Blues Matters 53

BLUES MATTERS!

ZEPPELIN

“It was always the Blues

DAVEY KNOWLES

ROBERTCRAY

”

Jimmy Page

JACKBRUCE

HONEYBOY EDWARDS

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Alan King / Geraint Morgan editor@bluesmatters.com

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‘D’ alan@bluesmatters.com

Contributing writers:

Liz Aiken, Roy Bainton, Andrew Baldwin, Adam Bates, Duncan Beattie, Carol Borrington, Bob Chaffey, Norman Darwen, Jamie Hailstone, Stuart A. Hamilton, Nat Harrap, Mark Harrison, Gareth Hayes, Steve Hoare, Sue Hickling, Duncan Jameson, Philippa le Marquand, Ben MacNiar, Vicky Martin, Martin McKeown, Noggin, Merv Osborne, Frankie Pfeffer, Thomas Rankin, Lionel Ross, Graeme Scott, Andy Snipper, Richard Thomas, Kevin Wharton, Rhys Williams, Philip Woodford.

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Alan ‘D’ Pearce t/a Blues Matters. Original material in this magazine is © the authors. Reproduction may only be made with prior consent of the Editor and provided that acknowledgement is given of the source and copy is sent to the editorial address. Care is taken to ensure that the 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 Please note: Once submitted material becomes the intellectual property of Blues Matters and can only later be withdrawn from publication at the expediency of Blues Matters.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.

Our last piece in this space rued the loss of Borders stores after Virgin and Zavvi had closed in recent years. Our sell through rate there had been constantly terrific. Our ‘export’ distributors have secured new outlets for us to replace Borders and not only that have increased the order by 3,000 copies. We understand that you will soon find us in Menzies stores and other independents across the UK.

To work into this and because of our own in-house re-organisation we have had to effectively lose the months of Feb-March so this issue 53 you now hold bears cover dates for Apr-May and gets us back in tune with our publishing dates at last. This was a necessary step with the new distribution to fit in with their ‘launch’. No-one loses anything but us. As subscribers go by issue numbers you will all still get six issues per subscription period. You will of course notice a few changes in time as we settle into our new pattern(s). New features, style etc.

Our ‘Ed’er’, Darren Howells has left and moved on, hence our re-organisation. We are saddened and thank Darren most sincerely for all his work and efforts these years, his design work has been a credit, his support has been appreciated greatly.

Any material for submission should now ONLY be sent to our PO Box address.

If you need to speak to us on the Editorial side then you will now be able to get an answer from us MonFri 9am-12.30pm & 1pm-4pm.

We thank you all for your continuing support and would ask you to pass on the word about Blues Matters to encourage others subscribe and help us in our work for the Blues. We enclose just a couple of fliers for you to pass on with our thanks.

As it is often said we must all move on and we have been told so many times lately that change is good!

Now enjoy this latest issue and its great interviews and reviews…

Alan & Geraint and of course all the BM ‘team’

CONTENTS

Regulars Features

8 INTERVIEWS

Jack Bruce, Robert Cray, Bill Wyman, Oli Brown, “David Honeyboy” Edwards

The Mustangs, Bex Marshall

18 FEATURE

Led Zeppelin.

35 BLUE BLOOD Feed Me

Woodstock Experience, Johnny “Guitar” Watson, Blues

133 NOW BEFORE WE FORGET Wille Dixon

The Hoax, Larry Miller, Jon Amor, Deborah Bonham, Miller Anderson, Ian Siegal/Matt Schofield, John Mayer, Philip Sayce, Virgil and the Accelerators, Marcus Bonfanti Eric McFadden & Taste…

64 CD REVIEWS

POPA CHUBBY, BILL WYMAN, RICHARD NEWMAN, ROD PIAZZA & THE MIGHTY FLYERS BLUES QUARTET, RUDY ROTTA, THE SNOWY WHITE BLUES PROJECT, WALTER TROUT, DALE STORR, MARSHALL

RUFFIN, THE ANDY SMYTHE BAND, B.B

KING, CHRIS FARLOW, BERNARD ALLISON GROUP, BON JOVI, BARE BONES

BOOGIE BAND, MICHAEL ROACH, LOS

CENZONTLES WITH DAVID HIDALGO AND TAJ MAHAL, ERIC MCFADDEN, TASTE, DELTA MOON, GEOFF ACHISON, HENRIK

FREISCHLADER, JOHN LEE HOOKER, KOKO TAYLOR, LARRY GARNER WITH NORMAN BEAKER & FRIENDS, BEN ANDREWS, BEN WATERS, LUCKY PETERSON, LUTHER ALLISON, MEMPHIS LINDA JANE, THE ACES, NORAH JONES…

In 1977 Page said “It was always the Blues. Scotty Moore and Gene Vincent were influences until I heard Elmore James and BB King and basically that was it for me– a mixture of rock and blues”. Plant observed that he “.....started out with Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Little Walter songs before anything”. Many of their signature numbers are based on ancient Blues riffs, ‘Dazed and Confused’ borrows heavily from Howlin’ Wolf and ‘Whole Lotta Love’ is Willie Dixon’s ‘You Need Love’ on permit.

44 ROBERT CRAY

GETTING THE BLUES

TOP 10

Clare Free’s Top ten Blues Songs of all time!

1. Man Size Job- Koko Taylor- I love this track on two levels. Firstly because Koko was such a powerhouse of a singer, I’ve heard many versions of this track but, for me, nobody else touches the power and grit in her voice. Secondly, it is a blues song that plays with the standard structure of blues tracks which is something that I, as a songwriter, am always keen to do myself. Oh, and I find the lyrics amusing too!

2.

Feels Like Rain-

Buddy Guy I adore this version of this song. It was one of the first blues songs that I remember hearing and I could listen to it on repeat all day long. When I first started playing guitar I used to jam this song at 3 or 4 in the morning with a friend of mine- I’m sure we did it no justice but this song will always bring back happy memories.

3. Playing With Fire- Shannon Curfman There is an awful lot of ‘reheated’ blues with the same stuff being done over and over again which is such a shame. Shannon Curfman stands out to me as being a woman with the same thoughts as me- take the blues ideas and run with them but also draw feels and influences from outside the blues and make it new, fresh (and interesting) again. I picked this track because its talking about Jimi Hendrix who also sent blues spinning in a new direction and so it hits me both on musical and lyrical levels.

4.

Conversation With Collins- Albert

Collins- Without a doubt, Albert Collins has been one of the biggest influences on my guitar playing. I have spent so many hours learning to play Albert’s tracks that I had to have one in my top ten although with so many great tracks it was hard to decide which one to pick. I picked this song because it illustrates so beautifully his conversational guitar lines. I can understand every word his guitar ‘says’ his phrasing is pure genius.

5. Easy Baby- Luther Allison

The whole band on this track just grooves so hard, its killer. I love funky guitar players and Luther is right up there for me. I know this isn’t his funkiest track or even the best track to demonstrate his guitar playing but it is so cool I had to include it. I would have loved to have seen Luther play.

6. Thing Called Love- Bonnie Raitt

A blues shuffle with a rock chorus- I love it what a great combination! I love Bonnie’s guitar playing and voice but I also think she’s a brilliant lyric writer. I like to listen to this song while I’m driving about the place and find myself singing it for the rest of the day. I’m always a sucker for a catchy chorus and use them a lot in the songs I write- Bonnie’s songs have influenced quite a lot of my writing recently.

7. Treats Your Daughter Mean- Susan Tedeschi This is a great track and one that I always enjoy playing. There are many versions of this track but I picked this one because Susan plays and sings it with a lot of emotion. The chords are almost a straight twelve bar but not quite, it’s a little quirky. When we play this track it’s a bit heavier and faster than Susan’s version, and it’s a really fun song to play!

8. Thrill Is Gone- B.B. King If I had to pick just one song to sum up the blues this would be it. BB’s guitar playing is second to none he really makes Lucille (his guitar) sing on those bends and the groove is great. Lyrically I suppose the song is quite simple but part of the beauty of this song is its apparent simplicity. This song always makes me think of my brother- he used to play this song on his stereo when we were growing up. I think at one time we used to play it together with him playing guitar in one room along to the CD and me, in another room, playing along on my guitar. Why we didn’t both play in the same room I don’t know- it’s a good job the neighbours were not too close!

9. Cold Shot- Stevie Ray Vaughan You can’t beat a good Texan shuffle and you don’t get better than this. This track makes you want to move, it pushes in all the right places. I love Stevie’s guitar tone and on this track it’s so pure and the Leslie cabinet gives him the edge that makes this great track sound totally awesome. If anyone defines how a Fender Stratocaster should sound its Stevie, there really has never been a better guitar player.

10. Why Get

Thunderbirds This song has such a feel good factor to it and, again, its catchy. I guess that everyone can relate to the theme in the song. There’s a contradiction between the subject of the lyrics and the toe tapping tempo/feel of this song which adds to the reasons why I like it. I like backing vocals with interesting harmonies and there are some pretty cool ones on this track.

Up?- The Fabulous

FESTIVAL

THIS YEAR’S LINE-UP INCLUDES:

THURSDAY 17th JUNE

Simon McBride

More artists to be announced

FRIDAY 18th JUNE

Popa Chubby

Hokie Joint

Jay Tamkin band

SATURDAY 19th JUNE

The Hoax

Connie Lush

Geoff Achison & The Souldiggers

Primo Blue

Paul Cox & Charlie Fabert

SUNDAY 20th JUNE

Juldeh Camara & Justin Adams

The Stumble Gypsy Fire

Patrick Sweany

The Duncan McKenzie Band

HAPPENIN’

Latest news from our Blues world

OLI BROWN HEADS I WIN, TAILS YOU LOSE RUF RECORDS - 29 APRIL 2010

The eagerly awaited follow up to the debut album Open Road is finally released on Ruf Records 29 April 2010. (But you can pre-order for a copy BEFORE it hits the stores, see bottom of the email) Heads I Win, Tails You Lose features that unique Oli Brown sound; clean guitar, great riffs and a vocal honed by two years of touring that squeezes every emotion from the lyrics. This album shows the quality of Oli’s song writing with tracks tracks like Evil Soul and Speechless, yet he refuses to shy away from adapting his own favourite classics such as Fever and No Diggity Production of the album is by the legendary Mike Vernon (Fleetwood Mac, Eric Clapton, Ten Years After, Freddie King, John Mayall etc)Mike was keen to come out of retirement to work with Oli after hearing his debut CD. Oli has had a phenomenal year; his popularity as a live artist continues to grow and, we hope with this release, there will be no stopping him. Oli’s tour of Europe kicks off in the spring, followed by a 15 date tour of the UK in May under the title of New Generation Blues. The end of a busy six months culminates in Oli’s debut at the famous Glastonbury Festival. The new CD and May tour will be sponsored and supported by HMV and Planet Rock Radio, the latter giving good airplay support along with additional support from Total Rock Radio. A BBC Radio 2 session with Paul Jones has been recorded and the transmission date will be announced soon. Plans for later in the year include tours of the USA and New Zealand before returning to the UK in October. www.olibrown.com

MICHAEL BUBLE Released now a new single ‘Cry Me A River’ on March 15th on 143 Records / Reprise

Grammy Award winner Michael Bublé’s new multi-Platinum album ‘Crazy Love’ has hit the top of the charts all over the world and has already passed 5 million global sales. The latest stage in its continuing success story comes with the release of the single ‘Cry Me A River’ on March 15th on 143 Records / Reprise. ‘Cry Me A River’ is Michael’s emotive interpretation of the classic torch song that has been famously performed by numerous artists including Ella Fitzgerald, Julie London and Joe Cocker. The single is set to reach a huge audience in the coming weeks as it will provide the main soundtrack to the BBC’s coverage of the 2010 Winter Olympic Games. ‘Crazy Love’ is already one of the biggest global album hits of the year. It has been certified triple Platinum in Canada, double Platinum in the UK, Ireland, Australia and Singapore, and Gold in the USA, France, Germany and Switzerland Michael Bublé’s superstar status was reiterated with

photo Tony Winfield

the news that his entire May tour sold-out just 55 minutes after going on sale. Tickets for the tour – which includes two nights at London’s O2 Arena – sold at a rate of over 1500 per minute. The tour runs as below: May 6th – Sheffield, Arena 8th – Glasgow, SECC 9th – Manchester, MEN Arena 11th – Liverpool, Echo Arena 12th – Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena 14th Birmingham, LG Arena 15th – London, The O2 Arena 16th – London, The O2 Arena.

At last, the ‘European Blues Union’ is born!

It’s in August 2009 that the ‘European Blues Union’ was created, and it will no doubt rise to the challenge it set itself: defend and promote the Blues in Europe and throughout the world. Following a first meeting in June 2008 in Parma (Italy), a second conference was organised from the 29th of July to the 1st of August 2009 during the Notodden Blues Festival in Norway. It’s at the Bokesjo Hotel that the delegates came to discuss all their concerns about the world of Blues, exchanging and comparing points of view, studying together how to establish closer relationships between those working actively for the Blues and looking at ways to promote it. This was quite an event since it gathered many European representatives of the Blues community: record label executives, tour managers, promoters, festival organisers, media (magazines, radios, websites). They came from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and you can bet that there will soon be more than 15 countries represented and that the European Blues Foundation will get the European and international recognition it deserves. Paul Jones, BBC Radio 2 broadcaster and musician and Jay Sieleman, executive director of Blues Foundation from Memphis (USA) were key contributors to the conference and it’s Thomas Ruf of Ruf Records (Germany), who put together all the elements necessary to create the foundation during this second conference. The first decision made during this conference was to build a website whose name will be www.bluesyou.com and which will be used as a common platform to present and exchange information not only to artists, organisers and the media but also to all lovers of Blues music. A forum is also being considered. Following the creation of this European Foundation, it was also decided to exchange Blues artists from various countries to perform in festivals. This will give bands and musicians, who’ve never had any contacts with others countries, the opportunity to play outside their own country and give a breath of fresh air to the Blues.

BETTYE LAVETTE BRIDGES

THE ATLANTIC WITH NEW CD ‘INTERPRETATIONS: THE BRITISH ROCK SONGBOOK’

OUT MAY 31 ON ANTI-

BETTYE LAVETTE brings the British Invasion home to its American R&B roots on her latest CD, INTERPRETATIONS: THE BRITISH ROCK SONGBOOK, due May 31 on Anti-. While BETTYE’s Grammy-nominated 2007 disc The Scene of the Crime went to the source to find triumph over her own anguish, INTERPRETATIONS looks to the past this time for inspiration and uncovers common ancestry in seemingly divergent musical paths.

Produced by BETTYE, Rob Mathes and Michael Stevens, the album is a 13-song journey through compositions by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd among others, before concluding right where the very idea for INTERPRETATIONS started: BETTYE’s visceral show-stopping rendition of The Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me” from the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors, which appears here as a bonus track. That performance – which first brought BETTYE together with Stevens (the event’s producer) and Mathes (its musical director) – served notice that BETTYE is no mere singer. As an extraordinary interpreter of song, she doesn’t merely mold a piece of music to suit her tastes; she is a conjurer of deep, emotional truths: “Bettye LaVette punched a hole right through her version of Pete Townshend’s ‘Love Reign O’er Me,’ letting all the song’s emotion pour out in a way that its creators never conceived,” observed the New York Daily News. Townshend himself came up to Bettye after her performance, took her hands into his and said, “You made me weep.”The Beatles’ pre-psychedelic Rubber Soul classic “The Word” takes on an almost religious fervor, while Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” is transformed from a majestic pop song into a stark, almost desperate expression of devotion. Profound alienation becomes intense longing on Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” and the wistful naiveté of The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” matures into a deep and unshakeable lament. BETTYE inhabits these songs, revitalizes them and exposes the humanity that makes these 13 tracks not just pop songs, but enduring works of art. “Now she has recorded ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’ and has done exactly the same – but this time with a much more familiar song. I am truly touched by her picking these songs and can only hope that this album brings more attention to this incredible artist.”

MOTT THE HOOPLE Not Yet Ready To Follow Apollo

Mott The Hoople’s classic lineup reformed in October 2009 to play 2, which became 4, and finally 5 nights at the equally legendary Hammersmith Apollo – a triumphal return marked by ecstatic audiences and rapturous reviews. Since then, the challenge has been to integrate the schedules of the participants and their other projects into some more shows to build on the Autumn’s success Talks had been held and some planning discussed, in the process penciling a booking for Mott to possibly appear at London’s High Voltage Festival on Sunday July 25th, alongside ELP and many others. Ian Hunter, Mick

the news that his entire May tour sold-out just 55 minutes after going on sale. Tickets for the tour – which includes two nights at London’s O2 Arena – sold at a rate of over 1500 per minute. The tour runs as below: May 6th – Sheffield, Arena 8th – Glasgow, SECC 9th – Manchester, MEN Arena 11th – Liverpool, Echo Arena 12th – Newcastle, Metro Radio Arena 14th Birmingham, LG Arena 15th – London, The O2 Arena 16th – London, The O2 Arena.

At last, the ‘European Blues Union’ is born!

