy smooth funk on Whiskey For Sale, Rob McNelley nailing it with slide guitar, the funky riff overall doffs a cap to David Bowie’s Fame. When My Day Comes is a haunting ballad and is full of verve and rhythm and class musicianship. Nine Below Zero ebbs and flows with a Chicago beat. End Of The Line showcases the Muscle Shoals horn section on a traditional stomping swampy blues track, the fretwork by Buddy is beyond compare. Keeping the blues alive is the thing with the title track and is a very positive shameless message the track is mellow with a very strong message. Probably one of Buddy’s best releases to date, emphasising his right to be a blues legend, just brilliant depth and tone a pure joy to behold.

Colin Campbell

Carolyn Fe Sugat Ko

Carolyn Fe Productions CD

the heart of his blues style beating on this wonderful journey. Starting with A Few Good Years, his vocal tone blends in effortlessly with his distinctive guitar tone, a feature throughout this release. When you can call on pals like Jeff Beck and Keith Richards on the wonderful track, Cognac you just know it will leave a smile on the listeners’ face and adds to the blues legacy. James Bay duets on the call and respond Blue No More and You Did The Crime has Mick Jagger joining

The title comes from the Philippines phrase ‘iyong sugat ko’ (pronounced sue-gat-go’) meaning ‘my wound’. This CD offers a powerful contemporary female perspective of the modern world by a dynamic vocalist with her finger on the pulse of the ‘fake news’ and ‘Me Too’ generation. All ten songs are her original compositions. Her voice is authoritative and thrilling, especially on the dramatic Jerusalem’s Thorns, assisted only by almost sinister drumbeats. From this gospel flavoured plateau you’re dropped headfirst into the guitar-driven blues of Bring You Water, followed by the soaring, wild commentary of Howzat. There’s such a range of scintillating style here, from the

easy-going funk of Wanna Say we’re

Through to the final track, the beautifully sung anthem, Prayer. Hearing recordings like these makes one realise what a wide horizon the blues offers a talented artist, and Carolyn Fe makes full use of all the possibilities. If you like your blues with more brains than brawn, then this woman delivers.

Roy Bainton

Cherry Lee Mewis Voyage

Independent

Described as a 7-track EP with an additional 3 Nashville produced bonus tracks, this sounds more like a fullscale album, celebrating 10 years of seriously good music from the Wales chanteuse and her co-writer/guitarist Max Milligan. The jaunty opener Come Back Home breezes along nicely courtesy of Lee Vernon’s scintillating blues harp. One Night Stand Boulevard is a slow burning reflective song, the atmosphere heightened by the tasteful, intricate guitar interludes. The country feel of Living The Dream further highlights Max Milligan’s considerable guitar skills. Cherry Lee bares her soul on How I Fell Out Of Love, the anguish in her voice almost unbearable. The lyrics of the beautifully arranged Naked Truth are reminiscent of Paul Simon at his best. The tempo and temperature rise with Elmore James’ I Can’t Stop Lovin’ before the first session ends with a memorable, highly emotional version of one of Scotland’s greatest folk ballads, The Water Is Wide. The bonus tracks are a mixture of soul, country and western and southern rock with Mewis swaggering through each genre with ease. An honest, sincere and confident performer, Cherry Lee Mewis continues her musical voyage into a second decade with maturity and panache.

The Bishop

Cole Cole

Rawtone Records

Mark Cole is such a seasoned journeyman within blues and rock’n’roll that in making this record of own material, he scarcely needs to be concerned about proving his skills. He can just fix on giving these songs as much impact as they may merit. Being truly multiinstrumental helps, of course. You may well have heard Cole in Sons Of The Delta. It’s down to the song quality, then Solitary is the lead cut and sprays tremelo’d guitar riffing into your ears over a soft funk beat. The vocal is clear ant not too ‘American’ in inflection. The backing vocals sound superb and the piano chording steady and rich, the drumming very nimble and light-touch. A strong starter and yes, amigo we all need a little time on our own coming up to three minutes a nice guitar break happens before the singers return. On to Dessicate Me Baby with its down-home guitar and trilling harp, something of an early Taj Mahal vibe on display here. Cole is a confident singer but avoids corny mannerisms. Love Will Make You Blind has a relaxed late-night tale about a rogue heading for grief. Get this one to Georgie Fame, Mark! Bon Ton Boy is a swamp boogie that maintains its pace but doesn’t quite convince, needs a fatter sound and some rimshot fireworks. Let Me Down is all banjo riffing and backbeat, needs those backing singers though. Water Will Rise is not a comment on utility pricing, but a dark slide outing over thunder sounds. The band handles this well and it’s stirring tune, maybe my favourite on this collection. Misprint Formica is not a title that has been used before, as far as I am aware. Its syncopated arrangement is curiously catchy. Wouldn’t make a bad set starter, Honeyslide is a weird one all right, with a bizarre spoken start

then settling into a soft stomper with the extra singers back and layering. Banus Rain is a tad filmic, as if looking for the next Emmanuelle movie. A rather cool interlude, to be honest it doesn’t need the vocal. Out On A Saturday Night exhorts us all to get away from the home TV on a Saturday evening. Strictly Come Dancing does that for me, mate! A good slide tone throughout this rocking number. Had Our Day is a sombre closer, almost like a lullaby, an understated vocal. Sad but pretty. An album that refuses to go where you think it might and a minor treasure for that reason alone.

Pete Sargeant

Grand Marquis Brighter Days

Independent Grand Marquis is a horn-based band founded in 1998 in Kansas City which draws on the traditions of their home city (where Count Basie forged his reputation), blending jazz and jump blues with soul, gospel and rock influences. Vocalist/sax player Bryan Redmond fronts the band alongside trumpet and trombone, the bassist switches to sousaphone on some of the jazzier pieces and drums and guitar complete the line-up, most of the band providing backing vocals. Opener Another Lover is an interesting hybrid with a soulful feel, the horns bringing Chicago to mind and the lyrical ‘rush’ early Springsteen while the title track Brighter Days is a fastpaced waltz with jazzy horns and a dramatic slide solo from guitarist Ryan Wurtz. I’m On Fire shares a title with another Bruce song but is a rhumba featuring trumpeter Chad Boyston before Night Shift, one of the tracks on which bassist Ben Ruth switches to sousaphone to fill out the bottom end. We are definitely in New Orleans territory here with Bryan making his

alto sound like a clarinet and Trevor Turla blowing up a storm on trombone. We remain in the Crescent City for It Don’t Matter which works some of the more modern NO funk style into the mix, all the horns featuring strongly. Ain’t No Spark swings attractively and Bad Seed may just be the pick of the bunch here with a really attractive horn refrain over light as a feather rhythm work, Bryan singing of his “mood swinging like a wrecking ball that long ago came off its chain” and delivering a great sax solo. The album closes on two covers: Jimmy Cliff’s Many Rivers To Cross is beautifully done, the horn-drenched version accentuating the song’s gospel qualities, making a logical link to the band’s interpretation of Down By The Riverside, a song of hope and positivity that goes right back to the Civil War era, here played in 20’s jazz style. Anyone who appreciates horn-driven music will enjoy this disc which is well worth tracking down.