It’s in August 2009 that the ‘European Blues Union’ was created, and it will no doubt rise to the challenge it set itself: defend and promote the Blues in Europe and throughout the world. Following a first meeting in June 2008 in Parma (Italy), a second conference was organised from the 29th of July to the 1st of August 2009 during the Notodden Blues Festival in Norway. It’s at the Bokesjo Hotel that the delegates came to discuss all their concerns about the world of Blues, exchanging and comparing points of view, studying together how to establish closer relationships between those working actively for the Blues and looking at ways to promote it. This was quite an event since it gathered many European representatives of the Blues community: record label executives, tour managers, promoters, festival organisers, media (magazines, radios, websites). They came from Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom, and you can bet that there will soon be more than 15 countries represented and that the European Blues Foundation will get the European and international recognition it deserves. Paul Jones, BBC Radio 2 broadcaster and musician and Jay Sieleman, executive director of Blues Foundation from Memphis (USA) were key contributors to the conference and it’s Thomas Ruf of Ruf Records (Germany), who put together all the elements necessary to create the foundation during this second conference. The first decision made during this conference was to build a website whose name will be www.bluesyou.com and which will be used as a common platform to present and exchange information not only to artists, organisers and the media but also to all lovers of Blues music. A forum is also being considered. Following the creation of this European Foundation, it was also decided to exchange Blues artists from various countries to perform in festivals. This will give bands and musicians, who’ve never had any contacts with others countries, the opportunity to play outside their own country and give a breath of fresh air to the Blues.

BETTYE LAVETTE BRIDGES THE ATLANTIC WITH NEW CD ‘INTERPRETATIONS: THE BRITISH ROCK SONGBOOK’ OUT MAY 31 ON ANTI-

BETTYE LAVETTE brings the British Invasion home to its American R&B roots on her latest CD, INTERPRETATIONS: THE BRITISH ROCK SONGBOOK, due May 31 on Anti-. While BETTYE’s Grammy-nominated 2007 disc The Scene of the Crime went to the source to find triumph over her own anguish, INTERPRETATIONS looks to the past this time for inspiration and uncovers common ancestry in seemingly divergent musical paths.

Produced by BETTYE, Rob Mathes and Michael Stevens, the album is a 13-song journey through compositions by the Beatles, Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd among others, before concluding right where the very idea for INTERPRETATIONS started: BETTYE’s visceral show-stopping rendition of The Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me” from the 2008 Kennedy Center Honors, which appears here as a bonus track. That performance – which first brought BETTYE together with Stevens (the event’s producer) and Mathes (its musical director) – served notice that BETTYE is no mere singer. As an extraordinary interpreter of song, she doesn’t merely mold a piece of music to suit her tastes; she is a conjurer of deep, emotional truths: “Bettye LaVette punched a hole right through her version of Pete Townshend’s ‘Love Reign O’er Me,’ letting all the song’s emotion pour out in a way that its creators never conceived,” observed the New York Daily News. Townshend himself came up to Bettye after her performance, took her hands into his and said, “You made me weep.”The Beatles’ pre-psychedelic Rubber Soul classic “The Word” takes on an almost religious fervor, while Paul McCartney’s “Maybe I’m Amazed” is transformed from a majestic pop song into a stark, almost desperate expression of devotion. Profound alienation becomes intense longing on Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here,” and the wistful naiveté of The Moody Blues’ “Nights in White Satin” matures into a deep and unshakeable lament. BETTYE inhabits these songs, revitalizes them and exposes the humanity that makes these 13 tracks not just pop songs, but enduring works of art. “Now she has recorded ‘Don’t Let the Sun Go Down on Me’ and has done exactly the same – but this time with a much more familiar song. I am truly touched by her picking these songs and can only hope that this album brings more attention to this incredible artist.”

MOTT THE HOOPLE Not Yet Ready To Follow Apollo

Mott The Hoople’s classic lineup reformed in October 2009 to play 2, which became 4, and finally 5 nights at the equally legendary Hammersmith Apollo – a triumphal return marked by ecstatic audiences and rapturous reviews. Since then, the challenge has been to integrate the schedules of the participants and their other projects into some more shows to build on the Autumn’s success Talks had been held and some planning discussed, in the process penciling a booking for Mott to possibly appear at London’s High Voltage Festival on Sunday July 25th, alongside ELP and many others. Ian Hunter, Mick

Ralphs, Overend Watts, Verden Allen and Dale Griffin (assisted by Martin Chambers on drums) had enjoyed themselves so much at Hammersmith that they wanted to extend the experience to possibly cover a UK festival. However no practical decisions re: the staging of the show had been reached by the time the festival announced its bill, though Mott were inadvertently included in some of the advertising. Mott are still considering how to present their show in the best possible way, commensurate with the demands of outdoor shows, but at time of writing no final decisions have been made, other than that the band isn’t able to perform at the High Voltage festival.

THE WHIGS Ready To Release Their New Album “IN THE DARK”

The Whigs are getting ready to release their new album, IN THE DARK, March 16th on ATO Records. IN THE DARK is the follow up to the band’s critically acclaimed album MISSION CONTROL which Rolling Stone, NPR, Entertainment Weekly, Pitchfork, Maxim Magazine and The New York Times praised as “two-chord guitar and drums furor worthy of The Who.” An exuberant, no-holds-barred live act, The Whigs followed the release of MISSION CONTROL with nearly non-stop touring, spending much of 2008 and 2009 on the road as headliners and as special guests of Kings of Leon, The Kooks and DriveBy Truckers, to name a few. The Whigs will make their return to The Late Show with David Letterman on April 1st, will make their Late Show with Jimmy Fallon debut April 27th and will hit the road with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club beginning February 26th. To give fans a sneak peek at IN THE DARK www.myspace.com/thewhigs

UPTON FREE BLUES FESTIVAL Three Days Of The Blues 16th-18th July 2010

This year, for the first time, Upton Blues Festival has TWO main stages – the Waterside Stage facing the Kings Head and the Under the Bridge Semi Acoustic Stage, located under the bridge in what used to be our main stage position, which is back by popular request. Over the three days of the Festival we have booked some cracking bands and will be alternating between the two stages from 7.30pm till 11pm on the Friday night and noon till 11pm on the Saturday and Sunday. In addition we currently have nine pubs signed up who will also be putting bands on throughout the festival ensuring that there is something for everyone. The Waterside Stage line up features; King King, Earl Green and the Right Time, The Trevor Burton Band, The Dirty Robbers & Friends, The Tommy Allen Band, Smokin’ Hogs and many more. On the Under the Bridge Stage are;

Dynamo Rhythm Aces, Bex Marshall Band, Dave Arcari, Jon Gomm, Mumbo-Jumbo and many more. Also on Sunday morning are the Gospel Choir which has become a bit of an institution at Upton Blues Festival.

BLUES AT THE FOLD FESTIVALl

The Second Blues At The Fold Festival

Blues at the Fold is a one day festival held at The Fold, just west of Worcester, and this year features The Trevor Burton Band, The Big Blues Tribe, The Dirty Robbers, The Cohen Brothers, Mumbo-Jumbo (now featuring Tommy Allen) and Paul Cowley. Gates open at 1pm, music from 2pm till 11pm, tickets £10 for adults (and £3 for under 12’s), camping available for the Saturday night. Fantastic local beers, wines, ciders and perry’s at this friendly community festival www.bluesatthefold.co.uk

THE BLACK KEYS

Release their sixth full-length album, entitled “BROTHERS” on 17th May on V2 / Cooperative Music

Recorded at Alabama’s legendary Muscle Shoals Sound with additional sessions at Auerbach’s Easy Eye Sound System in Akron and the Bunker in Brooklyn, the album sees production duties handled by The Black Keys, along with shared duties between the band, Mark Neill, and their old friend Danger Mouse, who lends his skills to a new track. Tchad Blake brings his sonic excellence into the fold to handle mixing duties. Muscle Shoals has produced iconic recordings from the likes of Aretha Franklin, The Rolling Stones, and Wilson Pickett, among many others. Carney admits Brothers is the album they’ve always wanted to make and taps into their creative force as a duo. “Dan and I grew up a lot as individuals and musicians prior to making this album. Our relationship was tested in many ways but at the end of the day, we’re brothers, and I think these songs reflect that.” The ghosts of Muscle Shoals inhabit Brothers’ 15 tracks. Of the album, Auerbach says, “We like spooky sounds… like Alice Coltrane, where a dark groove is laid down. That’s the headspace we tried to get into for this record.” The album includes the Danger Mouse-produced song “Tighten Up” and a cover of the Jerry Butler classic “Never Gonna Give You Up.” It’s been a remarkable couple of years for THE BLACK KEYS. Their last album, 2008’s “Attack & Release”, was by far their most successful to date, and the year culminated with them playing a sell-out show at Brixton Academy in London. Early 09 saw Black Keys singer/guitarist DAN AUERBACH venture out on his own with a critically-acclaimed solo album, “Keep It Hid” that covered a variety of musical styles from psychedelia and soul via gospel and bluegrass.

HAPPENIN’

PETER GREEN is announced as the main headliner for the Ashburton Blues Festival appearing on Saturday 29 May.

Peter Green - the supreme British blues-rock guitarist who inspired B. B. King to say, “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.” Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page are both huge fans. Now, playing the deepest blues he’s ever done, with a voice that’s never been better, Peter is back with a new band and thrilling his fans. No Peter Green appearance would be complete without his classic compositions, but now the focus is on fresh renditions of Peter’s personal blues, R&B and soul favourites. The repertoire is an exciting, unpredictable mix and you can’t help but notice him smiling and laughing in a way not seen for a very long time.

The Peter Green story is well documented. Raised in the poorest circumstances in London’s East End he taught himself guitar, and at the age of twenty replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. In 1967 he left to form Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, hitting the top of the charts with “Black Magic Woman”, “Albatross”, “Oh Well” , “Man of the World”, and “The Green Manalishi”. Deeply uncomfortable with success, and damaged by drugs, he left Fleetwood Mac and for years struggled with his demons. He rarely picked up a guitar until the late 90’s when he started appearing again with The Splinter Group. He made various albums including the acclaimed Robert Johnson Songbook, which revealed an astonishing new Green voice conjuring swamps and midnight crossroads. But his illness required medication which at that time sapped his concentration and motivation to play. There were flashes of brilliance uring live gigs, but he dropped out of a planned tour in 2004 and quit the band. Last year he began touring again with Peter Green and Friends; trusted, supportive musicians who understood and loved him. Suddenly a new ‘Greeny’ emerged, at home in front of his fans playing his hits, but also delving deep into the roots of the music he loves. His concerts are sell-outs, and the man, the voice, and the guitar are reborn.

This is a true Blues Master at the height of his powers. To have someone of Peter’s stature and importance appearing at the Ashburton Blues Festival, is a major coup, and reinforces the Festival as ‘The Uniquest Little Blues Festival in the World’ Other headliners are MIKE SANCHEZ AND HIS BAND, and BIG MAC’S WHOLLY SOUL BAND. Support acts include: Thomas Ford and the Dirty Harmonys, John Whitehill, Chicago Red, Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan, Stompin’ Dave’s Band, Denny Ilett & Andy Williamson, SmokeStack, Mike Markey & Nick Jones,and The King Roosters. Tickets: www. ashburtonbluesfestival.com

LED ZEPPELIN

Richard Thomas looks at what they left behind

They have polarized opinions for a generation – were the first real stadium rock gods the world’s greatest or overrated dinosaurs? So much of their legend is just that, and their antics in dressing rooms and bedrooms have come close to eclipsing their performances on stage, which were the most dynamic of the era. No self respecting rocker has any gaps in his record collections under “L” for “Led”, and their 9 iconic albums set the standard for anything heavy that subsequently followed. With their blues / folk / celtic roots were evident from the start, what residual mark have they left behind?

When 13 year old skiffle guitarist James Patrick Page was interviewed by Huw Weldon on a BBC TV’s talent show in 1957, he mentioned his long term ambitions lay in medical research and finding a cure for cancer. Success would have been the ultimate legacy for humanity and despite laudable intentions towards the still unfortunately illusive; the boy with the quiff and precise diction was clearly going to excel at something. Fifty years later another TV appearance neatly book ended the first, between them a unique musical career - his materialization at the Beijing Olympics closing ceremony promoting London 2012 was another notable moment in half a century of highs, lows, addictions and obsessions. Moreover, it illustrates that though ever mindful of recalcitrant reputations and dark elements of a complex personality, even an unforgiving establishment is prepared to forget if the stakes are high enough.

Led Zeppelin’s story is well documented legend and myth, and their media coyness and almost military cloistering throughout their career makes the 2004 ‘Chrome Dreams’ release of a comprehensive spoken biography and 1977 interview package significantly important. It charts four embryonic careers and develops them, starting with session guitarist Page establishing himself in the sixties, fruitful times for British pop. Church organ player John Paul Jones drifted into playing bass because when he noticed the school band needed a rhythm section, he chose bass because he “.....couldn’t get drums on the bus........ It never occurred to me that I would have to carry round a bass amp which was the heaviest pieces of kit going. My father said I should try the tenor sax.” Despite parental advice he stuck to his first choice and eventually the two met at numerous sessions where Page’s versatile

expertise and Jones’s comprehensive arranging /directing talents ensured their involvement on many, and it should be said, middle of the road, hit records. “It could be anything“ said Page ...... rock, folk or blues all in the same day. It was good discipline and a chance to stretch out in different styles”. They backed Cliff Richard, Engelbert Humperdinck, Roy Orbison and others; therein perhaps lays the variance and multi-moods of later Both grew restless. Page was disillusioned with the emphasis on a multi-instrument sound dissipating the influence of the guitar. He replaced Eric Clapton in The Yardbirds and began a musical education similar to the one that John Mayall has provided to many for over 40 years. Simon Napier-Bell quotes The Yardbirds as “one of only four rock bands that really mattered”, even before they morphed into The New Yardbirds under the stewardship of an uncompromising giant of an ex-wrestler, stuntman, and one time Robert Morley body double called Peter Grant, who wet nursed them with clinical shrewdness from the start. For anyone capable of allegedly once disarming a gun toting madman in Arizona, managing a band was a breeze. By 1968, the Yardbirds had withered on the vine. Jones too, had burnt out and recalls “.....my missus told me to join a band to stop me moping around the house. She said she’d heard Jimmy Page was forming a group because he had left the Yardbirds and that I should call him. I told Jimmy if he wanted a bass player to call me. He said OK, and that he was off to see some singer in Birmingham, who may know a drummer. He came back and said they were really something – we should get some money down and get working.” And so it began - John Paul Jones’s wife and her quest for domestic order was an early unwitting catalyst.

“Some singer” was a protégé of Alexis Korner’s from the West Midlands whose parents wanted him to be an accountant. One gig fronting local band Hobbstweedle was enough confirmation for Page, even though he was skeptical as to why this strutting Adonis wasn’t already a big star. The newly hired Robert Plant (a “vocal gymnast” said Page later) introduced a local drummer with a hefty reputation called John Bonham who had already passed up Chris Farlowe and The Grease Band to back American singer Tim Rose. After sustained wooing via telegram by Peter Grant, Bonham acquiesced and musical preference prevailed over a £30 a week wage reduction. Top session stickman Clem Cattini refused the spot unwittingly when he was too busy to attend what was actually an audition. He asked Grant years afterwards........ ....” That time in London – was it to .......?“. Grant nodded. Still, someone turned down The Beatles once. Two unknowns joined two hardened session men tired of formulas and the alchemy changed rock forever. “Jimmy was the master of Led Zeppelin – I was the chief whip” said Plant “later..... I just tried to get it together with the others”. With a new name courtesy of John Entwistle’s throwaway quip, in Spring 1969 Grant seduced Atlantic Records and their arrival was announced – a new power trio to fill the void left by Cream, with the addition of a masterful fourth instrument – Plant’s voice.

The self titled first album, like so many almost more popular after the artist ceased to exist, continues to be commercially successful. In 2003, it was ranked 29 on ‘Rolling Stone’s’ list of the 500 greatest albums. “The first record was just a coming together... it had qualities that can never be matched... a great gelling of talent” said Plant, and ‘Good Times, Bad Times’, ‘Dazed and Confused’ and ‘Communication Breakdown’ became absorbed into the musical psyche of a generation. Page explained his modus operandi – “For ‘Communication Breakdown’ I played in a tiny vocal room and miked it from a distance. There is an old recording maxim which says “distance makes depth”. I tried to capture the emotion of the room and the moment.”

Later that year ‘Led Zeppelin II’ followed similar themes of blues / folk inspired hard edged rock, and was commercially successful both sides of the Atlantic. This inspired the confidence (as if they needed it) to experiment; as ‘Chrome Dreams’ biography observes pithily “......... they went to Wales and grew beards”. A remote cottage with basic facilities meant that this Page / Plant creative union produced a more acoustic sound which confounded some of their “heavier” fans – no matter - ‘Led Zeppelin III’ still topped the charts.

By now they were Rock royalty. While the third album showed thoughtfulness and sensitivity, their reputation for hell rising grew. While many tales of outrage and debauchery were gross exaggerations, each probably had a shred of substance and while touring they didn’t “fill their time writing letters home and playing board games”. Plant was once described as a “self satisfied sexual gourmet” while Page was allegedly no slouch himself. They remained gentlemen however, and while others may have dined out on some salacious details, they did not do so themselves.

The fourth album saw Page employ his Telecaster after an extended Gibson interlude and broke new ground which Prince comically revisited later. By now irritated by the press, the band decided to

LED ZEPPELIN

make it awkward for the hacks to describe by not calling the album anything tangible, just 4 enigmatic symbols.“After all the crap we’d had with the critics, I put it to everybody else that we should put out something totally anonymous” said Page. The press were not deferred however, and it become known simply as the “fourth album” or “symbols”. Names and tags aside, ‘Stairway To Heaven’ became possibly the most recognisable track of the age – “a yardstick for all subsequent power ballads” is perhaps the pick of summaries. Such is its enduring fame and popularity it is every apprentice guitarist’s default tune up; indeed it has its own apocryphal tale which guitar shop owners oll their eyes at – the one about the sign on the door of the practice room where young hopefuls try before they buy. ”There is only one person allowed to play ‘Stairway’ in here.....” goes the legend “.....and that’s Jimmy Page”. It must be true somewhere, surely. More albums followed despite a demanding road itinerary; ‘Houses Of The Holy’ was the last Atlantic record and introduced more dimensions, flirting with funk and reggae, Plant noting that there was “a great consciousness” about Page’s work on the record. ‘Physical Graffiti’ was the first album on their newly formed Swansong label – a project launched alongside involvement with the production of Monty Python’s ‘Life of Brian’. The acts Swansong shepherded included Bad Company, Maggie Bell (their hope was to emulate Janis Joplin) and The Pretty Things, whose gigs were boosted with Led Zeppelin supporting enthusiastically from the front row.

Touring enhanced their reputation as “The biggest band in the world”. It

was often incident packed– there were riots, stolen gate receipts and most seriously the arrests of Bonham and some road crew following a fight backstage at Boston. They had friendly moments with Elvis after a Vegas show despite his alleged mistrust of “hippy types” and long hair. Everything was loud - former cohort of Page’s in The Yardbirds, Chris Dreja recalls the concrete floors shaking at Madison Square Gardens. Eventually the ever adroit Peter Grant reduced the schedule and suppressed media intrusion to enhance a mystique which could be directly converted into hard currency.

Everyone had a ball at their first home gig for four years at Earl’s Court in 1975, including the touts and it was perhaps the apex of their career, but the euphoria was short lived. Page’s flirtation with heroin developed into a more serious relationship, and Plant was injured in a car accident in Rhodes which almost killed his wife Maureen. Both factors impacted the fabric of the next album ‘Presence’, which critics generally agree was a stripped down version of its predecessors with less experimentation and diversion. Not as successful as previous releases, allegedly it was Page’s own favorite. While Plant recovered the film ‘The Song Remains The Same’ maintained the band’s profile. The back catalogue continued to sell well, ‘Stairway’ and ‘Kashmir’ acquired cult status and frequent radio plays but by the time of the next illfated US tour, truncated by the tragic death of Plant’s young son Karac, there was a storm brewing. Suburban garages produced bands by the score, more accessible and available than stadium rock gods with self indulgent backstage riders and it was a case of never the twain shall meet. Ultimately though, this was an arm wrestle that Zeppelin probably won – punk swung punches but few landed. True, punk larrikin-king Johnny Rotten himself sneered when Plant and Page turned up once at a punk club for an investigatory visit, but true also that subsequently Rotten asked Plant for the lyrics to ‘Kashmir’, wanting to revive it. Change was inevitable. During the making of ‘In Through The Out Door’ there was a partial fragmentation, Jones and Plant preferring more conventional hours while Page and Bonham both struggled with increasingly addictions to heroin and alcohol respectively. The album was a return to experimentation. Using ABBA’s home studio in Stockholm, it reached a now obligatory top chart position despite a cool critical reception. Page ultimately cleaned up his act, but the man he

described (and the world agreed) as “one of the greatest drummers that ever lived” succumbed to one binge too many

The surviving members issued a grieving statement and ceased to exist as a functioning band. ‘Coda’ materialized in There have been temporary reformations ranging from a slightly toe curling one at Live Aid when Phil Collins played drums connection. New industries have evolved; one involving speculating about reunions, new concerts and albums and one musical landscape. Their success was no accident – one of music’s greatest acts was not produced by happy circumstance and cosmic coincidence. Perhaps it was their chemistry and the virtuosity of their talents; their format of 4 is a template for stadium rock and was established when eccentric formats were de rigueur. While The Allmans and the Dead settled for dual drummers, others added brass sections, keyboards and a multifarious collection of add-ons. The simple symmetry has Grant’s management was another factor. It hadn’t always been smooth – ‘Chrome Dreams’ observes that he interposed

The variance and sensitivity of their writing is perhaps even savoured more in retrospect, and one listen to the depth. Inaccessibility, restraint with the media and the sheer gravitas of their stage performances were also undeniable components. and made no bones about it. A few years after The Beatles played Shea Stadium with a set up more suited to the Cavern blues”. Plant observed that he “.....started out with Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley and Little Walter songs before anything”. Many of their signature numbers are based on ancient Blues riffs, ‘Dazed and Confused’ borrows heavily from Howlin’ Wolf and ‘Whole Lotta Love’ is Willie Dixon’s ‘You Need Love’ on permit. These threads perpetuate their legacy into the future while heavily acknowledging their roots, but their odyssey was of their own making. “If you die by the roadside - so be it.” said Plant. ”But at least you know you’ve tried. Ten minutes in the music scene was the equal of one hundred years outside of it”. The songs and the legend remain the same.

BEX MARSHALL

BEX MARSHALL - A DEDICATION TO EXPLORATION

A life’s journey discussion with - Duncan Beattie

Bex Marshall has always been an explorer, keen to travel the world without barriers. The same lack of restrictions applies to her music, which has been described as an explosion of acoustic/rock/blues with a hot poker twist of Country.

Marshall was born in Exeter to a music loving family where she discovered a passion for blues music at a young age. Spending her early adult years travelling the world she returned determined to commence a musical career. Following a hard to find debut album, personal tragedy and the acquaintance of some kindred spirits, Marshall released her labour of love, “Kitchen Table.” Not only has the album received critical acclaim; it has also been successful, having entered the two top twenty in the American charts. In the last year Marshall has performed to large audiences on both sides of the Atlantic, and appeared at numerous festivals from South By South West to the Shetlands. Furthermore she jointly runs a radio station, a studio and provides a home to travelling roots musicians. Bex took time out of her busy schedule to tell us some of the ups and downs in her travels so far and point some directions to her future plans.

BM: Can you tell me about your early exposures to music, I believe your uncles were musicians?

Bex: I feel I have always had music in me and it was always around. My uncle Danny was a drummer and had regular jams at his place while my uncle David was an intense musician with an amazing voice. He gave me a Gibson Hummingbird when I was 11, and I’d started playing when I was 8. It seemed a normal thing to do. Within the first few years of playing I dived into classical music, the most difficult genre. I was learning all these fantastic instrumentals like ‘Romanza’s Cavatina /The Deer Hunter’. I heard these really difficult pieces and felt I needed to play them. It was the acoustic guitar that grabbed me and I learned stretching with my fingers and picking. Music has always been a fantastic road, which has split off into different avenues.

BM: You spent quite a few years working on a cruise ship and travelling. How did these experiences shape you? Bex: When I was about 16 I had a real yearning to travel, see the world, so I got a job as a croupier on a cruise ship that could take me there. I always took my guitar with me, hung out with the musicians onboard and got to see the world, the Caribbean, Europe, Egypt, etc. Then I travelled to Australia where I couldn’t work so I busked to pay my hostel. I bought an old guitar on Bondi Beach Market. Some of the other buskers were phenomenal, playing didgeridoos and guitars behind their backs. So I really had to lift my game. I hitchhiked to Cairns before I had to leave so I went to the nearest place: West Timor. I arrived there barefoot with a guitar on my back and made my way through the Indonesian Islands. This was a completely different experience; I could not busk, as the people did not have any money. The local guitar players were budding Eric Claptons; even in little villages there was these amazing Indonesian players! I made the decision to come back, settle down, get my equipment together write some songs and start gigging. In hindsight I feel you have to learn a bit about the world before you can write songs. I still love to travel which my job allows!

BM: What changed your music style from classical to Blues and Americana?

Bex: As I was learning about music I was delving more into the musical directions that I wanted to follow. From classical I went into ragtime and moving to the blues was just a natural progression. When I started writing the music to go with my

lyrics, that’s when I started finding phrases, and adapting it from music that I’d learned about, from blues, from southern rock, and heavy rock in my teens.

I’ve always loved the blues, whether rock, acoustic, or soul blues, and homed into that. With the blues there is a fine line between making every song the same or every song amazing. I like to throw in a dash of something else to spice it up and that’s why I use this little slide on my little finger and add some dynamics. There is so much room in the blues, that’s why I love it, it’s simple but you can build things in and make it explosive. My sound is the combination of the Onza Resonator and the Fender Amp, which gives the best reverb ever.

BM: Who are your main influences both as a vocalist and as a musician?

Bex: Initially flamenco players, until I toured with the film Tommy which was life changing. The Who, Tina Turner, Eric Clapton all inspired me. I loved Turner’s voice, particularly her earlier bluesy stuff, and then Janis Joplin and Elkie Brooks. I’d also sing Robert Plant, Steven Tyler and Rod Stewart, as I loved their vocals. I remember hearing Stevie Ray Vaughan’s records and thinking who is that? Stevie made it sound so free and easy. If you’re good, you can play Little Wing make people go wow, not because it sounds like someone else, but you’ve done it your own way. Of the current artists I admire Ian Siegal, Jeff Lang, Gwyn Ashton and Dave Arcari. It’s all back porch stuff, stripped down and for real. That’s what I really love.

BM: Can you tell me about your first album?

Bex: “Bootlaces” was a studio album with a band; I feel it was a stand up record. The company did not send it out to get any reviews or push it. It had my best songs on it at the time. We plan to release it again one day as it is out of print. I did not do much of the electric guitar on the album, as I was not expected to play too much. I still get that attitude, as a girl with an acoustic guitar. They’ll put me on first or much later and let the band play. I understand that, but it’s nice to get appreciated whenever I go on.

BM: How did you go from having a band to playing solo?

Bex: I have always played acoustic, although I can play electric. Even when I was in bands I would play acoustic. I got a really good band together but unfortunately my bass player committed suicide. He’d always been very reliable so I went around to his house and found him. This was a real turning point as I’d really relied on him; he was my bandleader, the engineer of my first record and a real musical brother. ‘Too Much Rock n Roll’ was written about him, it took around a year to reflect on everything. I was on my own so I focused on my solo performance. I started to incorporate bass lines and percussion and I would not use pedals anymore. I thought if I can’t just strip away to a guitar and me on stage and knock ‘em dead then I can’t say that I’m any good. I love the fact I can do that now. You’ve got to have substance to have respect as an artist. As well as having the skills, you need the balls to do it. That is the hardest bit. Going out by yourself in front of 500 people can be a petrifying thought.

BM: Kitchen Table is your second album and features Don and Dale Reno from heavy bluegrass band Hayseed Dixie. How they came to contribute to the album?

Bex: My husband Barry heard them at the South By South West festival several years ago and brought them to the UK to tour. In time we became good friends and they said they wanted to play on my record, which I was thrilled about. We laid down the tracks in one hour and a half. These instruments give Kitchen Table a lovely feel. There has been talk of us doing a future project together, possibly a bluegrass spinoff as for my next album I am very keen to keep the blues vibe. Their father wrote ‘Duelling Banjos’, one of my favourite tunes which I heard that about the age of 12 on the film “Deliverance.”

BM: The album includes the song ‘Black Guitar’ with its lonely lyrics and the haunting slide guitar. Can you tell me a little about the origin of the song and whether it also refers to your connection to music?

Bex: Yes it does, I’m glad you picked up on that. I wrote it at a good friend’s house. He is a fantastic musician, and subconsciously I wrote it about him, only when he asked I realised I had. The black guitar is the ultimate symbol of rock n roll. Those guitar players who are living the dream each have a black guitar. When you’re lonely you always have a mate, your guitar…. or a dog! I could have written a song called black dog, but it’s been done before!

BM: How do you write your songs?

others pull together earlier with lyrics. I’ve got books of lyrics I’ve written. When the recording process is imminent I will write several songs in a few days and usually a few make the record, ‘Black Guitar’, ‘Kitchen Table’ and ‘Red Light’ were like that.

BM: You have toured the USA in three times in recent months, how did they go?

Bex: I’ve done three tours from May last year, which were amazing and just grew. We got an American release for Kitchen Table so we thought we’d better get over there. We booked our own tours and got some great support slots. I got great

Table got into the Americana music charts, which got the attention of BBC Radio 2, leading to the Bob Harris session here. I’ve just heard this week I’ve got a fantastic review in Blues Revue magazine. I’m happy because we achieved that success in one year on an independent label with a very small budget. Trying to crack America on your own is not the easiest thing in the world!

BM: A new album is in the pipeline. Will the new material be in a similar vein to Kitchen Table?

Bex: Hopefully it will be released in March next year. I am going to demo in the next couple of months. I will invite some people together that I’ve met in the last year. The main thing is playing the song, no more than the song needs. I will keep it roots. That’s what I like about “Kitchen Table”, it had different styles and players but all sounds like it comes from me. It’s

ingredient, which is the feel and honesty where people can connect with it.

BM: What are your plans for the future?

Bex: I’m also putting some players together so we can do some shows as a band. Ultimately the challenge is to keep

relinquish control at some point, as you can’t do everything eventually but I’m really enjoying it. It’s also not just about me now, it’s the House of Mercy,

Duncan Beattie

The House Of Mercy Explained

A radio show, recording studio and. The House of Mercy is an operation is ran by Barry & Bex Marshall-Everitt which incorporates a radio station, a recording studio, a record label and a home for travelling roots musicians. The radio station features artists from traditional country blues acts such as Bukka White to modern artists as varied as Allison Kraus and Joe Bonamassa.

forthcoming acts to be playing the Borderline Club in London. From there it grew up to three hours a week, featuring a range of other artists. When the Borderline changed hands in 2006, Barry decided to continue the operation from home under the name the House of Mercy. Now it is listened to around 45, 000 in the UK, broadcast by Totalrock.com it has a worldwide audience of

to the stage that artists are asking for sessions on the show, a future one being Paul Jones. Bex describes the Boudour completely acoustic yet we’ve had seven or eight piece bands in there now with stand up bass and other large instruments. I’m happy to say it has going from strength to strength”.

Duncan Beattie

OLI BROWN Oli

Brown may look young and be young but within that persona beats the heart and soul of an old Bluesman and the last twelve months has seen him fulfil the potential that BM foresaw from the onset. He’s already played with or come to the attention of many of the Blues fraternity, including “The UK Godfather” himself, John Mayall. John has proved himself, over five decades, a first class judge of talent and Oli is no exception. Walter Trout, Johnny Winter and Robben Ford have taken him out-on-the road with them as their chosen support. Last year Ruf Records signed Oli into their stable of Blues musicians and his debut CD with them, “Open Road” has gained high approval from not just the Blues critics but those of Rock and Indie as well. So, BM decided it was time to check-in with Oli see where he’s been, what he’s thinking now and where he wants to go next.

BM: Your 2008 CD, “Open Road” proved to be a great success with the fans and the critics. What changes has this success brought to your career?

OB: The CD really helped give me something extra to promote that I was proud of. One thing I found was I started to attract bigger audiences because of people who bought the CD but had not seen The Oli Brown Band live - then there are the kind messages from different countries where new fans have bought the CD. Having the readers of Blues Matters! vote the album as their N#2 Blues release of 2008, behind one of my heroes, Sean Costello, was like the icing on the cake for the hard work we put into recording it.

Who are your Blues heroes?

As I say to everyone, the main guy for me is Chris Cain - he is my number one guitarist! I listen to him all the time. Buddy

Guy is another - his stage presence is quite something! He tells you stories, points and sings to people in the crowd, and just rules the stage. Sean Costello was awesome; his tone, his vocals - I just love what he did! It is so sad that he is no longer with us. There are other people that I listen to and all have influenced me in some way - there are and have been some fantastic Blues musicians in the world.

UK guitar makers Vanquish have made an Oli Brown Signature. What are the advantages to playing this guitar, and having your own signature model?

Vanquish approached me at a gig and asked if I would like to work with their guitars, and offered to arrange a meeting where I could try a couple of models out. During the meeting, I just fell in love with everything about their instruments; the tone, the balance, the craftsmanship... They then told me to take the guitar for a month and see what I would like to do to it to make it exactly how I would want it onstage. I have long fingers, so we went for a wider neck. I like sustain, so we did individual winding set ups on the pickups. I like the mix of nickel and gilt metal work, so special pickups and machine heads were used. I could go on, but there are some secrets, too! I now have a guitar that is, basically, moulded to my playing style, and it looks fantastic! I do find it very strange to have a signature model on sale, and I am flattered that people are actually buying it, too. Vanquish did want to put my name on the fret board, but I asked them to keep it discreet, so my signature is on the truss rod cover, and that is fine for me. I am very honoured to be involved with such a phenomenal make of guitar.

What other guitars do you use?

When in America, three years ago, I was introduced to Scott Platts. Scott has a company called Stonetree Guitars and I bought a custom Strat from him, which was on stage with me all the time until the Vanquish came along, but it still lurks in the background. I liked the look of the Gibson 335, but felt that it overpowered me, so last year Scott and I designed a guitar that was a Strat and a 335 hybrid; I have this as my back up guitar at all my gigs, alongside a Hofner Verythin.

What was your first guitar?

A Yamaha Pacifica - which I still play now! It still feels great to play, and sounds pretty good, too. The first guitar that I had made specifically for me was by a luthier called Godefroy Marujoules. Godefroy was showing at the London Guitar Show about five years ago, I saw the guitar and just loved the look of it. It took me a few months to save for it. I had it made in blue with my name on the 12th fret - a bit flash, I know! It was a very unusual shape, and I did get ribbed a great deal in the States about it. Guitarist magazine did a write up on it, too. I do not use it anymore, but would never get rid of it.