John Mitchell

Josh Smith Burn To Grow

Inakustik

There probably isn’t anything we might regard as a ‘typical Blues Matters’ CD, but if there was, this ticks all the boxes. Florida’s Josh Smith has all the guitar-vocals medals on his chest; the order of Bonamassa, the DSO of Albert Collins, Clapton’s VC (oh, all right, stop trying to be clever…). He has a fine blues voice, and as a guitar player he drives every one of these eleven self-penned songs with the skill of a jet pilot. For example, there’s a superb atmospheric solo in Through the Night which elevates the composition to a great height. The arrangements are hefty, guaranteed to satisfy any modern blues appetite, complete with nice backing

Mudslide Charley Words & Bones

Gut Bucket Records

This is an excellent refreshing eclectic Blues album by this Missoula Montana based fivepiece band who play the Blues the way I believe it should be played, with grit and straight from the heart. They have been quoted as saying that their inspiration comes from the era when the likes of Howlin’ Wolf & John Lee Hooker brought together rural blues with modern electric instruments. The eleven self-written tracks are all very strong and already sound like Blues classics! The album gets off to a great start with Starting To Scratch a cracking driving blues written by multi-instrumentalist Phil Hamilton, who excels on the harmonica as well as providing some tasteful wailing Saxophone. The other song writers are slide and lead guitarist, Marco Littig, and the bands main vocalist Lee Rizzo. The bands configuration includes a rhythm team of Roger Moquin and Tahj Kjelland who keep everything ticking over while Phil and Marco take the lead roles.

vocals and a band who underpin his talent yet never swamp it. If you like very modern, guitar-driven blues with a satisfying blast of brass, you’ll get that from tracks such as That for You Too, and there’s a fine romantic, slowed down contrast with She Survives, with its choral chorus and delicious chord changes. What We Need is an epic slow blues which will make every air-guitar player reach for his tennis racquet. Is there a typical Blues Matters

Lee’s voice grows on you, initially, I felt that her vocal was too light almost “hippified” but on reflection it suits the band well, she even develops a Janis Joplin growl on the live recording of Death Letter Blues which is one of the standout tracks, especially as both Marco and Phil deliver some scintillating solos on slide guitar and harmonica respectively. The band members are all seasoned musicians and on this album, everything seems to have jelled to perfection allowing them to construct this album which ticks all my boxes, difficult to articulate why it has left such a positive impression on me but one key aspect is the freedom the musicians have with their playing and songwriting. Montana is often referred to as being “wild & untamed”, this perfectly describes Mudslide Charley, please don’t ever change.

Adrian Blacklee

CD? Maybe this is it. If you’re hungry for brilliant blues, this is one hell of a menu.

Roy Bainton

The Little Red Rooster Blues Band Lock Up The Liquor Independent

Get your dancing shoes on and boogie on down to The Little Red Rooster Blues Bands seventh release

Richard Koechli & Blue Roots Company Parcours

Fontastix

This wonderful world of music that we are privileged to enjoy as we pass through life here is a constant source of entertainment. It makes me really cross when I think on how so many radio stations have such narrow top twenty type playlists which they transmit incessantly. Were they to step outside those restricted ideas and just open their ears they would surely discover the wealth of creativity to be found everywhere. So, here we have Swiss born Richard and his band of fellow Europeans, and in full flight with a lovely album of varied styles of Blues and Jazz with just a touch of Soul thrown into the mix.

celebrating thirty years as a band. They play West Coast and traditional Chicago style blues with panache and cheeky style but always full of passion and fun. The frontman and guitarist Kevin McCann has it all and on these fifteen original tracks the band is tighter than ever. They even brought along Anthony Geraci on piano for a few tracks adding to the big sound. 4 O’Clock In The Morning

Eleven songs in English, four in French, and one in Swiss/German, where all bar one, are originals. A very fine slide player Richard kind of half sings, half speaks his way through these cuts in a way strongly reminiscent of JJ Cale i.e. so laid back and shuffling as to be nearly horizontal. That approach works for me and I’m sure you’ll dig Parcours (Route) as well. New Orleans (‘second line beat is gold, it’s so unique’), how true that is, and Wang Ding Shuffle (‘I can’t stop believing in love, but some scars are making me sad’) get us underway. Le Jardin De Tes Sens is simply beautiful as are the other French tracks. The flow and sound of the language just works so well. We even get a little political at one point with Etat D’urgence whilst The Unsung King tips the hat to Tampa Red. So, I do urge you to seek out this varied album as it has class with a capital C written all over it. I must investigate more of Richard’s albums soon.

Graeme Scott

James Cotton. Ready For Goodbye is a tug at the heart strings. There are two drinking tunes, Drinkin’ Wine On My Dime a slow jovial tune and the last track, Lock Up The Liquor, which you can’t stop your feet from tapping, a bar room filler. Thrift Shop Rubbers about “second hand protection” just a joy, who says the blues can’t be fun. Nothin’Left Between Us laments a relationship in tatters through a bleeding harmonica tone, that and Just A Distant Memory sees the band focussing on the raw emotional feel of the bands type of blues. Traditional values with a modern constant approach, a band full of quality, let the celebrations continue, this is blues as it should be.

Colin Campbell

has harmonica legend Steve Guyger to enhance things. Other musicians are, Bob Holden on drums, Jeff Michael on bass and Dave Holtzman adding harmonica to the upbeat bass driven Trouble In The Jungle and the steady rolling Six Strong Men. Opening track Pitchin’ Woo is a piano rag instrumental introducing the band in traditional style, with sweet harmonies. Cotton Mouth says how it is as a tribute to

Tom Hambridge The Nola

Sessions

Superstar Factory Productions

Tom Hambridge is a singer, songwriter, drummer and the two-time Grammy Award winning producer of Buddy Guy’s acclaimed albums “ living Proof” (2010) and “Born To Play Guitar” (2015) with numerous awards to his credit, Tom as also had over 400 of his songs recorded by a list of who’s who of musicians. For this eighth solo album, Tom inspired by the beauty and creative depth of New Orleans ventured south to Parlor studios in uptown New Orleans gathering some of the best players the Big Easy has to offer. With 13 Original songs The Nola Sessions opens with the wonderful easy swing duet Blues Been Mighty Good To Me with Allen Toussaint sharing vocals and playing some amazing piano, Tom’s drums and Kevin Mckendree’s piano keep an uptempo beat on the juke Joint track Bluz Crazy, Sonny landreth on the first of several appearances delivers greasy slide on swamp rocker This End Of The Road with his signature Slydeco

“Bad Mouthin’ shows how much you can accomplish with just a voice, a guitar, and a sterling batch of material.” - No Depression

electric guitar. funky party anthem

I Love Everything is followed with the excellent ballad What You Leave Behind featuring beautiful horns, with more Slydeco on danceable stomp Little Things, Co-written with Gary Nicholson and appearing on Buddy Guy’s Rhythm And blues album, Tom’s version of Whiskey Ghost is a haunting rumba tome of an ex alcoholic “might be Jack black, might be old Jim beam, smiling in the corner saying first ones free “ Gospel rocker Save Me is followed by the cool funky A Couple Of Drops, before slowing the pace for the ballad Masterpiece a picturesque father and son relationship, with more Slydeco mastery we have the driving rocker Me & Charlie all about Buddy Guy’s trusted bus driver Charlie McPherson, Tom’s holding out for lost things and times on the contemporary country ballad Trying To Find It, Faith has soulful vocals and some fine fingerpicking guitar from John Foul but is enriched by the haunting cello from Nathaniel Smith in a beautiful closer New Orleans in all its glory, a bit of everything, very enjoyable Shirl

Steve Howell And The Mighty Men Good As I Been To You Out of The Past Music

This is the third album to be released by these guys but the first with Katy Hobgood Ray joining on vocals. The opening track Bacon Fat features strong vocals from Howell along with great guitar work. This is basically a journey through the American musical genre of blues country blues and gospel, When I Was A Cowboy, originally recorded by Lead Belly in 1933 gives you an insight into how well Howell and Hobgood combine on vocals. A mellow feel but with a strong melodic feel running through it this

Sister Suzie Ain’t No Lady

The Last Music Company

With a vocal sound similar to Imelda May’s, and rambunctious rockabilly and blues sounds, Ain’t No Lady is certainly an album that makes its presence felt. With loud guitars, bass and drums, rocksolid grooves, and saxophone this is one ensemble that knows how to get a party started. A mixture of covers and originals, and soloing duties exchanged fairly equally, this is an album that kicks and screams, from the opening Knock Knock, to Elmore James, Can’t Hold Out, this is energetic music making. Just Like An Old Dog features a cracking piano solo, Sloppy Drunk by Jimmy Rogers

is a classic swing piece, with baritone sax to the fore, and the closing three originals bring to mind good time fifties rock and roll, particularly Desire, and the haunting opening to Big Mistake, which sets up high expectations, before a cymbal crash brings in a final blues guitar. Although no great ground has been broken on this album, it has a great sound, has some good feel-good grooves, and would be best filed under party music.