What do you, as a musician, feel are the advantages of analogue over digital?

Well, with digital effects, there are a lot of different sounds you can have from one box at your disposal, and that can be great for some people who like using tons of effects. But, personally, I don’t like it, as it controls the entire sound that you end up with - the guitar and amp have less of a factor in the tone choice. The digital pedal will just send its detail to tell the amp how the pedal wants to sound. It just feels very unnatural, to me. I like the analogue pedals because they do not do this. I have one Ibanez TS9 original, which I just use as a volume boost, with no gain, and a Boss OC3 Octave pedal for some of the funk grooves we do - you can get the pedal to only respond to lower notes, so it adds a nice deep undertone on lower strings. With analogue pedals, the important part is still the amp and guitar to make the tone, which is how I like it.

It is sometimes suggested that the younger generation are self-indulgent in displaying their guitar technique and lose out on the ‘feeling’ of the Blues by being too technical. What makes a good Blues musician for you?

Timing and melody! Hearing a melodic solo is the best thing in my opinion. So much tension can be built from making a melody, but it goes hand in hand with timing - accents on certain notes, or leaving time to breath between the notes. Stage presence: I like seeing someone rule the stage and play with the audience throughout the entire gig. People who know how to work the crowd like Sherman Robertson or Buddy Guy. This is where I was lucky to have been invited to America with Blinddog Smokin’ ‘cos they sat down with me and went through stage presence, personal presentation, feeling, timing... I learnt so much from them and am so grateful. My Blues is not loads and loads of fast licks, but that does not mean it is wrong to do them - it is just not the way. I want to bring it to the audience!

Photo Liz Aiken

OLI BROWN

How do you go about penning your songs?

Sometimes it’s nice to write lyrics first, or I could just be practicing guitar and then stumble along a riff I like. For example, on the “Open Road” album, ‘Complicated’ was written with the lyrics first, followed by the development of the music, whereas, the title track was created by messing around with different riffs. At the moment, I am putting words and music onto paper and computer for the new album, and it seems to be coming together all right.

It is sometimes said that the young today have had it too easy to play the Blues with the knowledge and experience it requires. How would you respond to that statement?

I think that depends on the songs you’re singing about. I don’t really do any of the older Blues covers in my set now. I don’t cover them for a number of reasons, but mainly that I feel I am pretending to be someone I am not. I remember playing at a Blues festival in America and watching the phenomenal Blues singer Miss Blues. She sang ‘Stormy Monday’, and halfway through the song she sat down and explained the meaning of each of the verses. She screamed out the last verse and left the crowd speechless at the end. I never thought too much of the meaning of the song until she explained it. I never play ‘Stormy Monday’ now, as I feel I could not really do it the justice it deserves. I have since become a good friend of Miss Blues and she emails me quite regularly to make sure I am behaving myself! As I mentioned earlier, I was very lucky to be taken out to America at 15 to join Blinddog Smokin’, and I have gone out every summer since, just to learn about Blues music, stage performance, crowd interaction, soloing, how to walk across a stage and so much more... I still go out to learn from them every year, as there is still so much I want to learn. I just play songs that I relate to personally; most of them are now originals, so I am singing about MY experiences and knowledge. Although I am still relatively young, I have had some interesting experiences!

photo Tony Winfield

Do you have to be old to play the Blues?

That is a good question and one that tends to come up at my gigs, everyone seems to think that you have to be old to play the Blues, and people are always surprised that I took up Blues music. B.B. King was young when he started playing the Blues; Robert Johnson was only about 27 when he passed away. Stevie Ray Vaughan and Jimi Hendrix were young guys. So, no, you do not have to be old to play the Blues, but you DO have to FEEL the Blues - it is not something that you can just do. I have been very lucky with the American trips I have done each summer with Blinddog Smokin’ - Carl Gustafson (the leader) taught me so much about the music and is a good friend. There are rock artists in their sixties – The Rolling Stones - but no-one says you have to be old to rock!

Do you see yourself as a musical role model?

No! I don’t see myself as any form of role model - I just love performing and playing music. Music is my inspiration in life and it’s all I want to do. It is great that more younger people are coming to my gigs, and I just hope that I can encourage them to listen to more Blues music, but I certainly do not expect them to look up to me as a role model, just hope that they enjoy what I do.

What tips would you give to another young artist?

Lots of gigs! Even if it’s just a bunch of local ones. Work the pub scene hard and build a name for yourself in your local area. Start spreading out slow and just keep pushing venues to book you all the time. Support slots have helped me a great deal I did a tour with Walter Trout last year and he really helped me get my name known in different areas. I can’t thank Walter enough for allowing me to join him on his tour of the UK. He was so helpful, and had so much knowledge that he was happy to talk me through. A really nice guy! I would also suggest doing a small three-track demo, and make sure people are receiving copies - venues (big or small) will not put you on if they do not know what you sound like. Push for it to be played on radio stations - local ones are the best start. Be aware, though, people cannot say yes to you if they do not know what you do, and if they say no at first, go back and try again - politely

How would you like to give the Blues a higher profile with your peers?

With all the talk about Blues only being supported by the older generation, and me NOT being old, but enjoying the Blues, I thought the best thing to do would be to take the Blues to the younger generation and let them hear and see what it was about, so we started doing gigs at schools. We generally do about a forty minute set and then chat with the pupils at the end. These school performances have proved a great success, and we are finding more and more young people coming to the gigs and enjoying themselves, alongside our regular audiences. Of course, the other ideal would be to have some airplay on Radio 1 and some TV coverage on something like Jools Holland - we are still hoping that we MIGHT just be seen and heard on these mediums in the not too distant future. We need people to write into the shows and ask for it.

What’s in the pipeline?

Oh, we have a great deal on, there are gigs in Europe, and there are various festivals, both in the UK and Europe…then a tour to promote the new album and, all being well, an American tour in August 2010. Very busy!

Is there anything else you want to say?

I would like to say thank you to Blues Matters! and your readers for all the support that has been given to me, which I really do appreciate, and I hope to see you at some of the forthcoming gigs. CB

Oli Brown, as well as being passionate about playing the Blues, belongs to a group of youngsters in the UK trying to educate the younger generations in the music they love.

One of the leading advocates of passing on the Blues to future generations is Joe Bonamassa. In Issue 33, sitting with a copy of BM! in front of him, Joe pointed to the cover and said, “If young kids don’t get involved, it’s going to be ‘Blues,’ and then it’ll say, ‘Doesn’t Matter!’ underneath.“

For a number of years, Joe has set the example to musicians like Oli by going into schools in the US. Late November 2009, he extended that mission to the UK. Blues Matters! was there to see him undertake a workshop for approximately three-hundred 14-18 year olds. Joe believes that the way to reach the young with the Blues is to start with what they know. At Nottingham, he commenced by telling them he was there to give back to the community that had given him his living, the Blues. He also wanted to showcase a day in the life of musician. This, though, was no ‘icon’ lording over the youngsters present. Joe was a regular guy, and made it clear what he was doing was a job, and a job that depended on the skill and dedication of those he worked alongside, including his roadies. The whole thing is about dedication, and, like any job, there was a ‘work ethic’.

Joe went on to outline his career to-date, telling the kids that he’d been on the road twenty years. He was no overnight success, even if it seemed like that to many people, because the last couple of years had seen him rise rapidly to fame. He had got to that moment by dedication, hard work and a belief in himself and the goals he’d set himself. Yet, through this, in 2009, he had played the Royal Albert Hall and, more than this, to his absolute pleasure, one of his inspirations from the ‘60s British Blues Scene, Eric Clapton had walked on the stage to play with him.

Joe actually started playing classical guitar and he demonstrated this with a short electro acoustic piece. He described the progression through his discovery of ‘60s Blues players like Clapton, Paul Kossoff, Jeff Beck and Peter Green, before he moved to an electric guitar. He followed that by playing alongside the music of B.B. King, who was the musician that really give him his practical start on the road to success, where he “seized the moment” and has kept on seizing moments ever since.

Joe went on to take questions, gave a demonstration of playing techniques with the band, and then signed everything thrust into his hand, including a young man’s arm (note: this was still attached!). The striking thing about the afternoon was the mutual respect that could be felt between audience and musician, and the teaching model presented for others to emulate.

Carol Borrington

and Dave Kelly & The BBQ

with the Gareth Williams Band The Ana

with his R&B Band and Taff

JACK BRUCE

The legendary bass player takes time to talk to Carol Borrington

BM: You are famed for your improvisational skill and free spirited approach to playing bass. How did you first get to play bass, and what inspired you to take the improvisational route? Jack: At school, I played the double bass. The reason I did that was there was one at the school and it was free! I just fell in love with the feeling of playing the bass, but I was actually too small. Then, they got me a bass teacher, but he said, “You’ll have to come back in about a year, because your hands are too small to actually play!” So, I took up the cello instead, and I was doing well at that, but I always wanted to go back on the bass. I then started off playing professionally. I just sort of dropped out of school and started playing professional on the double bass. Then, after many years, I was asked to do a session for Ernest Ranglin on Island Records, and Ernest Ranglin wanted a bass guitar. So, I went and borrowed one from a music shop. I thought it was very easy to play – it was also not as heavy to lug about. So, I never looked back, that was 1964/5. I never looked back from the bass playing.

As far as how I play, it’s because I started off as a jazz player. So, I just brought the jazz sort of approach into the rock and Blues arenas.

Do you ever regret moving away from the Jazz scene and into Blues/Blues-rock?

No, I never regretted that at all. I think I was very much like a musical snob, and I’d really limited myself because I only liked modern jazz and, like a lot of purists, it just limits your outlook. So, it took me a bit of time to realise there was a lot of great music in the world, not just modern jazz!

Eventually, I just fell in love with Blues, R&B…all of the titles - different kinds of music.

You seem to have settled for playing the Warwick fretless bass most of the time. What is it about the Warwick you like and why choose fretless?

I learnt the fretless and the bass - it just makes more sense for me. Those bits of metal get in the way! I love the Warwick - they made me one which they have never surpassed. They always make me new ones and say, “Here’s a new one you’ll like!” I always go back to this one that I’ve got.

JACK BRUCE

I was talking to Ron Carter, the great jazz bass player, who played with Miles Davis and people like that, quite recently, and he plays double bass. He said that if his double bass got lost, broken, stolen or something, he would probably give up music! I have the same feeling about my bass guitar. I would find it really difficult to carry on without that particular bass. It’s a love affair, you know? I also have this EB1 Gibson that I like playing a lot, and I’m playing that with Robin Thrower because it’s from the ‘50s and it really is authentic - it sounds great and it kinda limits me, as well, because it’s a big clunky thing. I can’t be playing all those fast runs. It keeps me in my place!

With a few exceptions, including yourself, the role of the bass player in a band is often overlooked, whilst being a pivotal part in a band’s sound. Why do you think that bass players are often out of the limelight? Well, if you are just playing the bass, there is no reason why you should be in the limelight! It’s just because I sing and play the bass, like Paul McCartney or Sting, so it’s out of necessity.

You are a legendary songwriter, composing such classics as ‘I Feel Free’, ‘Sunshine Of Your Love’, ‘Theme From An Imaginary Western’, and so many more. How do you go about writing your songs? Where do you draw your inspiration?

It just happens. I get an idea, like an interval, something like that, just a vibration on my head, and it leads to something else. It’s difficult to say ‘cos there’s no particular place where you get an idea, it can be anywhere.

There was a long time gap between the recording of “Seven Moons”, and your last recording with Robin. What is the reason for this, and why did you decide to do “Seven Moons”?

Well, I mean when we did the first one all those years ago, it was like 1981. So, when we did, I wanted to tour, but Robin didn’t really want to tour with that - he felt we didn’t have enough original material, and maybe he had a point. Then we did the “BLT” album, and then the next one (“Truce” – CB) wasn’t quite so successful musically or commercially, so we just sort of drifted apart. I got into a lot other of my own things anyway, which I always like to do. I like to have my own little things going on and, yeah, time just went by! Then Robin got in touch with me, it must have been two years ago, something like that. He wanted to do a compilation of what he had recorded before. A re-release thing, I said that’s a good idea, but why don’t we write a couple of new songs to go along with it to make it a bit more interesting. So, he came to my house and we started writing, and it really flowed - before we knew it, we had about eight or ten new songs. We thought we might as well do an album.

It took a while for the “Seven Moons Live” DVD to come out – October 2009… I don’t know why it took so long, because we did that in February (2009).

How did your collaboration with Robin Trower originally come about?

Robin had a bunch of songs, and he’d done quite a lot of recording for the first record that I worked with him. I think he just had the idea - he’d heard my voice in particular on some the tracks/songs he had written, so he just phoned up. For me, it was a very lucky time, because my whole life had just fallen apart - my marriage had fallen apart, and everything had gone wrong for me. He came along at the right time and he gave me something to focus on, and I’ve always been very close to him for that very reason.

You have a biography coming out. Was there a particular reason for wanting to have book written at this moment of your career?

It’s by Harry Shapiro, who has written a lot of biographies. He got in touch and said, “It’s about time a proper biography was written about you. Do you fancy collaborating on it?” I thought, “Why not?” There is no particular reason - no timing or anything. It’s just because he asked me and because I quite like his approach. He’s not into a lot of the sex and drugs part - I’m not interested in reading that stuff myself. When I read a musician’s biography, or any kind of autobiography, I’m really more interested in the work!

What is your definition of Blues?

It’s a very difficult one to pin down the Blues. It’s a feeling, a language that exists all over the world, and exists in all kinds of cultures with the same feeling. I did have a really good definition, but I think it’s so difficult to pin down that it changes! The Blues is a feeling!

You joined son Malcolm on the Music Manifesto National Singing Programme, which was devised to encourage children to make music at home with their families. How important do you feel it is to encourage children to engage in music?

I think it is very important to do that because when I was starting out there was a lot of music in schools, and because my parents were political, there was a lot of left-wing kind of music as well going on - a lot of groups and choirs and stuff. I think it’s really important for children to be able to express that and have the joy of actually singing or making music of

….they got me a bass teacher, but he said, “You’ll have to come back in about a year, because your hands are too small to actually play!”

different kinds with other people. I think there is less and less in the schools and the curriculum gets more and more, or less and less! So, I was really happy to do that with Malcolm.

Your daughter Natasha released her debut album last year - did you have any involvement with its production? No! Natasha doesn’t, very definitely, want to use her links with me. She feels very strongly about that - she does it on her own.

I helped her right at the very beginning, when she first started writing songs. We recorded them in my little studio for her. That was more of an encouragement, and then she moved on, so I just go along like any other proud parent!

The British Blues scene in the ‘60s was responsible for reviving and showcasing the Blues at a time when it can be said, it was in rapid decline. How do we inspire this present young generation to go back to the Blues?

That’s a tricky one! To me, the Blues is in other kinds of music, as well. I don’t think it’s a hundred percent necessary to listen to a Blues band, as such. I think the language of the Blues exists in all the popular music there is now. So, can you get your Blues influence from that?

There are two different types of Blues bands. There are the traditional, recreational ones, like the John Mayall’s, who are very good, and do very well, but just recreate the sound of Chicago Blues bands. Then there are the other bands like, let’s say Cream, just as an example, ‘cos I actually know about it! We are very Blues, but it’s more like the language of the Blues, which we are using in a wider sense - they are both equally valued. I don’t know whether it necessary, even desirable or possible to get young people to go to actual Blues gigs. If you’ve got great artists, people should be encouraged to go see that as a Blues performance.

In the present generation of Blues musicians, are there any musicians that standout for you as driving forces for the future of the Blues?

I am really funny about that - I don’t really like to say any person is really good! I find there are a lot of young musicians around at the moment who are very promising, and some are really great. I think it’s a very healthy scene. It’s got its problems, but when has it not!

Carol Borington

Gary Husband Jack Bruce & Robert Trower

BLUE BLOOD

Unsigned acts on their own Blues mission

FEED ME

Growing up in Maryport (home of the annual Maryport Blues Festival), we’ve all been surrounded by great blues bands from a young age. Most weekends of the year you can walk five minutes to a pub and hear musicians of international calibre for free! We’ve all tried to absorb these influences and hopefully it comes out in our music. However, we have tried to find our own voice by taking some ideas from funk and progressive bands such as Tool and Storm Engine.

Writing original material is very important to us and is something we’ve always done, although it isn’t always easy in Cumbria, as the local music scene tends to be dominated by cover bands. Despite this we’ve had a great few years, carving out a local following and touring around Leeds and Yorkshire. We even managed to bag some gigs in London for our tour this August. We’ve also recently finished our debut album, ‘Blood on the Moon’, which contains 10 original tracks and should be finished within the next few weeks. One of them, ‘Faith’ has been released on iTunes through Lakeland Records (although we’re still unsigned) so if you feel like splashing out 79p it would be much appreciated! We have also been lucky enough to support the blues legend Sherman Robertson, who personally complimented us on our set. It was a huge honour. We were also all set to support Ian Siegal, one of our all-time heroes, when Cumbria experienced its worst floods in history. Sensibly (as the roof had blown off the venue) Mr Siegal decided to postpone, but fingers crossed we’ll be asked next time he comes.