Ben Macnair

is a great rendition of a fine song. Come Back Baby is another example of a blues classic given another lease of life. Previous stalwarts that have recorded this include Ray Charles and Lightnin’ Hopkins, so the band really needed to be at full tilt. And they are. This is as blues as you can get and is my favourite offering on the album. Assisting Howell on the album are some fine players but the one who stands out is Katy Hobgood Ray. Such a fine voice that blends perfectly with every track that she is involved with. Easy Rider is another Lead Belly song that was recorded in 1925. Legend has it that See See Rider was in fact a farm slave that taught Big Bill Broonzy to play the blues. Shortened too Easy Rider this is a blues tale which once again showcases the combined vocals of the two main protagonists. Bad Luck Blues originally recorded by Blind Lemon Jefferson in 1926 is more

of an upbeat version than the original. It’s very pleasing to hear new life breathed into blues classics like this. The final track You Gonna Quit Me Baby is an excellent way to finish a wonderful album. I’m sure Blind Blake himself would approve of this version to his stunning classic. The album is a fascinating story through American roots blues and gospel.

Stephen Harrison

James House And The Blues Cowboys James House And The Blues Cowboys

Victor

Looking through the promo notes for this album and seeing contributions from the likes of Beth Hart and Joe Bonamassa then you realize that this guy needs to be taken seriously. Having co- written 8 songs

The Blues

Band The Rooster Crowed Repertoire

The Blues Band step back into to the studio for their latest release on the Repertoire label. The full squad is here and ably assisted on some tracks by the talented Paddy Milner on keys. These guys just so love what they do and working together it is a joy to review this new and most excellent release. On first playing I had to get out some of the old albums such as Tramp’s Put A Record On, and John Dummer Blues Band to get some older Dave Kelly vibes as his playing on Rooster took me right back there! Paul, Tom, Gary, Rob and Dave certainly stoke up the good old fires here and you get the warm glow of fine Blues. Shame about the lack of sleeve notes, just a skimpy four pages is a bit of a let-down and the Digi card case is a bit tight to access but the music does the talking. Of the twelve tracks eight are originals, two traditional arrangements by Dave plus covers of Muddy Waters’ Still A Fool, Blind Boy Fullers’ Weeping Willow. The whole set sparkles and tantalises in a good old-time

with Bonamassa on his Blues of Desperation album it’s very evident from the first track Jail House Blues just where his talent lies. A great opener that has everything you are looking for in a blues album. Great lyrics, superb playing and a great band in the Blues Cowboys around him. Arkansas Woman just continues with the theme effortlessly. Long Way Down is just sublime. Backed by musicians such as Mike Bradford

way that a real blues band is still out there doing it for real today! The whole unit are on form and display the thrill of playing with friends and soundly accomplished musicians knowing each other so well that you feel it. Tracks include a strident New Skin Game Blues instantly you know you cannot put this record down. Tom McGuiness song The Rooster Crowed In Memphis tells us a story of the Blues beginnings, nice one Tom! Gary Fletcher then takes the lead on I Am The Doctor and deals with guitar and acoustic slide, bass and vocals as this one shuffles along gently. Dave Kelly takes guitar and vocal on Muddy Waters’ Still A Fool and this oozes along with bursts on guitar. Closing out this set is Even Better, a love song with Paddy contributing lovely organ to the proceedings of tasteful harp, gentle slide and solid easy rhythm, a lovely ending to a highly enjoyable and recommended album.

Alan Pearce

done with the likes of the aforementioned Hart and Bonamassa it’s little wonder how good an album this is. Reviewing albums as I do I am usually lucky enough to be able to pick out a standout track. But for the first time in a long time I can’t do that with this offering Boomerang, the penultimate track on the album only enforces that belief. This is possibly the strongest vocal and the best playing by all concerned but in no way does that retract anything away from any of the ten tracks on offer here. All in all, James House and The Blues Cowboys is a stunning blues album. I for one can’t wait to hear more from these guys. I have thoroughly enjoyed reviewing this fine piece of work so much. Thank you, guys, for a masterpiece.

Stephen Harrison

Sugar Brown It’s A Blues World… Calling All Blues!

Independent

and Kenny Greenberg it just reiterates the long-held belief that if you are a talented singer-songwriter and musician then when you surround yourself with like minded people it brings out the best in everyone. Well Ran Dry is testament to that belief. Upon hearing it I started to wonder if this album could get any better. But believe me it does. It’s like the gift that keeps on giving. When you consider the amount of work James House has

Here we have thirteen self- penned songs by Sugar Brown, a nick name given to him by Taildragger. He is a Toronto based singer and multiinstrumentalist. Originally born Ken Kawashima he learned the blues when he moved to Chicago to study. These songs you feel you’ve heard before and his interpretation and clarity and warmth of these songs just put the listener into a different time. All songs are unique and span generations whether it is Chicago, jump jive, country blues it’s all here on his third release. The sound is the key and he uses technologies from older recordings and these have been mastered by Peter J Moore who helped produce Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes. The band includes accomplished drummer, Michelle Joseph and bass player Russ Boswell.

Backing them Nichol Robertson on guitar, Julian Fauth on piano and Julia Narveson on fiddles and horns. Onto the music, all tracks take the listener on a blues discovery opening with Hummingbird with an up tempo feel, sure to get toes tapping and immediately you get flavours of Booker T and Howlin’ Wolf tones, it’s all in the recording technique of the release. Lousy Dime is a stand out; reminiscent of Tom Waits on full throttle with a divine fiddle twist to boot. It’s A Blues World is faultless it has that gritty edge and heavy tones. Hard To Love has a country blues tinge and gets the listener ready for the biting track Out Of The Frying Pan; the riff on this is masterful. Tide Blues has a haunting refrain, mixing harmonica and saxophone with biting lyrics and Sugar snarls the vocals, a great tune.

Dew On The Grass is a fusion of jazz, blues and rockabilly showing a very tight band. Brothers is last track, this continues the vintage feel and lilting guitar solo blending with smoky vocals.

Colin Campbell

Rhythm X Revival Rhythm X Revival Independent

Australian songwriters John Luke Shelley (Guitar/Vocals) and Johnny Tesoriero (Drums/Vocals) have collaborated and released this their debut album under the band name Rhythm x Revival, on it they are supported by bassist Ben Wicks and Keyboards player Jeremy Neumann who create a full electric band sound. The album includes all original material covering a soulful blues mixture that is very easy

on the ear, the joint vocals are sublime particularly the harmonies which is probably unusual for a Blues band but is a real bonus here as they grasp every emotion while maintaining the pulse of the Blues (Everley Brothers eat your heart out). The standout tracks are the extended songs; the atmospheric The Beast includes some smooth electric slide and Hammond organ alongside some menacing vocals and is as close as the band get to a full blooded traditional Chicago Blues sound, the majority of the material though is more firmly routed in the soulful side of the Blues where the rhythm is the catalyst, the band have been aided and supported by recording engineer Sam Teskey, who as a member of the Teskey Brothers band is a fine exponent of the Memphis Stax sound from the 1960’s. There

are just nine tracks on the album but each one stands up on its own, this is a wonderful debut album by this talented duo who besides their flawless song writing and vocals are very capable musicians, the guitar and drum work is understated but spot on. I have just played this album through start to finish five times consecutively as there is so much to enjoy, admire and discover albeit it is the vocals that continue to be the standout component, highly recommended.