In our opinion, blues music is moving away from self-indulgent guitar solos and towards a more no-frills approach with a greater focus on songwriting. That can only be a good thing in terms of its appeal to a wider audience. In modern blues there are a lot of clichéd lyrics that get recycled again and again, and it’s important to dodge those clichés and be imaginative when writing.

Disappointingly, there is no great rock n’ roll story about our formation. The Cumbrian music scene is a small world and like-minded musicians tend to drift together. We nabbed our singer, Jonathan Cuthell, from a local amateur operatic society, but the way he sings the blues now, you’d never believe he’d ever done all that cheesy musical stuff! Myself and the other guitarist, Kiefer McCrickerd, have been playing together since we were nine, and gigging together since we were twelve. Because of our long history together, we have a great rapport on stage and sometimes can’t resist trading a few licks in the solos. Our drummer, Andrew Bates, and bassist, Phil Lowery, are both very talented musicians and form a really tight rhythm section that drives the band. We’ve gigged extensively, and at last count we were in triple figures. I think this definitely contributes to our live performance skills

We’ve got lots of free music, videos and pictures on our myspace so please check us out. Thanks for reading!

Jamie Francis, Feed Me

P.S. Blues Matters! says “Since writing this the band have gone on to win the Battle of the Bands in Maryport and will open the

DAVID “HONEYBOY” EDWARDS

talks to a ‘nervous’ Gianluca Tramontana

It’

snot every day that an interview subject while sitting an his bed in his apartment telling tales of the road slips his hand under his pillow and casually slides out a pistol. “When you got money like that,” ninety-three year-old blues musician Honeyboy Edwards informs Blues Matters while coolly, unclipping and re-clipping the magazine of his .38, “it’s good to be on your cues.” Blues Matters duly takes note. Honeyboy is not talking about his present life as a Grammy-award winning working musician, who has just released “Roaming and Rambling” and is still performing an impressive hundred-plus dates a year. Nor is he basking in his current status as one of the last living links to the world of pre-war country blues since two of his Grammy co-winners Robert Jr. Lockwood and Henry Townsend died since the release of the live CD “Last of the Great Mississippi Delta Bluesmen” leaving

Honeyboy is harking back to over seventy years ago from just before the depression when a teenage Honeyboy left home to travel with Bog Joe Williams, right on though to the 1950s where Edwards decided to settle in Chicago. In these years lived a parallel as a hobo and hustler, riding the back roads of the American South with nothing but a guitar and a sockful of loaded dice. It’s a journey that has encompassed the whole history of recorded recorded artists like Son House and songsters like Big Joe Williams from whom a teenage Edwards learnt the ways of a hoboing musician. He knew Robert Johnson well and was with him the night

Little Walter and on his subsequent visits he would be in the middle of the Chicago electric blues scene that begat Muddy and Buddy legends, questions about whom he has been answering by rote for over sixty years. Blues Matters is here to talk about Edwards’ almost thirty years as a hobo before settling down in Chicago in the 1950s. These were hard times, through the depression and segregated south where life was cheap and prison or deaths were but a blink away. Ask Honeyboy who high-speed internet access, but the mode of transport if you were a travelling musician in the thirties was a more humble affair.

“I’d ride freight trains,” explains Honeyboy, “I’d see the breakman hook up the carbox, and hang around in them bushes and wait. When the train’s hooked up, I’d see the breakman throw the lantern up to give the engineer the signal then I’d ease on down there and jump in.” In some instances when the railroad cops were particularly over-enthusiastic there was always “riding the rod”. By sliding underneath the train, “you lay crossways between two steel rods that ran beneath the undercarriage. They’re large enough that you can get your rest if you want to.” A system not without its drawbacks though “sometime a train run so fast that rocks would jump up and hit you.”

Being used to the heat of the Deep South, Honeyboy keeps the thermostat in his South Side apartment cranked up high. With the exception of his guitars, he has accumulated very little over the years. There are some mementos and statuettes given to him by blues societies as well as a few blues CDs - also gifts (in his 3 CD player London harmonica wiz

bedroom are also framed in ‘travelling light’ fashion - mounted to cardboard backing and covered with Seran wrap. There is also a large poster of Charley Patton who died when Edwards was nineteen - the one thing framed in glass. As befitting a man who rambled the country with little else than a guitar and a sock-full of loaded dice, everything seems like it could be packed in an hour if need be.

“The best way to ride if you want to go a long ways hoboing,” offers Edwards, “is to get in a carbox and spike it from the inside.” Which leads to the first lesson in hoboing – always carry a clean newspaper to lay on and look for a railroad spike to jam the door shut with. “If you pull into a station and have a bad railroad cop it doesn’t matter how much the he pulls and rocks the door, he can’t get in.”

Though the young-faced Edwards is no longer nimble enough to shimmy up the side rungs of a moving train to sit on the roof. (“you got to watch out for them tunnels”) his mind is still razor-sharp and he is blessed with an almost perfect re-call of names, dates, places and events from the distant – often WAY distant - fog of time. He recounts with boyish enthusiasm while rattling off colorful stories at lighting speed in a thick ‘n fast Mississippi drawl, his words often pitching up in sharpnotes of enthusiasm.

It would have been in the late thirties that Edwards learned a lesson that kicked his survival skills up to the next level. The primary ingredients were a moving boxcar and a dice game with a one-eyed fellow hobo “somewhere twixt Memphis and Tupelo” as Edwards recalls. By the time the pair pulled out the railroad spike at their destination, one-eyed hobo had all of Edwards’ money. “Now that’s a slick guy” concedes Honeyboy. After playing music that night to recoup his losses, Edwards accepted an amorous offer from a female admirer and asked if she had room for the fellow traveller. “He slept on the floor and I slept with the girl!” laughs Edwards. The next morning the one-eyed hustler took Honeyboy aside. “He said to me ‘You’ve got a lot of sense - but you ain’t got enough’” says Edwards. “I’m going to learn you something and give you a stick to walk with for looking out for me last night’” With that, he pulled out a sock full of dice. “Every one of them was crooked!” exclaims Honeyboy. “He showed me how to use them, what to do with them, what they was, everything. From then on I started to gambling. I’d go to a levee camp, play my guitar, make a stack then jump in the game. Sunday I’d leave with a pocketful.” But a moment’s reflection brings pause and evaluation to Edwards: “I quit that shit…too dangerous, I used to (have to) carry a gun”. And that is the moment when Honeyboy fast becomes “Mr. Edwards with a .38” to your correspondent, as he raises an eyebrow and slips his hand under his bed-pillow exclaiming “Just like I do now!”. As Honeyboy...err, excuse me...Mr. Edwards sits waiving his pistol around the room, the dark and dangerous side of being a hobo comes to the forefront. Though he is now settled and a card-carrying member of the club of “Living History” and “riding the rod” has been upgraded to - to quote hobe-ese - “riding the cushions”, regardless of the means by which he will reach his next engagement, one thing is for sure. Edwards’ thirty years as a hobo, gambler and hustler leave lessons that can never be forgotten. As the old saying goes: “you can take the man out of the streets but not the streets out of the man.”……. ‘Nuff said.

Gianluca Tramontana

BILL WYMAN

Carol Borrington investigates the life of a 60s living British Blues legend.

BillWyman’s life and career can best be described as the consummate polymath in full flood. He’s a musicians, composer, author, record producer, bandleader, photographer, inventor, film producer, amateur archaeologist and businessman. He’s even taken a hattrick at The Oval, participating in one of favourite pasttimes cricket! This amazing man spent the first thirty years of his life playing with The Rolling Stones and since 1997 have been bandleader and bass player with his own band Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. Starting his career in the heyday of the development of the 60s British Blues, Bill found a passion for the genre, which has stayed with throughout his long career. Bill’s retirement from his long tenure with The Rolling Stones in the 90s, did not see him resting on his laurels for long. He began jamming at home with Terry Taylor, this developed into the ’Dirt Boys’. Creative genius cannot be suppressed and from old blues songs Bill and Terry decided they want to take their music further. Bill put out the word and the Rhythm Kings were born and developed in a very interesting set-up. The ‘revolving door membership’ of the band allied to it’s core structure brought incredible fluidity to the band and has allowed it to develop in a myriad of ways and is a credit to the musical genius, that is Bill Wyman!

BM: Who are your main influences in the Blues and what got you interested in the Blues as a musical format?

Bill: I knew nothing about the Blues until I Joined the beginnings of The Stones. It was Brian principally that had the Blues records, you know; Howling Wolf, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James and people like that. Mick had Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley and Chuck Berry of course. I knew about Chuck Berry obviously, but in those days those records weren’t in the shops, there were no Blues records in shops, so Blues wasn’t being played on the radio, only in Jazz situations very vaguely. So I didn’t know about Blues, I knew about rock n roll, you know touching on the Blues and I knew about skiffle. I’d played Skiffle, Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, which was really Blues wasn’t It? So I did kinda know it without knowing it. When I joined I suddenly was hearing 12 bar Blues with Harmonica’s and all that, and that was really the beginning of me learning about it. Previous to that I’d been listening to Fats Waller, Ray Charles and people like that. In my own band, playing a lot of r n b stuff, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, Larry Williams, all that kind of stuff

You are reputed to have taught yourself to play many instruments. Which is your favourite one and why?

I do like piano but I’ve come across so many really great piano players in my life I daren’t go near one. I do love piano and it was the way I would try to write songs,

because I did take piano lessons as a kid. I took some when I was a four years old, took about three or four, then the war started, so I got evacuated and that ended. Then I started to take them again when I was ten or eleven. I passed the first two exams at the Royal College of Music. Then I wouldn’t practice, I wanted to go and play cricket and football, but you still learn the rudiments, so it still helps you later when you learn to play by ear, like I did on guitar and bass. Learning the basic music concepts did help me.

When playing Bass, which bass do you currently use and why choose that particular one? Is it fretted or fretless?

It’s a fretted Steinberger, its guitar shaped and tunes from the top, not the stock, because it’s got no end on it, people always take the piss. The reason I chose it, I use flat wound strings because I don’t like metallic sounds. With the Rhythm Kings I’ve had to re-learn playing bass in a way that sounds more like double bass, so I have to get the feel of a double bass even if I can’t sound exactly like one. I do fool some people actually, especially on records. So, I do try to play like that now and it works. I use the Steinberger because I can get a very good mixture of sounds on stage live and also very good in the studio; I never found that before with any basses. They were either good on stage and rotten in the studio or they were great in the studio and didn’t sound right live. So I plumped for this and I’ve been using it since the late eighties, probably the same strings as well. I don’t change them much cause you know once you wear them in you get that nice fat and warm sound and I play with a thumb, I don’t play with a pick anymore You have penned seven books to date, have you any plans for writing in the future and if so what will it be about?

Oh Yes. I’m being asked to do a book of my photographs. I’ve got about twenty thousand photographs I’ve taken over the years, all around the world. Over the last three years I’ve had a lot of photo commissions and still ongoing, so I’ve been asked to do a book on photos. I’m also working on a second part of the history of The Stones which has been a long time coming. I’ve always got things on the back burner; it all depends on how much time I’ve got to do these things.

You are a well respected photographer but your photo’s rarely have a musical connection, is that a deliberate omission because it is a distraction from your ‘other’ life, or is it that you do not display those pictures with a musical connection?

My Problem is that I can’t go to a music event, a concert. I can’t go where all the other photographers go; down the front, near the audience, because I get recognised and people want a bloody autograph or ask me how Mick is while I’m taking photographs. So I can’t do that, so I

BILL WYMAN

photo Paul Webster

The Producers

Friday 21st to Monday 24th May 2010

at The Derwent Hotel, Belgrave Road, Torquay, Devon TQ2 5HS

A fantastic line-up of electric and acoustic blues from home and overseas, with late night jam sessions and late, late bars!

A warm welcome awaits you in the friendly atmosphere of the Derwent Hotel, 100 metres from the beach and with superb leisure facilities, including heated indoor pool, two heated outdoor pools, Aztec Spa, gym, tennis courts – and more!

FE AT U R I NG

Buddy Whittington

BOOK NOW

for the Boogaloo Big Blues Weekend in Torquay call 01803 400500

QUOTING ‘BOOGALOO’ to benefit from the Boogaloo value price of £179, or book online at www.tlh.co.uk

The Backbones

Plus acoustic blues and late night jams!

For information about other Boogaloo weekends visit www.boogaloopromotions.com or call 01252 793430

Robin Bibi Band

Hokie Joint

Big Pete &

The Earl Jackson

Blues Band

lose that advantage of shooting people live. The only way I can do it is from side stage. So I took pictures of Elton John, Alice Cooper, BB King, John Lee Hooker and people like that I’ve taken from side stage and just had to be very careful of the light, their movement and that, but I have managed to get some nice pictures. I took a lot of celebrity photos in none performance situations, in private life. I like to take pictures when people aren’t looking at me. So a lot of my pictures are people looking the other way. Can you tell us why the ‘Rhythm Kings’ are so special? What is it about the performers in the band and the style of music you all play that appeals to you. It’s the camaraderie really, it’s like a big family, it sounds a bit corny but it is. This band I’m going out on tour with, is apart from Geraint Watkins on keyboard, the same band I started with; Georgie Fame, Albert Lee, Beverly Skeet, Graham Broad, Frank Mead, Nick Payn and Terry Taylor. That is the same band, except the first year we had Peter Frampton, so we had three guitars and we had Gary Brooker on keyboards. Apart from that it is the same band. It’s like a football team, except we haven’t aged enough to retire and bring on the young players sitting on the bench. It’s just such lovely people and such great pro’s that it’s a delight to play with. You can learn a song in ten minutes, so we’ve got one rehearsal day before we do the tour, but this band can do it. When I was in The Stones it used to take four weeks to learn songs we’d been doing for thirty years. It’s just dedication and concentration and getting the job done and not being casual and lazy about it. When you’re playing live things might change a bit, but you all get very aware of the change. Georgie Fame might be doing like a Ray Charles song and he’ll suddenly go into ‘You Gave Me Fever’ by Peggy Lee in the middle of it. You have to be ready for that stuff, but he does it all the time. It’s wonderful when he does and Geraint does it. That’s what makes it nice ‘cause it’s always fresh, always something new. There’s always room for everybody to play, no-one’s trying to be prima donna. We all contribute and all leave space for everybody to do their thing, we all enjoy them doing it. So it couldn’t be better, that’s why I like it. We’ve just come back from Europe, we had fabulous sell out concerts and the reception we got was fantastic. We’ve had so many offers to play abroad, but I said no, ‘cause I don’t fly anymore. We just stick to Europe wherever I can get by train or car. I don’t want to do that, that’s one of the

reasons I left The Stones, because I was sick to death of travelling and suitcases all over the bloody world and not having enough time at home and I didn’t want to start doing it again with The Rhythm Kings. It did disappoint the band when I said no to Japan.

You’ve recently expressed concerns about electronic music games, such as Rock Band, why are you concerned.

I was asked what I thought of it and of course, I got badly misquoted. All I said was I’m not very keen on it because I don’t think it helps, it doesn’t encourage kids to learn to play an instrument properly and that was all I actually

said. That is the problem, like that ‘air guitar’ thing and all that. They think they can get away with miming and a lot of them think they can get away singing by miming as long as they’ve got the look and the clothes and they can move and all that. I just said I don’t think it really encourages live music. Of course, everybody say I hate it, I didn’t say that but I’m not keen on it no!

How would you encourage young people to take-up musical instruments?

Well in this day and age, it’s a bit too much dedication for them. Kids come up to me in shows and say they’re just learning bass and have you got any tips. I just say practice; you can’t just sit around expecting it to happen. It’s down to practice, practice, practice. That’s what we did in the 60’s, all the bands, you play records, you play along with them, and you learn. Then when you go and see somebody, you see what they’re doing and try to get little ideas from them, but it’s all down to dedication and hard work. It’s like an apprenticeship but once you’ve got it together you can be proud of yourself. You’re a different person you know; suddenly you’re capable of doing it and feel like you’ve really achieved something. I don’t think a lot of kids can be bothered, that’s the shame of it, it’s too much like hard work for them. They have it pretty easy these days don’t they kids?

Carol Borrington

photo by Paul Webster

ROBERT CRAY

Roy Bainton talks to Robert Cray.

It took them under ten years, but after forming in Eugene, Oregon in 1974, by the 1980s The Robert Cray Band had left gigs in seedy bars behind and were playing in Carnegie Hall. Not bad for a bunch of young college teens who were so determined to be musicians, they would hitchhike through pouring rain from Eugene to Portland just to get together to rehearse. A quarter of a century later, The Robert Cray Band has earned 11 Grammy nominations and five Grammy Awards, a W.C. Handy Award plus a double-platinum and two gold albums. He’s shared a stage with such legendary artists as Muddy Waters, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Chuck Berry, Albert Collins, The Rolling Stones, Bob Dylan, and collaborated on record with Tina Turner, Bonnie Raitt, Keb’ Mo’, and Eric Clapton. The chart-topping blues album, Live from Across the Pond (2006), found him and his band performing live over seven nights in May 2005 as Clapton’s support at the Royal Albert Hall. His 18th album, This Time, is just out on his own label, Nozzle Records, and as ever, using his solid blues as a launch pad, it’s a heady mix of sophisticated styles with impeccable musicianship and well-crafted lyrics. Blues Matters caught up with Mr. Cray in Wichita, in the early stages of his massive US tour.

BM: This is one hell of a big tour – right through to 2010. How do you keep fit? Do you work out?