Adrian Blacklee

The Devil Makes Three Chains Are Broken New West Records

This is the US band that Mike Vernon will be kicking off for during their UK tour in September and this eleven track all original album will be part of what they are offering to UK audiences, the band are usually a three piece but have added a drummer for the record and tour and all of the tracks on here are written by the band .Well

presented in a nice CD sleeve with a double sided insert that doubles as a promo window sticker on one side and a full lyrics list on the other. They have a great rootsy, Bluesy sound that changes enough on each track so as not to bore you and I am here to assure you that they didn’t do that with each number telling its own little story, there is no reason for anyone not to listen and enjoy at every level. I will be queuing for tickets at their first UK gig, why don’t you do the same?

Dave Stone

Madeleine Peyroux

Anthem

Decca

Anthem is US singer-songwriter Madeleine Peyroux’s eighth studio album, and as with all the others, it’s packed with beautifully performed thoughtful, often poignant musical observations on the state of the world. There is politics here, but the thrust is subtle and carefully balanced. The title track, Anthem, is the epic poetic work of Leonard Cohen with that wonderful line ‘there is a crack in everything; that’s how the light gets in’. Another superb WW2 poem is sung in French, Paul Eluard’s (1895-1952) heart-searching Liberte, with verses such as ‘On the wakened paths/On the opened ways/On the scattered places/I write your name’. The Ghosts of Tomorrow is a superb slow-jazz infused song which could bring you to tears, and it has a great trumpet solo. Is this a blues album in the way BM fans would expect? No, but it has the yearning of the blues running through it like a golden thread. With a cast of high-profile musicians and scintillating arrangements, this is mesmerising music for the mind and soul. The world’s a better place with Madeleine Peyroux in it. My album of the month.

Roy Bainton

Michael Osborn Hangin’ On Checkerboard Records

If you like wonderful electric guitar, pick up this album. Michael Osborn was lead guitarist for John Lee Hooker for 13 years – and you’ve got to know that John Lee had his pick of guitarists. This album is chock full of outstanding Chicago blues. The album is stylistically of a piece, but the songs are different enough in tone and tempo that they don’t all sound the same. All 10 tracks are originals – some written by Osborn alone, some with co-writers. The lead guitar on It’s Your Move is spectacular. There’s no rapid-fire show-offiness. The guitar is used in service of the song rather than Osborn’s ego – and the music is the better for it. ‘I know I’ll survive even if you decide to leave,’ he sings. ‘It’s your move. I have done all I can do.’ Not that the guitar is the only thing this album has to recommend itself. Hangin’ On features a fine solo on electric organ. Hey Baby boasts great harmonica from Mitch Kashmar. Fallin’ For You, marked by propulsive drumming, really gets a groove going. Mint Gin is a slow blues, driven by a walking bass line and enhanced by electric organ. But the highlight is a guitar solo to bring tears to your eyes. Osborn is a competent singer. One minor complaint is that his accent seems a little too whitebread for the blues. It’s like American television announcer English, with the Rs at the end of words fully accented and every syllable carefully enunciated. In fact, the album’s two best tracks feature Karen Lovely guesting on lead vocals. On When The Blues Comes Around, a slow, rolling blues, Lovely’s singing is as sultry as can be. ‘When the blues comes around, I’m a storm of emotion,’ she sings –and she actually sounds like a storm of emotion. The other is Say I Do, a gorgeous slow blues where, again, she makes you feel the mood. But

it all, Osborn’s guitar playing is stellar. This is as good a guitar album as you’re likely to find for quite some time.

M.D. Spenser

Two Timer The Big Easy Vision Records

A band based in Poznan, Poland, Two Timer describe themselves on Facebook as ‘grunge Blues on steroids.’ Well, that’ll do for starters. Band Members are Wojciech Rudzinski, Piotr Gorzkowski, Łukasz Rudnicki, Ernest Kałaczynski and Max Psuja, and they make a fine, raucous racket, the only criticism on the recording being that the vocals by Piotr seem a little buried in the mix. There’s some outstanding playing here, especially the harp by Wojciech on tracks such as A Letter to Charlie. Everything’s in English, and the lyrics offer a level of poetry you don’t always see in blues rock. For example, the first song, Poetics of Refusal rings true with a nicotine addict; ‘Oh, dear smoke/how do you do? / Sometimes I get lucky / I have power over you.’ Judging by the colourful booklet in the very nicely packaged product, it seems the lads have been Stateside to soak up some additional blues culture. It seems to have worked, but be warned, you need stamina and energy to get through this blistering performance. You get a slow blues breathing space on the thoughtful Let It Go, and on Something’s Missing, but the rest of the time you’ll be leaping around the room. This is Polish powerhouse blues with a vodka kick, so keep an eye out for Two Timer.

Roy Bainton

Keith Johnson Come To Mississippi

The

Roger Hill Band Sorcery – Live!

Sam Records Guitar, bass, and drums, playing a set of the cheesiest standards imaginable, recorded straight off the desk in a provincial club, and quite a few years back at that. Doesn’t sound like a recipe for anything special, does it? Well, in this case, it very much is. This posthumous release sees Roger Hill deliver a CD-worth of the most gorgeous jazz-blues, with ample nods to such greats such as Grant Green and Wes Montgomery. Much of the material qualifies as positively hoary. Nobody needs additional cover versions of the likes of Dimples, St Louis Blues, Brand New Cadillac or Hey Joe. And the vocals ain’t all that, either. But when this man plugged his Gibson 335 straight into his amp, the magic tripped effortlessly off his fingers. Highlights include

opener I Got A Gal, transformed by Hill’s speedy chromatic runs, and a reading of Jimmy Reed’s Baby What You Want Me To Do, for some reason retitled Runnin’ & Hidin’. Steve Gibbons, of all people, guests on Ain’t She Sweet. Hill worked as a musician from the early 1960s until he passed away in 2011. A year with Fairport Convention in the early 1970s was his closest brush with stardom, after which came almost a decade with the Chris Barber Jazz Band. But most of the time he played locally in his native Birmingham. This album is testimony that he should have been far better known than he ever was.

David Osler

Keith Johnson says that his family came from a long line of musicians, from Muddy Waters and his kids to their kids, the great nephew of Muddy Waters he is taking the blues world by storm as the Prince of the delta blues. Johnson is a young man of many talents, he has been playing the guitar for six years, but also plays the keyboard and harmonica, Johnson began his musical journey at church listening to others play, in 2009 he began singing with the Delta Sensations, a gospel group, performing gospel music ever since while turning his focus on the blues when he moved to Delta State in 2012. Come To Mississippi is Keith’s debut album containing twelve original tracks and

one cover, with Travis Calvin, Caleb Armstrong on rhythm guitar, Charles Ross on keyboards, George Mumford on drums and percussion and Chris Parks on bass Keith takes charge of lead & slide guitar, harmonica and vocals, starting the album with The Blues Found Me a mid tempo blues that shows a good voice with some smooth guitar work, Fire a song about burning love includes some good keyboard playing from Charles, Best I Ever Had a modern blues with Keith adding harmonica and slide in bursts, Forgive Me Baby has Keith pleading for another chance on this wonderful ballad with some very nice piano washed over with subtle guitar, the contemporary uptempo blues Juke

Independent

A native of Glen Allen, Mississippi,

Wily Bo Walker Almost Transparent Blues

Mescal Canyon Records

Wily (pronounced Whiley) Bo Walker was born in Scotland but has contrived to play and sing blues (and gospel, R ‘n’ B, soul, and rock) so convincingly that he has been inducted into the U.S. Blues Hall Of Fame. On the strength of the music on this album, it’s perfectly easy to see why. The band’s take on Fenton Robinson’s classic Loan Me A Dime is an object lesson in how to take a well-loved (and frequently played) standard, and make it sound as though it’s theirs, bought and paid for. Guitarist Ed Brayshaw rips out his guitar solo over a tasteful gospel backing vocal sound, taking it to the fade, but only after Wily has poured his entire being into a smoky lost and lonely vocal tour de force. Next is, I Want To Know, written by Wily himself, and he

sounds as American as Jack Daniel’s, and as smooth and traditional. It’s the arrangements that make this album – the careful use of Hammond, the male and female vocals drifting around in the background, this is gospel blues as it should be. Variety is a rare commodity these days, so the steel guitars around Loudon Wainwright’s Motel Blues give Wily a chance to pour his honeygruff vocals over the lines of one of the finest songwriters ever to pen a song. No time to get maudlin – next up is the rollicking swing of Did I Forget, horns bringing the atmosphere from New Orleans into your ears. Sometimes you get the complete package all on one album – the playing, the feel, the emption, the atmosphere, it’s all packed into these eleven gems. The joys just keep on coming, too many to be detailed here, so the strongest of recommendations to acquire this album is sent out to everyone who loves quality musicianship, used to deliver songs written and sung with the deep understanding of someone who has blues in his very soul. This is my album of the year so far.

Andy Hughes

DVDs Fred Sokolow Jamming The Blues

As soon as I saw the title, I had to get it onto my DVD player, so great was my interest, but alas I didn’t have time as I was off to a week-long Music Workshop in Yorkshire and couldn’t take the time to listen, so I took the DVD with me together with my laptop and all the best intentions. Thwarted however because 1. I couldn’t get the disc player to behave and 2. I was so involved in what was such a fantastic week, I didn’t get another chance until tonight and couldn’t get my laptop to recognise the stand-alone DVD player. So, I had to trot down to Argos to buy a new Blu Ray player. I duly raced back home and set it all up, only to find that you don’t get the necessary HDMI cable with the player, so had to race back to Currys to buy one. At this point I realised that this isn’t about me but about another fantastic release from the Guitar Workshop and upon sitting down to watch, it was immediately apparent that this DVD should be on the Christmas wish list for any budding Blues guitarist out there. Fred covers just about anything that you might want to know, and the included backing tracks will keep you busy for months. Yes of course there will be stuff on there that you already know, but if you don’t learn something from this that you can put to good use, I would suggest that you take up drumming!

Joint features good bass from Chris, there’s a nice driving rhythm on Come To Mississippi where we name check the blues greats, I do like the bass line that drives the funky taxi, a solid drum beat grooves Lets Dance a modern mississippi blues, taking the mood down with Gamblin Man another slow burner,

there’s a more southern soul feel too Dirty Dog, next a decent cover of Willie Dixon’s Same Thing followed by Another Wish, closing the album with 3 o’clock an infectious popping keyboard is the core of this jaunty soul/pop number. Modern soulful blues with a good voice.

Shirl

Dave Stone

Tom Feldman

The Guitar of John Lee Hooker

One of the very latest recordings by Tom Feldman, as part of the mighty Stefan Grossman Guitar workshop

series. Regular readers will know that I have raved about the range and high quality of the DVDs that issue forth from the Guitar Workshop and this latest offering is no exception. It is hard to remember but JLH passed away in 2001 and you could regard this as a belated tribute to the man. Tom Feldman is of course much younger but has immersed himself in Country blues since the time that he started playing and is a particularly good exponent of the huge back catalogue that John left us with. As Tom points out, he recorded in excess of 300 songs, many of which were reworkings of older songs, however he tended to favour standard tuning in E and open tuning in A, he played both acoustic and electric, but largely played in the same style regardless. He was notorious for varying the number of chords in any live performance and must have been a bloody nightmare to support! Although of course for the greater part of his recording career he was a solo artist. On a DVD that runs for just shy of 2 hours you will get the chance to learn and play long with 10 JLH songs, and there are several film clips of him playing them. There is of course the well-known high-quality PDF booklet that you can download, giving you a hard copy that includes the TAB. So just to make my usual point once more; another high-quality issue that will be of great use to any would be JLH tribute act!

Dave Stone

Bitten by the Blues Bruce Iglauer, Patrick Roberts

University of Chicago Press

I’m briefly going to name-drop here. In 1981 I attended the Blues Band’s

Tom McGuinness’s 40th birthday party in Greenwich. I was broke and unemployed, but I felt that I had to take a present so I made a sacrifice of giving him my treasured copy of the 1971 Alligator Records LP, Hound Dog Taylor and The House Rockers. In the early 80s the only place you’d hear Alligator records was on Alexis Korner’s Sunday night show on BBC Radio 2. I’ve just re-ordered that album after a gap of 37 years because reading this immensely satisfying book has reminded me of all the primeval blues excitement emanating from that classic and innovative Chicago label. Bitten by the Blues is a chronicle of musical discovery, and in Bruce Iglauer many of us in our dotage will recognise ourselves. Yet as blues fans in the UK, we could never match the rich, raw learning curve he went through. Aged just 20 in 1970, a musical greenhorn infected with the blues, he bravely walked into Florence’s Lounge, in the heart of Chicago’s South Side, the only white lad in the room, where he was blown away by the raw Chicago blues of Hound Dog Taylor and the House Rockers. He knew nothing about business - especially the record business, but 12 months later, in one 8 hour session, Iglauer produced Hound Dog’s debut album. He could only afford to press a thousand copies, but this was the start of a hefty chapter in the history of Chicago blues. Alligator Records would eventually become the world’s largest independent blues record label. Since those days when he went from club to club seeking thrills on Chicago’s South Side, among many more, Bruce has produced albums by Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Professor Longhair, Johnny Winter, Lonnie Mack, Son Seals, Roy Buchanan and

Shemekia Copeland. He also started the seminal blues magazine, Living Blues. Bitten by the Blues is packed with vivid portraits of great artists, colourful recording sessions with charismatic legends. Every other page contains an irresistible and informative footnote, for example Bruce telling the story of how he ran from backstage at a concert four blocks to a pharmacy to get Howlin’ Wolf something for his indigestion. There is also a poignant aspect to the story; whereas in those early days Bruce could nightly do the rounds of numerous blues venues such as Big Duke’s Flamingo, Ross and Ma Bea’s, Tom’s Musician’s Lounge, Necktie Nate’s or The Rat Trap, today that rich cultural landscape has gone. So as well as excitement and inspiration, this is a book packed with a yearning nostalgia for a time and place which we British bluesers could only dream about. If you want to get to grips with the electrifying history of Chicago blues, you need this book - it’s a houserockin’ gem.

Roy Bainton

Cahors Blues Festival Review Cahors, France

14–18 July 2018

Now widely acknowledged to be France’s premiere blues festival, Cahors, in the southwest of the country, always includes Bastille Day, the nation’s main annual celebration, as part of its spectacular package. This year this caused minor problems falling on a Wednesday which meant the festival itself concluded on a Saturday rather than the usual full-weekend, Sunday closer. As a result, crowd numbers seemed lower than usual though the music

remained centre-stage and full-on from start to finish.