RC: No, not really. I just get up on stage and do my thing. A good gig is as fine a work-out as you can get…

I first saw you live back in the 1980s at the Electric Ballroom in London when you were supporting The Blues Band. You had a great bass player back then – Richard Cousins. Yes, and he’s back with the band and he’s still great.

You had a different upbringing to many bluesmen. I understand your dad was in the Army – you travelled extensively, and that he had a fabulous record collection?

That’s true. We sure did a lot of travelling, because about every couple of years we’d be posted somewhere new, so travelling has been part of my life since way back.

Yes, my dad had some great records. My parents played a lot of 1950s and 60s material. My dad played a lot of Ray Charles, Sara Vaughan, Mum was into R&B and the blues singers. On Sundays Dad would play a lot of gospel, records by groups like the Swan Silvertones and the Dixie Hummingbirds, those kind of groups.

Were you a musical family – did anyone else play an instrument?

No, not really. Nobody played. My dad would sing along with the songs and in later years, he’d tried to form a gospel group but unfortunately it didn’t work out.

I read that you had training in classical piano. How did that work out? It was short. It was when we were in Germany. You know, it was OK, good to learn, but it was short. Eventually I was drawn to the guitar.

“Ambitions?Justone-Ijustwanttostayworking!”

ROBERT CRAY

Can you remember your first guitar? Sure - it was a Harmony Sovereign.

We’ve always seen you with a Fender. Have you ever been tempted away from the Stratocaster? No, never, although I used to play Gibson, but the truth is I was tempted away from the Gibson, but in the studio I use a variety of guitars.

I was surprised to read that you used to suffer from acute stage fright. How do you overcome that? I still do. Overcoming it is just really a question of getting up there and doing my job, getting into ‘the moment’. I’m not really all that animated with regard to moving around on stage, I’m not what you’d easily call an ‘entertainer ’ as such, so I get up there, do my thing, close my eyes and I don’t see the people!

It appears that Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf were turning points in your career; is this true? Yes. It was a point in my life where I was listening to all kinds of music, but when I really heard Wolf for the first time, for instance, something changed. Something hit, changed me. You know, there are a few people like that – their music transcends everything – the way they use chords, something different, you say ‘What is THIS?’ it was just the same when I first heard Hendrix playing Purple Haze – what the hell is this? What is this? I mean, I’d been playing guitar for a while then, but this really shook me – gave me the shakes.

It must have been an amazing experience when you were at College to get none other than Albert Collins to play for your class graduation party. How did you pull that off?

No – it wasn’t me. It was our class at college who voted for Albert Collins – we had a choice between Albert and some band who had just had a national hit, and Albert Collins had been playing a lot of local gigs and festivals. I mean, we were just high school kids, teens, and I knew about Albert Collins because I played guitar, but I’ve no idea how the hell the rest of my class knew about him. Yet that’s who they voted for…But yes, we got him for our graduation party when I was just 17 years old, and I got to say ‘hi’ to him. I graduated in 1971 and by 1976 we were playing together.

ROBERT CRAY

You appeared in National Lampoon’s movie, Animal House. How did you meet John Belushi?

We had a band, playing out of Eugene, Oregon at the time called the Nighthawks, and from this we had a splinter band gigging around called the Crayhawks, Richard Cousins, myself, Curtis Salgado… we met Belushi in a hotel. He came in one night and started talking to us. We didn’t know who he was because we were playing regularly every Saturday, so we never got to see the TV show he was on, Saturday Night Live. Somebody said ‘Hey, you ought to get him up…’ so, we let this clown up on stage with us and he did his Joe Cocker impression. Anyway, he offered us a small part in the movie, National Lampoon’s Animal House. Eventually we basically ‘schooled’ Belushi on the blues, so I suppose in some way we could take some credit for the founding of The Blues Brothers. As for the Blues Brothers movie? Well…you know, they had great musicians in the band, but the front men? Well…average….It was just a party band…

I can hear Albert Collins in a lot of your guitar solos, but who else has influenced you as a guitar player? Oh…lots. B. B. King, Otis Rush, Magic Sam, lots. I still listen to a lot of the old stuff, but today I hear it with different ears now. You know, in the early days when I first used to listen to Wolf it was like ‘Oh…boy…’ it was the voice. Then later, when I come back to it, I’m listening to the song, the story, then I go back to it yet again and that time it’s the groove, because each time I listen I hear something else, and as I get older I’m getting something new from that stuff, a new level. I understand a little bit more about those songs, the whole inner workings of that kind of music.

You have a very distinctive and clear vocal style – what kind of singers do you listen to?

I like gospel influenced, and soul singers, and of course, a lot of the blues singers. When we do shows with Buddy Guy… well, I mean, Buddy Guy for instance – he’s one of the most incredible blues singers walking the planet. He has such power in his voice. Then there’s people like Bobby Bland, Sam Cooke, B.B. King, Otis Redding, all that kind of stuff. It’s a long list.

Most blues acts would sell their mothers to play seven nights at the Albert Hall with Eric Clapton. You already had an army of UK fans, and must have doubled it. Is Britain important for you and the band?

Oh, yes, definitely – but the whole thing is that everything we can do is important to us – this is a group of people, myself included, who just travel so much – I’ve been travelling all my life - that’s what we do, that’s what we are, international, I mean, for example, Richard Cousins, who’s back in the band, today he lives in Zurich in Switzerland. Tony Braunegal in the band - he’s also travelled all his life as well – he lived in London for a while. So, yes, the whole world is very important to us.

Despite strong blues tracks like Phone Booth and Playin’ in The Dirt, plus such a traditional approach such as 1992’s Shame and A Sin, there’s still a hard core of traditionalists who regard three chords, a harp and 12 bars as nothing but the blues. They seem to feel your mix of music is too ‘sophisticated’ to ride under the blues banner. How do you deal with that attitude?

I don’t. I’m aware of it – I was making a comment to some other guy just last week. We were playing a gig with another blues band, and I was saying that back in the day they would slam us for mixing other kinds of music – soul, R&B, in with the blues stuff – and now, well – just look at it today. Everybody’s doing it! Look, I don’t mean this in a disparaging way, but to those bands that are playing what they think is ‘pure blues’, I say this – write those songs! Anybody can cover them! Any band can learn ‘Stormy Monday’ – but can you write it? It’s all about - what can you write? But then there comes a point where, If you’re going down that ‘pure blues’ route, then you either make those songs your own – you actually write songs – or if you’re playing those standards, you come up with versions, your interpretations, which are more different and original than any other band around.

I notice you played a sitar on Up In The Sky on the Time Will Tell album – I know you list The Beatles as an influence – is that a bit of George Harrison?

No. Yes, it was an electric sitar. It was the song – we just went from what the song was – it was written by our keyboard player Jim Pugh. It was a personal song because it was about his mother and his father, who are both gone now. Jim had this idea that I might play the sitar, so, no problem, we went out and found these expensive guitars which had been transformed with a block under the bridge to make a sitar sound, and that’s what we used.

Tell us about your own label, Nozzle Records. Nozzle Records is my imprint. It was founded at a time when we weren’t signed to any record label, so me and my manager decided to set up my own imprint. Success wise – yeah – it’s been a success because we’re not in the red! The new album, This Time, will be on Nozzle as well.

One thing always impresses me about your compositions – your lyrics are often very literate, poetic, socially conscious, moving. Your take on relationships all seems light years away from that old blues landscape. Do you read a lot?

I mainly read periodicals, newspapers. Most of the guys are locked into books, but my concentration span is light. I have to move around. But when I’m on the road, or at home, I do sit down and read all the newspapers so that I’m aware of what’s going on all around me.

ROBERT CRAY

Your new album, ‘This Time’, has its fair share of exhilarating, blues and R&B based compositions, like ‘Chicken In The Kitchen’, ‘That’s What Keeps Me Rockin’, etc., but the other material displays a mature, poignant view of politics and the world which has deeper social comment bubbling under the man-woman relationships. There’s a line on an earlier album, ‘Twenty’ ‘when you’re used up, where do you go?’ which deals with soldiers and really hits the target. Am I right in thinking you’re a long way from being a Republican?

That is a fact! And that song, ‘Twenty’, that’s from the perspective of a soldier. And as my dad was a soldier, he used to tell me that when you’re in the service then you’re not supposed to question anything – so I was going to be the one who did the questioning for him. That was really the purpose of that song.

Inevitably, I have to ask about your reaction to Barack Obama.

You know what? We have a lot of faults as a country – as do other countries, but I’m so proud of what this country is. I always believed that it could happen, but the country actually did it. There’s such a lot of positives to gain now.

The fact that the Bush thing just wasn’t working here brought us to that stage – we just said -enough! When it came down to everything, then Obama was just the best man for the job, the best man in the field to be picked.

On THIS TIME, there’s even a mention of lying politicians in that big, dramatic song ‘Trouble and Pain’, and is there an alternative agenda going on with the best track on the album, TRUCE?

Yeah, ‘Trouble and Pain’ – the timing of that song – I was down in Argentina – it was just right. But you know, everyone contributes on this new album. Truce is a song written by Richard Cousins and a friend he works with in Switzerland. Other tracks were written by myself and band members, and one by my wife and I, so everyone has contributed.

Who impresses you among the new wave of young blues artists?

We’ve done some gigs with a band led by a harmonica player called John Nemeth. He has a bunch of young guys with him, plays some great blues, and he’s got some funk in there, too. Look out for them because they do a really good show.

You’ve got all those Grammy’s and the W. C. Handy Award –so what ambition remains unfulfilled?

Ambitions? Just one - I just want to stay working! Yeah, you can sit back and look at all the awards and stuff, but keeping on working, keeping playing – that’s the most important thing there is.

Roy Bainton

ROBERT CRAY – ANOTHER KIND OF BLUES

Born August 1st 1953 in Columbus, Georgia, Robert Cray’s blues credentials, unlike his legendary predecessors, might not have included sharecropping, cotton picking, hopping on freight trains or too many juke joints, yet with his Dad in the US Army the Cray family travelled extensively around the USA and lived for a while in Europe. By his teens Cray had seen much more than many of his contemporaries, and his father’s rich record collection, complete with Chess recordings, Buddy Guy, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Otis Rush albums, had already dictated his creative path. By 1974 he’d formed the Robert Cray Band which featured Richard Cousins on bass and drummer Tom Murphy. Over the next four years this slick, tight outfit was working the Pacific Northwest blues scene and leaving an army of fans in their wake. Although primarily a dedicated bluesman, Cray’s broad, passionate sweep across American musical heritage has always meant that he’s no narrow ‘purist’ – soul, R&B, a touch of Gospel, you’ll find all these influences in his multi-layered work. In 1978 something of a break came via the late John Belushi when the Robert Cray band were featured in the National Lampoon movie, Animal House. In many ways, in Belushi’s case, what appears to be a rich knowledge of the blues in the movie The Blues Brothers can probably be traced back to his ‘education’ by the Cray outfit following the making of the movie. Cray had a string of superb album releases during the 1980s, which included his debut on Tomato Records, Who’s Been Talkin’, Bad Influence, False Accusations and 1988’s Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark. Cray’s skill as a writer, especially as a lyricist, was soon noticed beyond his native shore. In the early 80s, after exposure on BBC Radio through new supporters such as Alexis Korner, the band toured the UK, at one time supporting The Blues Band. The albums Bad Influence and False Accusations were avidly supported by other blues luminaries such as Eric Clapton, who covered Cray’s Bad Influence. Then came the Grammy award winning album Strong Persuader, which entered the top 20, making Cray musical a force to be reckoned with. Many traditional blues fans have dismissed Cray for his broad taste and sophisticated approach, yet his brilliant guitar style represents the pinnacle of contemporary blues. Strongly influenced by the stinging style of Albert Collins, (with whom he played on the 1988 Alligator album, Showdown), he’s just as capable of letting loose a la Hendrix or treating his audience to a smooth wedge of jazz. During the 1990s the awards began to pile up. He played alongside Clapton and Keith Richards in the Chuck Berry documentary, Hail! Hail! Rock’n’Roll, took the stage with Steve Cropper and the Memphis Horns, and his reputation as a mature lyricist who knows how to tackle complex emotional issues is secure. If anyone has renovated, polished and re-energised the blues for the 21st century, then Cray’s the man.

Roy Bainton

£19.99

"A musical phenomenon...a guitar prodigy"

Paul Sexton, The Sunday Times

“I heard the spirit of Jimi Hendrix” Seattle Times

“The skills of Jimmy Page, Paul Kossoff, Clapton and virtually anyone else of that vintage….” David Sinclair, The Times

Davy Knowles is one of the fastest rising Blues stars in the world. He’s shared the bill with legends and headlined his own sell-out concerts throughout the UK and USA.

In 2009, Davy brought his band Back Door Slam – PK, Steven Barci and Ty Bailie – to his native Isle of Man for a unique and emotional homecoming concert. It was an evening of soulful lyrics and masterful playing.

Stunning camerawork and high quality sound let you share this incredible night, and see one the true rising stars of music performing an intimate and evocative set. Davy Knowles & Back Door Slam Live at the Gaiety Theatre features the entire concert and plenty of exclusive behindthe-scenes bonus features.

THE THIRD CARLISLE BLUES FESTIVAL: 13-15 NOVEMBER 2009

So high was the quality achieved by the first two Carlisle Blues Festivals, it was always going to be a considerable challenge for the organisers to maintain the standard. It is very much to their credit, therefore, that, if anything, they managed to reach an even higher peak. As last year, the festival was held in the Swallow Hilltop Hotel, which is located on the A6 about a mile from the city centre.

Friday Evening

The opening act of the festival, Hokie Joint, were the first of four weekend surprise packages. Fronted by the charismatic, JoJo Burgess, complete with Tom Waits-style rasping vocals and an air of mock menace, and embellished by the harmonica artistry of Giles King, they grabbed the audience by the throat from the outset and refused to let go. They were followed by Sam Kelly’s Station House, who were sadly depleted by the absence of two band members: singer/ guitarist, Tony Qunta, was caught in traffic, and keyboard player, Paul Jobson, was recovering from surgery. However, undaunted, the band delivered a largely improvised set, with Sean Webster filling in on guitar and vocals to supplement Sam and bass guitarist, Spy.

Connie Lush and Blues Shouter were on the top of their game, combining an excellent performance with Connie’s customary humorous asides. A selection of superb original compositions were nicely mixed with a great choice of covers including ‘Twenty Four Hour Blues’ and a performance of ‘Feeling Good’ that Nina Simone would have died for. Headlining the first day were the Nimmo Brothers, whose less frequent appearances these days are even more eagerly savoured. Backed by Matt Beable on bass guitar and a very talented new drummer, they powered their way through some old favourites and a few numbers from their most recent album, Picking Up The Pieces, and finished with a tremendous version of ‘Black Cat Bone’.

The after-show jam session in the bar was organised by Sam Kelly with solid support from the finally present Tony Qunta, Sean Webster and Matt Beable and an unexpected guest appearance from Jon Amor.

Saturday Afternoon

Errol Linton’s Blues Vibe set things in motion on Saturday afternoon with a vibrant set of reggaeinfused blues, which was lapped up by the highly appreciative, sell-out audience. John O’Leary’s Sugarkane continued the harmonica-led charge with a lively Chicago-oriented programme. John shared vocals with newly recruited guitarist, Dave Day, who has settled comfortably into the line-up in place of Jules Fothergill (or Giles Fotheringale, as one nameless, north-western promoter called him). The band was completed by a keyboard player and the splendid rhythm section of Roger Inniss and Wayne Proctor.

The afternoon session was headlined by the second surprise package of the festival, the Mark Butcher Band. Led by the ex-England cricketer on guitar and vocals, the band comprised an impressive array of musicians: the aforementioned Inniss/Proctor combination, Jonny Dyke on keys and Matt Taylor on second guitar. The impressively tight ensemble performed a pleasantly mellow set much to the delight of the punters.

Saturday Evening

The evening session was opened by Storm Warning, another relatively unknown band, who significantly enhanced their reputation with a beautifully delivered set. The fine, husky vocals of Steve Norchi were enhanced by Bob ‘Mad Dog’ Moore on guitar and a highly effective rhythm section of Derek White on bass guitar, Roger Willis on drums and keyboard player, Ian Salisbury.

The benefit of the doubt must be afforded the festival organisers that they deliberately chose Storm Warning to open the session as much for their name as for their ability, for what followed was nothing less than a gale-force assault. The Stumble were right at the top of their game, with singer, Paul Melville, in superlative form. His magnificent vocals were admirably supported by what is now, without doubt, one of the very best blues bands in the country. Guitarists, Colin Black and Johnny Spencer, were magnificent and Simon Anthony supplemented his saxophonic skills with an impromptu circuit of the concert room while drummer Boyd Tonner, and substitute bass guitarist, Cameron Sweetnam, provided a flawless backdrop. In short, it was a knockout performance.

Just about everybody must have been wondering how on earth Earl Thomas was going to follow that – not least, Earl Thomas himself. But, when the going gets tough . . . He simply delivered a masterclass in audience manipulation. Backed by a terrific band, Paddy Milner and the Big Sounds, which included Milner on keys, a three-piece horn section, two guitarists and a rhythm section, he proceeded to charm everybody with his smooth vocals, warm chat and vibrant energy. It was a tour de force that suffused the whole room in enchantment to cap a fabulous day’s entertainment.