In the past, guys like B.B. King and Johnny Winter –who played his last live gig there – have turned up on the festival bill. This year was strong on US blues artists, as usual, with soul singer Bette Smith romping along in her normal Afro-hair and an outfit that looked a lot like a human glitter-ball costume. Her voice seemed strained at times, though she appeared indifferent to this

possibility and roared through a good hour-long performance, as a follow-up act to the guy who almost certainly took the show by storm.

Chicago’s Toronzo Cannon was truly explosive. His set romped through many tracks from his current Alligator Records release, The Chicago Way, while also leaning heavily on some older material from his Delmark recording days and a batch of new songs yet to be recorded. Cannon arrived in Cahors with his usual backing band and delivered an exceptional, raucous and roaring one-and-a-half hour set with

blistering precision, ease, power and shades of one of his heroes, Jimi Hendrix, evident in the fretwork mix.

Canadian bluesman, Paul Deslauriers produced a classy, loudly soaring set with mostly his own material and occasional dips into the tradition with covers of Robert Johnson and Fred MacDowell. His set was a firm festival favourite, setting the crowd up nicely

for the evening’s closing show by Eric Gales. Gales is always full-throttle, hi-energy and howling, with wailing guitar and a clear passion for electrifying, electric blues with a hard, rocky edge. Both Deslauriers and Gales benefitted from an anxious crowd that had spent much of the earlier evening huddled in groups under canvas as an unexpected storm and

driving rain poured down on an empty stage. Obviously relieved to see the show go ahead, the crowd was behind the artists all the way. As a surprise offering both Deslauriers and Gales joined forces for a crack at ‘Catfish Blues,’ a joint effort that highlighted Gales’ mastery and at times left Deslauriers looking slow and behind the curve.

On the down side, one of Europe’s finest blues bands, the Blues Bones from Belgium, were unable to play due to wet stage conditions, a fact that pissed-off both the band and the fans.

Each year, Cahors seems to get stronger, more focussed and, at times, even eclectic in its artist selection. For 2018 the organisers included some unexpected straight-on Rockabilly from a remarkably talented trio from the north of the country, Hot Slap. This is a band that can hack it easily in their chosen musical genre and who turned in a breezy set full of classic 50s-early 60s US rockabilly material to considerable applause and general admiration. From Spain, Johnny Big Stone and the Blues Workers, again kept the event anchored in blues with an excellent set featuring some mighty fine fretwork and vocals from the eponymous frontman aided by a young Spanish songstress, Sweet Marta, a blueslady with a love of Junior Wells and a fine grasp of harp-playing.

Cahors Blues Festival is an annual event held in a delightful, typically French medieval town with an annual billing

Toronzo Cannon by Jan Venning

that pulls in the crowds from far and wide internationally to enjoy four days of mostly old-school live blues. No bad thing these days when many events have a tendency to drift off into in-your-face rock instead.

Iain Patience

Cleethorpes Blues, Rhythm and Rock Festival Cleethorpes

16 June 2018

Solid Entertainment are showcasing their eighth Cleethorpes Blues, Rhythm and Rock festival. Held at the Moon on The Water, a live music venue on the sea front. This is my first visit to the Moon on the Water, which provides a good set-up with a cosy atmosphere and friendly staff. Its time for the music to start and with Peter Scallans gritty Scottish drawl, akin to Brian Johnson, lending weight to a funky cover of ‘Rollin’ & Tumblin’, The Brian Rawson Band got the festival started in fine style. Al Hearton on keys started ‘Think Twice’, a slower-paced blues original with Peter offering softer vocals on a song that went down well with the crowd. I enjoyed the ballad ‘Hard To Believe’, a more soulful blues original giving the band a chance to show off some fine playing all-round; next up a cover of ‘Sitting On Top Of The World’ with some laidback guitar playing from Brian. Trip, Stumble & Fall had a good funky rhythm groove driven by

newest members Jay Jay McMeekin on bass and Todd McCloud on drums, a cover of Frankie Miller’s ‘Double Heart Trouble’ with some fast finger playing and the original ‘Dead Man Walking’ finished the set off with some rocky blues, a good choice of originals and covers mixing styles, gaining a well-earned, warm reception from the crowd. After a short break, The Ryk Mead Band take the stage, the mellow Hurricane Blues with some crafted guitar work and a touch of Robert Cray vocals begins the set; Chicago ebbs and flows round a jazzier beat from Adam Bond on the drums, while new song, ‘Rollin,’ is a funky little number with fine solos from Ryk, guitar, and Steve Cooper on bass. A cover of Skip James’s ‘Cyprus Grove’ is a thumping blues featuring deft guitar work from Ryk, followed by ‘Reservation Man’, another new track and a real crowd favourite. I enjoyed ‘If That’s What It Takes’, a more rock number with a Springsteen/Mellencamp vibe; ‘That’s The Blues’, with its jazzy start was a slower blues featuring some excellent percussion, before finishing the set with a good cover of ‘Wild About You’, an uptempo blues with some dazzling fret work. Overall, an excellent varied style of blues from a solid trio going down well with the crowd. The original ‘Dead Man Walking’, getting a well earned warm reception from the audience. Taking to the stage next was a young 22 year old French born guitar

prodigy Felix Rabin with his band, Niccolo Rebecchi on drums and Vincenzo De-fraia on bass, a blues power trio playing a set of originals and some fine interpretations of classic numbers with ‘Bright Lights’, ‘Big City’, including a grungy Hendrix middle section with a touch of feedback, while original number, ‘Down Our Roads’, gradually built to a frenetic fast-fingered guitar playing that was assured. With great rhythm, the guys were relaxed and tight giving us an enjoyable take on ‘Crossroads’ with some slow finger picking before a heavy riff finish that pleased the crowd. A superb rendition of Voodoo Chile brought the crowd to their feet cheering while Heavy Rain, with husky vocals, was a slow blues giving the crowd time to recover before enjoying some audience participation in closing number, ‘The New Blues’. Great playing all-round resulting in a well-earned standing ovation. After a short turn around we welcomed Ken Pustelnik’s Groundhogs to the stage. Ken has put together a tight group of musicians including Latch Manghat on bass, Sol Latif on Guitar and Chris D’avoine on Guitar and Vocals. From the first pounding drum beat of opening track, ‘Strange Town’, we were treated to high-energy powerhouse blues-rock with more than a hint of psychedelia; the catchier number, ‘Solider’, was played with fervour, inviting the crowd to come alive. The frenetic pace of ‘Garden’, gave

no letting up of tempo from Ken as he drove along into ‘Times’, which included some excellent slide and throaty vocals from Chris. Split, part 1 was a frenzied assault from all angles onto the crowd which they enthusiastically encouraged. More of the same from ‘Eccentric Man’ with some good fretwork and wahwah, finishing the set of with a superb version of ‘Cherry Red’, a popular crowd favourite. With a career spanning over thirty years, top blues harmonica player Paul Lamb brought his King Snakes, Chad Strentz vocals & rhythm guitar, Paul Lamb guitar, Dino Coccia drums and Rod Demick, bass, to the stage entertaining the crowd with some Chicagostyle blues originals and covers, we were treated to variations in styles from the swinging instrumental, ‘Lamb Jam’, to be followed by the slower ballad of ‘Adopted Child’; but it was a cover of Lee Dorsey’s ‘Ya Ya’ that truly fired up the crowd with some good call and response, while ‘Jumping Little Julie’ featured fine harp blowing. Another crowd pleaser had Paul singing an upbeat cover of ‘Preaching the Blues’, before he joined the crowd on the floor playing ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’. ‘Sometime Tomorrow’, a growling soulful original was another crowd pleaser, before closing the set with ‘Tore Down’. Another good set. After a delay, Danny Bryant’s Big Band took to the small stage. It was a bit of a squeeze but they started the show by winning over a patient crowd with the instrumental

Collins Shuffle. Having so many band members the music could easily have got lost in the sound, but credit to Danny and the band it didn’t, with the brass section augmenting Danny’s aching vocals and searing guitar on the ballad, ‘As Years Go Passing By.’ ‘Holding All The Cards’ offered great guitar licks and some superb trumpet. A good drum beat and mellow piano give way to heavier guitar work on ‘Isolate’ with solos for most of the band on ‘Stop Breaking Down’. We were given a full-band sound on the impressively played, ‘Temperature Rising’, with a blistering guitar going down well. ‘Prisoner Of The Blues’ had a more soulful rhythm and feel with some more excellent brass and meaty guitar playing; slowing the pace with acoustic guitar and piano intro, ‘Painkiller’ builds with heartfelt vocals, horns and piano before the drums kick in and Danny powers his way through one more guitar solo, and Stevie flourishes into some superb Barrelhouse boogie piano for an excellent boogie blues encore. A superb finale to another musically varied day of blues, rhythm and rock, put together in a well organized day, seamlessly run by the ever-efficient Steve from Solid Entertainment.

Andy Lindley

blues festivals in the USA, Waterfront Blues is a fulltilt, four-day blast that always features much of the very cream of US and international blues music. The 2018 event was, as always, crammed with top-dollar performers and wonderful live sets that simply exploded with quality at times.

Now a regular fixture, local lad, Curtis Salgado turned in a couple of truly inspired sets with his current guitarist, Alan Hager. Much of the sets inevitably featured tracks from the pair’s current Alligator release, Rough Cut, a release that has been widely admired. Backed by a full band, Salgado and Hager turned in polished sets that were always powerful and commanding. Soul, gospel and blues diva Ruthie Foster delivered a stunning set fuelled by her strong fretwork and remarkable vocal strength producing the best set I personally have heard from her to date – and I’ve caught her live show many times.

4–8

George Thorogood and the Destroyers were always going to set the place alight with their blistering rockinfused take, and as a festival closer, drew a huge crowd of clear long-time fans and ardent believers. For me, the set seemed to lean just too heavily on the rock-end of the blues spectrum, though it would be churlish to deny the evident quality of the band and the performance generally. Soul music was unusually well represented this year with Johnny Rawls pushing the

Curtis Salgado by Jan Venning

edges with his always smooth vocal delivery and grasp of a genre he now represents at the very top of the soulchain. Rawls is a guy who has been around for many years and drew a huge crowd for his mid-afternoon set under a blazing sun that seemed to have no impact on his own bounce and strength. As Rawls was surrounded by fans, selling CDs and signing autographs following his set, McKinley Moore, a native of San Francisco, stepped out with his Stax/ Otis Redding tribute band and a set that genuinely recreated the sound of the late Redding with an extraordinary power and vitality. This is a guy who can hack it in spades and with eyes closed, it could have been the great man himself. This was a great surprise and discovery in many ways, and he caused Johnny Rawls, with whom I was chatting, to pause from his signing and selling to enjoy he guy’s music.

Cajun and Zydeco always have their place too, and this year another regular outfit, the local Too Loose Cajun-Zydeco band had the crowd on its feet, bopping along to their hi-energy set while Chubby Carrier and his Bayou Blues Band also turned in a crackling performance that satisfied lovers of the music. This is music that owes its roots to blues but shares that delicious swampy New Orleans vibe and feel with squeeze-boxes, guitars, fiddles and keys ripping it up at every turn.

On the acoustic side, Bentonia’s Blue Front Café/ Juke Joint owner and guitarist Jimmy Duck Holmes produced a typically eerie set, minor-keyed with shades of Skip James, Jack Owens and others floating around him; and his spare approach to the blues, maybe much as it should be. He was joined on-stage by another, younger practitioner of the sound, Mike Munson, a guy who picks with a Charlie Parrlike fervour and flavour. Yet another local, the wonderful Mary Flower turned in a couple of great sets, highlighting her astonishing mastery of ragtime-blues and traditional acoustic blues music. Joined by one of Canada’s true blues legends, keysman, David Vest, for one set, the pair delivered what turned out to be one of the most important, enjoyable and masterful sets of the entire festival. This was music that sparked and spun with instrumental mastery of the highest quality imaginable.

Electric guitar wonderkid, Kid Ramos, also featured with a guitar masterclass followed by appearance as a member of a new band, The Proven Ones. This is a band that gave a debut performance at the event and relied heavily on their first album, Wild Again. The band includes some of the finest sidemen in the business with drummer Jimi Bott, bassist Willie J Campbell, and Anthony Gerraci on piano and keys. This is clearly a band to look out for, a

sure-fire winning outfit.

Youth was represented by one of the US’s current favourite duos, Larkin Poe, two young woman who have bags of class and ambition together with a power and purpose that grabbed that attention of the appreciative crowd with ease. Blueslady

Karen Lovely, another local regular at he festival, also produced a powerhouse of a set and, as a local and regular repeat festival performer, took the crowd with her every step of the way.

Looking back at the event which I often attend, one band simply shone out, head and shoulders above the rest though it was a closerun thing to pick out the festival best: The Mavericks were simply stunning. Their wall-of-sound approach to performance lifted them higher than the rest for me personally. Leaning on their current release, Brand New Day, the band smashed through the hot, humid evening air to deliver an absolute masterclass. Of course, some would quibble about the band’s true blues credentials but if good music is what you want, this is a band that delivers at every level, easily the festival surprise and highlight, as far as I’m concerned. And I know I was not alone in this opinion, as the huge crowd roared their support and approval, while Curtis Salgado also sat alongside in the side-stage area, watching their set with rapt attention and clear pleasure.

Iain Patience

Deep Blue Sea

Harpenden Blues Festival 2018

13 May 2018

So, here we are at Harpenden Blues Festival and on come Deep Blue Sea. Question: Is this blues?

I am going to say it’s great news for the blues. The sources of their songs can be traced back to some form of blues – there’s Jagger swagger, a bit of Aretha, Jimi, Dylan and Son House – but also Amy Winehouse, Tedeschi

Trucks and a wide range of other influences. These songs take you to new places like

the flesh pots of London or the industrial waste land of the north or states of mind like depression and alienation or joy, love and loss. That’s pretty impressive for a vocal, guitar, bass and drum combo. But combo is the right word. They combine to create something stronger than the four, something deeper. And that’s what good music is about.

I’m not going to list the songs, this is a review of the live performance so let’s pick one moment in one song. Dre’s soulful voice breathes life into the words, her hands, never still, add drama and

effect to her awesome vocals (it’s weird when the songs finish and she speaks so softly in her gentle Californian accent and engaging giggles – a strange contrast).

Iago on guitar is playing a staggering solo which builds and builds. You can feel a tension. Amanda is behind the drum kit, with a gleeful smile belting out the beat harder and harder. Iago throws his hat at Graeme who dodges it and suddenly they seem to double the tempo. Dre is now pogo-ing (yes, there’s a bit of punky attitude about this band)

and the whole thing seems about to fall apart as the crescendo increases. They stop. On a pin. Audience goes crazy. Band laughs and look at each other pleased.

I’m at the back watching, I know the band is recording this for a live album and video and they are hoping to catch a good performance. They aren’t a bunch of session musicians playing the notes – they are stretching things, taking risks, daring to fall on their collective behinds. They want to capture that. They have. The audience knows it’s a great performance and demand an encore. I have to leave before I get chance to tell the band all is well, but at least I know I can get the album later.