So, fully sated, the bewitched punters filed off to bed for a good night’s sleep. Oh, no, they didn’t! They relocated to the bar in readiness for another jam session, this time led by OV8 (Chris Roach, Rick Lacey and a newly recruited bass guitarist) and harmonica maestro/ singer, Junkhouse Dog. The highlight of the session was a highly-charged duet by Connie Lush and Ian Siegal, who had already arrived in preparation for his set on the following day

Sunday Afternoon

The biggest surprise of the festival took place at the start of the final session. Unbilled and largely unknown, Marcus Bonfanti took the place by storm – without any warning. He was one of the guitarists who had supported Earl Thomas on the previous evening, but his relatively subdued role in the band had given no hint of his true potential. His powerful bassbaritone vocals and his dextrous acoustic guitar playing, wrapped in wonderfully off-beat and self-deprecating banter, was a revelation. Combining songs from his brilliant debut album, Hard Times, with a selection of songs from his forthcoming second release, the extent of his impact was confirmed by the subsequent, extensive queue at the CD counter

Next up were the recently reformed Producers, fronted by the hugely talented Harry Skinner on guitar and vocals and completed by founder member of the band, Dave Saunders, on bass guitar, and the newly recruited Ray Drury on organ and piano and Biff Smith on drums. They delivered a great set that comprised new songs and old favourites, and the reaction of the crowd made it very clear that their return to the UK blues scene is very warmly welcomed. Harry Skinner is undoubtedly one of the class acts of British blues.

The final surprise package came in the form of the Washington, DC-based trio, Tom Principato’s Powerhouse, on their first visit to the UK. Despite their Eastern states location, their music is predominantly New Orleans-oriented with a strong funky flavouring. Tom Principato is a tremendous guitarist, with the legendary Roy Buchanan as one of his influences. He switched between Strat and Telecaster to provide a stunning set with ‘Too Damn Funky’ off his latest album, Raising The Roof!, particularly well-received.

The marvellous event was brought to its climax by festival-favourite Ian Siegal, who began with a splendid solo set on steel and acoustic guitars, including his popular rendition of Gallo Del Cielo. He was then joined on stage by bass player, Andy Graham, and drummer, Nicolaj Bjerre, to perform a substantial selection of songs from their excellent, latest album, Broadside. It was a wonderful end to a marvellous weekend, which left everyone fully contented and already looking forward to next year.

No praise can be too high for organiser, Nick Westgarth, and his tireless team. The quality of music and the organisation of events were top class and the atmosphere relaxed and friendly. The Carlisle Blues Festival is among the very best in the country and long may it continue.

Lionel Ross

SKEGNESS

ROCK’N’BLUES

@ Butlins, Skegness

29/01 - 31/01/2010.

FESTIVAL

When Butlins promised something different for this year’s festival, no-one envisaged that they would be arriving in a blizzard that would turn the holiday into a winter wonderland for the weekend! It might have been freezing cold outside but there was plenty of red hot Blues and Rock going on inside! It was a weekend of plenty necessitating some serious planning of what to see. No way could you do it all with the abundance of choice on offer! The Ben Walters Band began the weekend on Centre Stage and he soon had thoughts of snow and chill fading from the punters memories, as he regaled them with some stylish and mean Blues and boogie woogie. Ben was followed on stage by opening chord, it was obvious they were they on form, not surprising with their collective Blues pedigree and longevity. A band of not just quality but versatility, Paul Jones took most of the vocal and it was interspersed by vocal performances by throughout. Down at Jak’s , The Blues Matters Stage was winding-up for a great weekend of music with a classy performance by The Bare Bones Boogie Band .The Mick Rutherford Band took over next and soon had the crowd Bluesin’ and Rockin’ to their repertoire including a debut of their latest number ’Liverpool Lullaby’. The title though turned out to be somewhat of a misnomer in nature. Not a bedtime story but heavy weight Blues Rock of quality about their trip to The Cavern in 2008! Saturday lunchtime, and Centre Stage saw an afternoon of true 60s British Blues but this was no trip down memory lane. Classic Blues and RNB numbers were dusted down, innovated and reinvigorated by all the musicians, there was a lot of current music on show as well. First up was Gary Fletcher, doing a solo electro acoustic set. Not only a fine vocalist and guitarist, his songwriting technique, especially the lyrical content was highly impressive. Gary was followed by Scotland’s ‘Queen of the Blues’, Maggie Bell with Dave Kelly. Maggie’s vocal clarity and range was superb. Dave was no slacker in the vocal stakes either and his guitar work was an absolute pleasure to listen to. The final part of the afternoon’s lunchtime session was The Animals. There was a general opinion among punters at the end that they were truly on a metaphorical mission to musically demolish Centre Stage. A classic and superb performance by all members of The Animals, one might even suggest one of their best to-date. Pete Barton’s vocal was dynamite, deep, gritty, good range, innovation and that

vocal power of an opera singer. If this was not enough for the punters, down at Jak’s Bar Gary Boner had organised another of those traditional Butlins ‘Roadhouse Jams’. To a packed house, Roadhouse and guests were rockin’ the joint to the rafters, much to the delight of the punters. The set got a lot of praise from punters and musicians alike as one of the highlights of the weekend. No festival is complete nowadays without Sean Webster, after moans about his absence; Sean popped up on the Pavilion Stage on Saturday afternoon and gave the punters an impromptu set! Saturday evening in Jak’s opened with a band called Elephant Shelf. A diverse and interesting band, which can play Blues with a lot of enthusiasm and talent! Over in Reds, was to be found, the first of a number of sets representing the new generation of Blues musicians at Butlins. The Jay Tamkin Band started off the session. Jay had the crowd enthralled not only with his and the bands musical talent but also their showmanship, almost a modern throw back to the travelling medicine show phase of Blues history. Jay was followed by a Blues ‘princess’ Chantel McGregor and her band. Chantel’s performance was probably one of the most stunning of the weekend and a packed Reds took this young lady to their hearts. Not just because of her beauty and superb stage persona but her soulful heart wrenching vocal and that stunning guitar work on top. Mick Rutherford was watching and at the end he commented, “You look at this beautiful girl and her lovely voice and then you look at her hands on the guitar and she attacks those string like a man!” Who says girls can’t play guitar now? This was a cracker of a performance from Chantel and her band. Back down to Jak’s and The Mustangs had a packed gig cheering and clapping at their riveting performance. Gwyn Aston’s Two Man Blues Army closed the night in Jak’s with panache. Australian Bluesman and UK drummer Kevin Hickman set the place alight with a top class performance of Blues Rock. After two excellent days of music one wondered, how could Butlins top things on Sunday? Jak’s Bar started off Sunday afternoon with something different, a solo set and talk by Richard Newman. Richard has been a music producer for 40 years and made a documentary for Channel 4 called, “Living With The Blues”. Which was a first hand history of the British Blues Boom. In between relating his memories of the ‘hey day’ of the 60s, he played a solo acoustic set of music from the likes of Son House and the other senior masters of the genre adding musical meat to his talk. This made a good diversion to the weekend, although primarily a music event, the addition of this, well, learning experience, especially for any of the younger punters present, is something that the Blues may wish to extend on, at future events and festivals. Butlins just the broke the ground on this one and the genre contains many top musicians who could carry on from this start and thus advance the Blues history and give it a higher profile. Sunday evening and onto the final frontier of the weekend, The Deborah Bonham Band who many expected to be a highlight of the weekend had a surprise in store for the punters, Deborah Bonham had arrived Saturday night in time to catch Chantel McGregor’s performance and was immediately impressed with this young ladies’ vocal, guitar work and stage presence. Deborah who was brought up among some of Blues-Rock royalty and one who can spot excellence when she sees it went straight back stage after Chantel’s performance and immediately invited her to perform a duet with her the following night. Not only did this provide one of the classic moments of the whole weekend, it can also be suggested as one those moments in history which often get missed in the information overload of an event. It was an acceptance that among the new generation, there is a core of musicians developing who have all the drive and talent to carry on the Blues legacy for their and future generations and Chantel numbers in that company! The Deborah Bonham Band are truly set to make their mark in 2010 and this was clear throughout the bands’ performance at Butlins, especially with the addition of two numbers from the new CD they are producing at present. One of these entitled ‘Lightnin’ Ray’ was an instant success with the punters and received rapturous applause. A swampy Blues Rock number, the drum & bass combo gave it a very tribal feel. It conjured up images of Native American Indian tribal celebrations to their totem gods. Deborah’s superb Blues Rock rendition with rocky guitar riffs made for a top class number. Their whole set was superb but one moment made virtually all the assembled hearts beat just a little faster.

‘The Old Hyde’ is lyrically a tear-jerker in its own right, add Deborah’s emotive vocal on this song and it is a classic. Yet at Butlins, the addition of a tender guitar solo full of utter humility for the occasion by Chantel McGregor had the crowd screaming for more and applause that was truly deafening. There are great moments in music, but this one was more than that, it was truly special! A quick move over to Centre Stage, to see the cult Blues band Nine Below Zero. They may have a long pedigree but true to the Blues legacy they didn’t sit on their laurels and just churn out the classics, they started their set bravely with a new song entitled ‘Mechanic Man’ a Blues Rocker of character with some mighty harp work throughout. Butlins didn’t scrimp on the final acts of weekend either with top class performances by Nazareth and Oli Brown to bring things to a glorious conclusion. The whole weekend had a far superior feel to 2009, choice, change and quality seemly the keywords in action at Butlins this year. The sound quality of the gigs seen was also top class, adding to a superb weekend. 2011 marks the seventy-fifth anniversary of Butlins and we await that with special interest!

Carol Borrington

Skegness Butlins Rock N Blues Weekend 29th/30th/31st January 2010

Jaks Bar

to name but a few. Richards fine performance whilst playing some amazing acoustic guitar blues, along with insight to his life events leading to this fine performance which has been a long time coming but as we all know the best things in life are worth waiting for. This is certainly the case in Richard Newman a man going places. As well as Acoustic Richard also perform as a 3 piece blues band, this can be heard on his CD titled Bluestones with “Tracks Going Down Slow” “New Stranger Blues” Richard writes all his own material with the occasional classic for good measure. Among his many achievements Richard secured an exclusive interview for Guitarist Magazine with Peter Green, and wrote and presented a channel four documentary titled “Living With The Blues”.

Last but certainly not least Gwyn Aston gave an acoustic performance. Supported by his drummer Kev Hickman on snare drum. After giving a great electric set the night before Gwyn showed how versatile he can be and just as good performing acoustically. As Gwyn went through his set the audience watched in amazement to his superb guitar playing style and no nonsense approach making the most incredible sounds imaginable. Gwyn invited Richard Newman up on stage to partake in a couple of songs before bringing the complete Jaks Blue event for another year to a successful conclusion with of course a much deserved encore from one of today’s great guitarists.

Sunday Night

As Jaks was not open me the chance to catch acts in the other 2 venues, Centre Stage, and Reds. The Deborah Bonham Band, Was a joy to watch Deborah the sister of the late great John Bonham of (Led Zeppelin) fame, gave a performance that was second to none. She was joined on stage briefly with female guitarist Chantel McGregor, for a heart rending song that was dedicated to everyone who had ever lost someone close to them. Brought the house to a stand still there was not a dry eye in the house or on stage as Deborah’s voice blended with the sound of the guitar a very special moment. Having been asked for a encore Deborah obliged by giving her rendition of a Led Zeppelin classic “Rock n Roll” in tribute to her brother the crowd were rocking. Wishbone Ash

I was personally looking forward to seeing the Ash as a life long fan and they did not disappoint everyone a classic from “The King Will Come” right through to “Blowing Free”. The years rolled backed I was a teenager again, if only in mind all throughout their brilliant performance Tygers Of Pan Tang, Watched a little of their heavy rock performance and catching some of Nine Below Zero on Centre Stage, Nazareth Supplying all their classic songs which put them up there with the greats of all time “ My White Bicycle” “Bad Bad Boy” “This Flight Tonight” “Love Hurts” great evening putting a close to another great eventful weekend. Roll on 2011.

THE CAMBRIDGE ROCK FESTIVAL

06/08-09/08/09

The Cambridge Rock Festival was one, I had not really thought of attending but encouraged by The Deborah Bonham Band, who’ve been regular attendees, I decided to give it the once over. Shortness of time due to other commitments meant I could only grab a couple of days but this was enough to convince me that I will be back in 2010. The name Cambridge Rock festival could be a bit misleading to Blues fans. I think it is fair to say that in my time at the event, over seventy-five per cent of the bands I saw were Blues, Blues Rock or Blues based music. The set-up of this event is excellent and consisted of three tents, an alternative one, the main tent, and for the first time a Blues tent sponsored by the Rotary Club. I missed the best-known Blues acts, firstly in Oli Brown, who I’m told was excellent despite spending Thursday night on the main stage practising for a potential appearance at Glastonbury, with torrential rain and mud baths. Friday, saw Danny Bryant’s Redeye Band perform. Again glowing reports came freely from the punters on enquiry. The whole set-up and ambiance of the festival proved highly impressive especially on Saturday and Sunday in those rare moments of summer sun. The event occurs in a large field just off the M11 and has the added advantage of only local sheep to complain about the noise. Parking was free as part of the package and on-site. The camping area was well setout next to the main enclosure and although I had no reason to check-out the provided facilities as a day visitor, if they even started to match those in the main compound then they would have been good. The main compound itself consisted of venue tents and an area occupied by Radio Caroline on one side and on the other, an arts tent and vast array of stalls, selling a range of foods from around the world, plants, clothes and accessories, hot cider and smoothies to die for Cambridge is a Real Ale Festival with a wide enough range of brands to satisfy the most ardent CAMRA devotee. It has the additional attraction of selling a vast range of ciders, the strawberry one being strong enough to make two my limit! The site was so clean; it had the effect of deterring people from dropping litter. Security was superb, in the present day climate. Cambridge’s staff was present but not over-powering, polite and certainly not with the ‘jobs worth’ attitude, that seems the norm around events nowadays. The loos were the best I’ve come across at any festival. Many in number and

Andy Nisbet

clean, with soap and towel, wash basin and mirror and very regularly checked and even with toilet cleaner flush to stop them smelling. The atmosphere was, much laid back, stress free and the perfect chill factor. Punters ranged from young couples with babies in prams to senior citizens, young Goths, hippies, rockers and even the family dogs and the remarkable thing was, I didn’t see one hint of trouble! They seem to have set a warm friendly and safe ethos at this festival that works. As to the actual music itself it was top class. I spent quite a bit time in the Blues tent. It was mainly bands from the southeast of the country and the quality was consistently good to excellent throughout. Some bands who particularly impressed me amongst the myriad of Blues styles on offer in that tent were; Blues Shift, Kuda Bux, Jimmy Dublin And The Hot Hob Band and a storming headlining performance from Simon McBride. The only complaint I could make about this festival was the embarrassment of riches, in that there were so many good bands on the three stages that deciding which ones to see could have been problematic. The organisers had however allowed for that by staggering start times so that whilst bands changed over on one stage another band started on the next. Definitely, the best organised festival around with excellent music and very well worth visiting in future years

Carol Borrington

BM: If your going to the 2010 Cambridge Fest check out the “Blues Matters! Roadshow” Say Hi to the team.

DAVEY KNOWLES

DAVY KNOWLES KEEPS ROLLING ON

Interview via long distance call by Duncan Beattie.

Manx born Davy Knowles hails from the Isle of Man and he and his band, Back Door Slam are considered one of the most likely Blues based acts to experience a commercial breakthrough in the USA. Davy formed the band, named after a Robert Cray Song, at the age of 16. In 2007 their debut album Roll Away was released through Blix Street Records.

Shortly after the album release Davy and the band travelled to the USA to play a pre-booked show at the South by South West Festival (SXSW). The overwhelming response meant that Davy has been based in the USA since. Around 350 shows have included performing at festivals such as Bonnaroo, New Orleans Jazz, Montreal Jazz plus support tours to Lynyrd Skynyrd and Gov’t Mule. This year has seen the release of the Peter Frampton produced second album “Coming Up For Air” which debuted at No 2 on the US Billboard’s Blues Chart and a new band line up. Blues Matters was privileged to catch up with Davy on his national US tour supporting Joe Satriani’s band Chickenfoot, who received the endorsement that Knowles is his “favourite modern-day bluesman”.

BM: Hi Davy, how are you and where are you at present?

Davy: I’m great. I am on the tour bus, and we’re on route to Lake Tahoe, on tour with Chickenfoot. The tour is going very well and we are getting some very good reactions from the crowds.

Can you tell me a little about how and why you were drawn to Blues music?

Blues music was always playing in my house. My dad was always a fan of bands like Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, Rory Gallagher and John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. My older sister also listened to Blues acts through a set of magazines released in the 1990s by Orbis. That introduced me to the likes of Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf.

When did you begin playing and singing and did you have lessons or are you entirely self-taught?

I started playing at the age of 11. I did have a few lessons but you tend to get shown other styles than the ones you want to play. My father played some guitar and increasingly I just sat in with gigging musicians and listening to them. I don’t think you can be entirely self-taught. I may have missed out on some of the theory by not doing lessons, but I think my musical ear benefited the way I learned. As for singing, I only started when I was 16 and it was mainly as no one else in the band was comfortable about it. Even now I’m still not 100% confident in my singing mainly as it is so much more personal if someone criticises your vocals, compared to your guitar playing.

Do you feel that growing up in the relative isolation of the IOM has been a help or hindrance to your musical development?