Paul Gray

Dik Banovich

Pub Gabariers, Saint Simeux, France

29 July, 2018

Gabariers is a proper bar with a near-British feel set in a gorgeous, riverside location in SW France. Known for its regular live music events, it attracts a variety of both local French and visiting, holidaymakers and second-home owners from the UK community. Many travel considerable distances on a weekly basis just to sit back with a drink and catch generally UK acts covering a range of musical interests from Americana, punk, rock’n’roll and jazz to blues.

Banovich is an acoustic

bluesman from Scotland who was raised in Chicago, where his initial interest in the music developed, but is now a resident of Brittany in the north of the country. Musically, he works the traditional blues, country-blues style of picking but often with a glance or splash of modern Americana slipped into the mix. With a recently released new album out, Hot Cookin Mama, his set inevitably covered much of the material recorded. This included a very finely delivered John Hurt cycle slipping from ‘Creole Belle’ through ‘Richland Woman Blues’, followed by the likes of ‘Careless Love’, ‘Walkin’ the Dog’, and ‘Walking Blues’ always neatly pitched and paced.

Banovich is an interesting guy, a guitar picker and

song-writer with his feet firmly planted in both blues and Americana music traditions, a wealthy combination that often produces genuine pearls when least expected. Following on from his 2016 release Acoustic Roots and Blues, Banovich mixed material from both albums to serve up a cracking dish of modern classics peppered with his own writing in the genre, while always pushed along by his punchy and often fiery fretwork. His live set-list included a range from classic standards like ‘Walkin’ The Dog’ and ‘Walking Blues’ to the folk-roots classic, ‘Black Is the Colour’ and the seldom heard ‘Blues Run The Game’ originally from the mostly long-forgotten and overlooked sixties US writerpicker, Jackson C Frank. The

Dik Banovich by JiCe Sowa

result was a much-admired performance that clearly went down well with the crowd.

Iain Patience

Eric Bibb Savoy Theatre, London

May 2018

Taking the stage solo at first and rolling into the vintage blues ‘Going Down Slow’, Bibb is soon joined by a multi-instrumental stringed instrument player, a bassist and a lively drummer, then treating the audience to some hard-edged material and some softer sunshine stuff. And all parts in between.

The Savoy is a few yards north of the bank of the River Thames and in the week hosts flashy musicals like Legally Blonde and Funny Girl, for the fur stole contingent. With bar prices to match! But gentleman Bibb – the epitome of gentle strength – has little trouble turning the auditorium into his back porch. His stage patter is soft and dry, much in the manner of Randy Newman or James Taylor. And, man, the colours in the music! Highlights include ‘Silver Spoon’, ‘With A Dollar in My Pocket’ and ‘Goin’ Down the Road Feelin’ Bad’. A couple of times, as on ‘Refugee Moan’ performed a cappella, Bibb is overtly political without being preachy. He is only saying what he believes and the crowd respects that.

‘Panama Hat’ swings with an easy charm. ‘Needed Time’ aches with soul and love. Eric’s guitar playing remains

folky and steady, no party tricks or showing off. ‘I Wish I was a Mole in the Ground’ brings smiles around the room and ‘Don’t Ever Let Nobody Bring Your Spirit Down’ has a real Taj Mahal surging bite. The ensemble has a rolling deftness that piles everything on at the right time but avoids stepping on the vocal. It’s an uplifting performance all round.

Felicia Nielsen had opened the show, playing ancient blues songs with her own guitar accompaniment. Her style is fluid if a tad bookish. Surely her confidence can only grow, and Eric’s audience gave her a respectful hearing.

Pete Sargeant

Selwyn Birchwood Denver

4 August 2018

On a pleasant Denver evening at Swallow Hill’s, Daniels Hall, Denver, Alligator Records recording artist, Selwyn Birchwood, re-aligned the planets with a high energy performance of original tunes played on a total ‘nuther level. Birchwood packs relevant now lyrics into catchy melodies, clever hooks, horns, heaps of wah-wah and slide and is blessed with a voice to kill for almost seemed like the next coming. Birchwood, sprung from seeds of Jimi, Muddy and Buddy’s scattered vinyl pods openly gave credit due for shaping his sound from those childhood inspirations. When a teen, the elder bluesman, Sam Sonny Rhodes took

a shine to the eager schoolboy offering a part time guitar gig, taught him the business of music and hammered home the need of a college degree.

Born of a UK mother and father from Tobago, the Tampa native and local college graduate sporting his elegant afro while playing barefoot wowed the small audience with talent and charm. He was clearly enjoying himself as were band members often exchanging smiles among one another and the audience. Floridian bandmates were Huff Wright on Fender Jazz Master, Courtney ‘Big Love’ Girlie behind the drum kit and Regi Oliver blowing rhythm and solos on barisax and an infrequent flute.

‘Ambulance’ was Selwyn’s opening grabber which the band slowly morphed into a journey through jazz, blues, R&B and soul then finding its own way home to the blues rocker of original intentions. Ragged vocals, big bottom bass and sax, big love drums, screaming slide guitar, women, drugs, alcohol, gambling, all just ‘Guilty Pleasures’, ‘And I don’t know what else to tell ya.’

Even the ‘Saved Need Saving’. Righteous guitar solos, gospel flavored vocals with three-part harmonies swept the audience to their feet in a spiritual frenzy, clapping in time or swaying hands to the heavens. Acceptable behavior in what was once the chapel of an old church. Often featured sax man, Regi and the big love dude surprised us with a brisk fife and drum

opening that marched us into ‘Trial By Fire’ amid scorching slide guitar runs and Birchwood’s tormented vocals.

By contrast, gentle strings reported like first rain on a window pane and opened ‘Reaping Time’ for Selwyn’s blustery vocals in a slide heavy number of a man planning to permanently settle a score. A Gibson 335 screamed trouble throughout ‘Haunted. It’ and Birchwood’s sweetly ragged vocals shaped the testosterone-based rocker and played tighter than the sax man’s hat band. Ever the tireless businessman, Selwyn stayed late to autograph CDs and casually chat with those remaining who experienced one of those rare, planets in alignment events on a memorable summer night in the Mile High City.

Darrell Sage

Dom Pipkin

Bulls Head, Barnes, London

August 2018

The historic pub by the River Thames tonight hosts a trip through the piano-based music of the New Orleans quarter. And who better to captain this musical voyage than the ebullient Dom Pipkin. Using the venue’s upright music room piano – a Yamaha U2, easily identified by yours truly from my stint taking them apart and reassembling, but Dom pounds out gem after gem, taking care to put everything and every performer into context for a full-room gathering. We are talking about three hundred years of history, so there is no lack of material as Pipkin has both hands working overtime on the livelier pieces he opts to include. Hence the sonic

parade explains the styles and influences of the likes of Professor Longhair, Jellyroll Morton, Mac Rebennack aka Dr John and the showy genius of the legendary James Booker. Dom’s tales are touching, informative and often pretty funny as he rolls out tales of the eight-eights as only a true fanatic can. Mention of important films, well-known streets and venues pepper the soiree and the audience make their pleasure known on the artist’s major revelations. Stride, boogie woogie, blues, and ballads all get a look in. The evening was pleasantly fluid and satisfying, especially for a solo show. Thumbs up, piano man!

Pete Sargeant

Dom Pipkin by Bill Shepherd

Available September 21

Available September 21

There’s no boogie-woogieblues piano man out there today who pounds the 88s with his conviction.

–Chicago Sun-Times

Available September 28

Miles to Go features 12 new tracks recorded in Vancouver with Colin’s tight touring band, featuring rarely covered hidden gems written by blues legends Muddy Waters, Blind Willie Johnson, & Howlin’ Wolf, along with originals by Colin, including the first single “40 Light Years”.

A powerful new female blues voice that evokes the spirit and grit of Janis Joplin and the contemporary delivery of Beth Hart.

‘‘