I think it was a big help. I feel if I’d come from London or somewhere like that there would have been so much more competition and so many bands, I could have got lost. On the Isle of Man it was easier to get known and easier to meet like-minded people.

Back Door Slam signed for Blix Street records, releasing Roll Away in 2007, how did you happen to get signed to them?

It was really lucky. On the Isle of Man there was a Stars In Their Eyes type competition with the winning act having the opportunity to record in a studio. The winning act was an Eva Cassidy impersonator. Meanwhile, we were recording Roll Away in the same studio at the same time. Cassidy’s record label Blix Street, called the studio several times to ask how the sessions with her were getting on. The response they got was to check out young guys in the other room, which was us! Unfortunately for her, she did not get signed, but we did.

photo Rich Singer

Please can you tell our readers a little about Roll Away, I think it is a fantastic debut album? What do you like most about it?

I’m probably more proud now about what it has done than the album itself. I am very pleased with some of the songs on it, like Stay and Roll Away. Some of the guitar work I wish now I had done differently at the time. I don’t though want to put it down in any way, as it is a big part of the reason I am here now.

The title track of your first album “Roll Away”, refers to a desire to see the wider world out there, did you ever think when you wrote that song that a few years later you would have relocated to the USA? Also the song lyrics state that you will always call the island your home, is that still the case? No way! I’d had that feeling since around 16 or perhaps younger. Looking back I sometimes have to pinch myself. Overall though there is so much I still want to do and see, in a way it’s like the island just got very much bigger! The Isle of Man is not home for me as in a sit down, have tea type of home, but spiritually it is still home. I’m very proud of being Manx and always will be.

One factor that appears significant in your success so far has been the use of a street team, social networking sites and message boards, how would you say these have been beneficial to you?

I would say that these are vital for any musician. The days of being handed a huge budget to go and promote the album by the record company have passed. Their importance cannot be understated as they really work to create a community. You get to know what people are thinking, whether good or bad. Also it feels like you are taking the fans with you, which is a real support.

How do you cope with the long distances that touring in the US involves?

t’s actually easier now than it was. When I first came we were travelling in a van and driving between cities. Now we have the bus so you can get to sleep. We can get to hangout a little after the show end and then leave to wake up in the next town. In the end though, I’m in my early twenties and doing what I always wanted to do, so I would not complain about it at all.

I hear you have changed over to a Paul Reed Smith guitar? had been using a Strat. This is a chance to have a better-made guitar with a better feel. I have recently been to PRS’s factory and it’s something I wish every guitar player had a chance to see. The dedication and care to create each guitar is really an art, it really is a wonderful instrument.

“Coming Up For Air” is the new album, already released in the states, it comes out in the UK in November. The album is a very accomplished recording, and you’ve described it as the next step musically. Please can you tell me a little about the album?

I am very proud of the new album. I have carried a lot of experience into the making of this album. I arranged the work with Peter Frampton. I feel the guitar playing is much more what I want to do. On Roll Away the pinnacle of the song was quite often the guitar solo. This time I feel I’ve got closer to recognising the song for what it really is. I learned to work in on the basis as to what the song needs and on this album the songs stand out for themselves.

There are several stand out tracks on the album, I’d like to ask you about one in particular, ‘Saving Myself’, where you play National guitar. Can you tell me about the song and the instrument you use to play it?

I wrote it with a songwriter I know, Gary Nicholson, whom I met in Nashville. Gary has written some great songs for various artists including some on Buddy Guy’s most recent album. I have a 1934 National Tri-cone and he and I did some “geeking” on our Nationals and came up with that song. It has a smoky delta Blues feel to it, but also I think there is something more in there too.

Peter Frampton produced the album co-wrote some of the tracks and plays on it too. Can you tell me what he brought to the process?

Peter did a fantastic job. He brought a little more out in everyone involved. He has wonderful leadership qualities that worked with everyone in the room. He was inspirational and really advanced the recording process. It’s interesting, but as soon as you start to think that you might have it all figured out someone comes along to show you that you have so much further to go. Peter is like that, as indeed is Warren Haynes. Peter is great in the true sense of the word.

“Coming up for Air” features a duet with country singer Jonatha Brooke. How did that come about? Is this an indication of your future direction in music?

No, I would not say it was a change in direction. Until I worked with Jonatha I’d never sung harmonies before. She was very patient with me, and is a wonderful singer. My record company president had heard Taste of Danger and suggested

that we record it, however as a three-piece band I did not feel that we could do it justice. In time both Jonatha and I did hear and enjoy each other’s work and so we decided to re-record the song as a duet. It has been released as a single here in the USA.

For one so young you’ve written some very heartfelt songs, such as ‘Stay’, ‘Too Good For Me’, ‘Ambers Song’, and ‘Mistakes’. How do manage to insert so much emotion into your songs?

For me it is a way of dealing with those emotions, while some will go for a drive, or have a drink, for me writing is the way I use. In the case of Stay, I was very upset and angry about the death of my two best friends but it became a release and at times the songs have become tributes, as it did in that case.

The line-up of Back Door Slam has changed in the last year. Why did the change come about and what do the new members bring to the band?

It does not matter what calibre of musician you work with, it will only take you up to a certain point. It has got to the point where it had gone stale. I felt I had learned as much as I could in that situation. That was a realisation. That was the main reason for changing the band. The album features drummer Fritz Lewak and bass player Kevin McCormick from Jackson Browne’s band and Tom Petty & The Heartbreaker’s Benmont Tench on keyboards. I have been very lucky too with my new band, which has given me a huge push. PK the bass player plays a very funky style, really groovy; Steven Barci the drummer has a jazz background. I have a keyboard player, Ty Bailie. Using a keyboard player has really changed everything for me; he is a superb musician who also has a very different background. I can’t wait to record with these guys in the future; we have already started writing together.

Your success in the USA has been inspirational. Since you left the UK there have been a few promising debut albums by British Blues rock artists, are you aware of any of them and what advice would you give them about getting a following in the USA?

I have heard of Scott McKeon. The music he does sounds amazing. I’m not experienced in giving advice, but you really have to bite the bullet and get over there. It really is the case that once you get your foot in the door it does start to open for you. This kind of music really does go down great; this is after all where it came from, the American equivalent to our folk music. You do have to keep touring and touring, it is not enough to hope to get something on radio for it all to take off from there.

When are you playing the UK?

There are two dates in late October, once the Chickenfoot tour has ended, with more some time next year too. I’ve not been home in a long time, but it feels about time. I would love to come over for a good duration and get into Europe too, but at this point I am not sure when that will happen.

Finally what are your plans and ambitions for the future?

My main ambition is to keep this up, to make music and tour and continue what I am doing. By the way it is nice to speak to someone from Blues Matters. I used to read it several years ago before moving to the USA. I will get a copy of this magazine posted over to me.

The Celtic Connection

Rory Gallagher opened the door for Davy

Of all the artists in Blues and rock that Davy admires, there was one with which Davy made an immediate connection. This was the late great Rory Gallagher. Being brought up on the Isle of Man Davy was familiar from a very early age with Celtic music and as he entered his early teens he developed a love for the Blues. The discovery of the music of Rory Gallagher had a profound impact on Davy.

“I love the fact Rory was able to put Celtic music into his rock and Blues. I’d first heard this through Rory and it opened doors to me which I’d not been aware had existed”.

The Celtic influence is there in Davy’s self penned music and it can also be heard in his live shows, as indeed can the songs that Rory wrote himself. A highlight of Davy’s early US tour dates was the encore of Rory’s “Going To My Hometown” played on mandolin. His current tour has seen him play a blistering version of the classic “Walk On Hot Coals” from Gallagher’s acclaimed live album, “Irish Tour” from 1974 and ‘Messing With The Kid’ from the “Live In Europe” classic from 1971. ‘As The Crow Flies’ has also featured in solo settings.

Ever present over 20 years beside Rory Gallagher was his bass player Gerry McAvoy. After being made aware of Davy Knowles, he contacted the young guitarist. He has offered Davy the opportunity to meet and play some of Rory’s song together, but so far their paths have not crossed as yet.

Davy Knowles is one of a few young Blues musicians who have displayed a love of Rory Gallagher’s music in recent years. Aside from a similar integrity in their music, you can also hear his songs played by artists such as Joe Bonamassa, Eric Sardinas, Aynsley Lister, Jim Suhler and Gwyn Ashton. Although sadly Rory Gallagher is no longer with us, passing away after contracting a hospital virus after a liver transplant, through these younger artists his music will continue to live on.

Duncan Beattie

photo Rich Singer

- Alligator

- Villainous Records

- Ruf Records

Out 12th April

Luther Allison

CD + DVD package. The ultimate celebration of Moreland & Arbuckle

Out 12th April

Out 29th March

Arbuckle lead a hard-driving band from Kansas garage rock sensibilities.

Sunday Times

- Stony Plain

CD REVIEWS

Get your Blues ears on CHRIS TOWZEY

Same Dirt

Smart Spirit Music

This five track E.P follows Towzey’s debut album, ‘Rockin’ At The Stoplight’, released a couple of years ago. The set was inspired by the title track, and dedicated to the idea of seeking out and cultivating common ground, whether it be on a country’s border or a life/love situation. Born in California, this singer- songwriter possesses a pleasant voice, which leans slightly more to country than it does Blues. The songs also fall in between the two styles, the title track being the best and most Bluesy effort, and whilst the other tracks aren’t bad, they tend to be a little too polished, ironically they don’t have enough dirt to them. The tracks are upbeat and breezy, very radio-friendly and inoffensive if a little bland, and although these tracks are very lyrically minded, they don’t quite pull you in to the music. His guitar playing too is nice, far from anything special, but there isn’t enough of it to really get your teeth into.

Andrew Baldwin

MARSHALL RUFFIN Morning Glory

Jammates Records

This EP is from a 25 year-old, roots-rock and Blues songwriter out of Georgia, US. He is yet to release a full effort, but this is his second fivetrack affair, and to be fair it runs as long as many artists long players. Vocally he is very reminiscent of Dan Auerbach, so much so that at times it sounds like it could be The Black Keys mans second solo album. Musically too, it sits alongside the Keys output, although it is slightly wider ranging, taking in a touch of Traffic and similar rock acts. The title track is a solid electric

grunge tune, full of earthy guitar and soulful, if slightly muffled, vocals. ‘Better Than Waiting’, at nearly a quarter of an hour in length, is a slow burning highlight, that is a hypnotic drone with a solo that comes late, but is inventive and full of feeling. ‘Be My Man’ features a dirty monster riff with a solo mired in the Delta. Keep an eye out for this guy, there’s surely more to follow.

Andrew Baldwin

NATHAN MOORE Folk Singer

The Royal Potato Family

This is an extended eight-track EP from a musician who has been in various formats for two decades. He has been all over the musical spectrum, playing in rock groups, jam bands, and string bands. Here he is alone, accompanied by an acoustic guitar, harmonica, banjo and a yearning, but playful vocal. The title aptly describes the music within, with the tracks being very roots based. Moore is a talented songwriter in the vein of John Prine and Leonard Cohen and the like, and sounds very inspired by 60s Dylan.

‘Tombstone’ is a witty tune in a clean finger picked style, while ‘Hard Times’ beautifully skirts with the Blues and tells how people are struggling today, and that it’s not just in old folk songs. ‘Bending Spoons’ is a gentle ballad that is like all of these tunes, being heartfelt, honest and intimate. There’ll be more to come no doubt with a full album release, if this batch of confident songs are anything to go by.

Andrew Baldwin

ROWSE Goodbye Today

http://www.rowsemusic.co.uk

Rowse are a young, London based band, which started life as an acoustic duo back in 2007. If you’d bumped into them back then you’d have encountered an acoustic Blues / Americana outfit, but since the addition of guitarist Iain and drummer Simon they’ve mutated into a full blown Blues rock outfit. Now you’d think that would be the clever thing to do, what with The Answer getting all sorts of plaudits over the last few years. However, the one thing Rowse have yet to do is write a really great song. Don’t get me wrong, this six track mini album is enjoyable, but it’s not going to have you

hitting the repeat button. To be fair, they’re still wee boys, and they do play their instruments in an accomplished manner. But songs like ‘2 Lonely Soles’ are just not quite there yet. That song, in particular, is a moody beggar which threatens to turn into something spectacular, but there are a lot of rough edges which need taking care of. The FREE like funk of ‘Hello Tomorrow’ is another good one that’s crying out for more. Something that will hopefully be addressed by the legendary producer, Tony Platt, when he goes into the studio with them. Having said all that, I’d still recommend this to you, as they only want £3 for the whole shebang. So what are you waiting for?

Stuart A Hamilton

ANDY SHARROCKS & THE SMOKIN JACKETS

Dirt

Andy Sharrocks

Andy Sharrocks and the Smokin Jackets are a London based outfit. Sharrocks is a singer / songwriter/ guitarist who vocally pulls no punches; his voice is as raw as it is mean. As a songwriter, his lyrics are catchy and highly contagious but at the same time delve deep into the human psyche. The Smokin Jackets too, are a band with a very distinct raw sound. Put together in a studio for four days, the result was ‘Dirt’, a self-penned piece of UK Americana. ‘Davey’s Blues‘ leans heavily on country, the story of an imprisoned travelling man, which has your foot a tapping. Followed by ‘Waste Some Time’, a catchy ditty that lightens the heart and leaves you smiling. ‘Ain’t Getting My Share’, is a rough, tough working man’s lament, with a lot of lyrical, vocal and instrumental clout , a very present day Dylanesque protest song on the current recession. It shows the more socio-political side of Sharrocks’ writing. The title track ‘Dirt’ is bouncy and highly likable Country Blues, there’s impressive guitar work on this one! The CD ends with ‘Tragedy’ a slow Country Blues lament that digs deep into the emotions. Although still deep and raw, Sharrocks vocal on this track, takes more melodic and sympathetic tones, which are perfectly matched by beautiful instrumentals. This CD leaves with you a warm feeling; it’s got a lot life and fun in its highly capable music and lyrics.

Carol Borrington

THE ANDY SMYTHE BAND Nation Of The Free Dreaming Element Records

All the energy Andy Smythe saved thinking of some clever name for his band was not wasted. For the uninitiated, the no-nonsense moniker and sleeve design somehow suggest 16 wheel trucking, swigging cold beer from bottles and plenty of full blooded fret board finger-wiggling. True,

Barry Targett’s accomplished strings never disappoint, but that is where the metaphors must end. No – Smythe’s concentrated efforts into the money shot deserve success. This isn’t blues, but do not discard it. “Folk” is too thin a categorisation for this multi layered, intriguing debut - a thoughtfully collection of strongly written, socially aware, revved-up warbling with plenty of light and shade with the title track raising the curtain powerfully. Smythe unashamedly wears political colours and hopes for a new world in ‘Obama’s Song’ (...two black girls playing on the White House lawn....) . Subtle production marries with some beautifully understated accompaniment by Targett and Les Elvin on bass, and the Morrissey/ Neil Young / Paul Heaton quality to Smythe’s voice winsomely enhance the delivery of his message. Diction and vocal precision are oftneglected elements to be appreciated when presented like this. ‘Changing Seasons’ stays with you long after it ends and an interesting challenge is to listen to ‘Louise’ without thinking ‘Puff The Magic Dragon’. Too busy a sound for some folk purists one suspects, and maybe not rufty tufty enough for Blues fans, but find room for it– the second listen confirms it as an underground, quirky corker that deserves turntable time.

Richard Thomas

ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT Coconut

Domino Records

This is the third CD on Domino records for this London based trio and their first recording for nearly four years. The band consists of Sam ‘The Cardinal’ Windett, Arp Cleveland and Dorian Hobday. Putting the CD in a genre is absolutely impossible, the best description possibly eclectic psychedelic rock meets, the renewed interest in electronica. The album opens with ‘Magnetic Warrior’, a highly layered track, with a haunting tribal beat and fuzzed and echoed vocals, which seem almost secondary to the m musical intensity. Moving into the second track, ‘Shark’s Tooth’, one can’t help but get a feel of the Ibiza Town dance scene. Again, electronically driven with those echoed vocals, complex layering but yet an almost primordial feel. ‘Hoola’ continues the electronica, and this one has very psychedelic trans Ibizan feel. ‘Wild Strawberries’ comes over as psychedelic punk and you begin to feel that these guys are searching, experimenting with all forms of past music, combining them within a musical medium of their generation and out to push music to its limits. ‘You Have A Right To A Mountain/One Up On Yourself’, feels like Tibetan music meets the sounds of Native American Indian, mixed with electronica. It’s as if it is high on mescaline, with its frenzied riffs. ‘Hunt You Down’ is a ballad. It’s far lighter and airy than other tracks, with a feeling of the early 60s

OnÊ‘Booker’sÊGuitar’ÊEricÊBibbÊcapturesÊtheÊspiritÊofÊtheÊDeltaÊbluesÊofÊtheÊ earlyÊ20thÊcenturyÊandÊreinterpretsÊitÊforÊaÊnewÊera.ÊBibbÊrecordedÊtheÊtitleÊ track,ÊoneÊofÊhisÊownÊcompositions,ÊinÊEnglandÊusingÊDeltaÊbluesÊlegendÊ BookerÊWhite’sÊoriginalÊ1930sÊvintageÊResophonicÊNationalÊsteel-bodyÊ guitarÊthatÊhadÊbeenÊrecentlyÊre-discovered.

“I really wanted to make a complete statement and document my connection to the Delta blues tradition”, Bibb says, “and put myself in the position of my heroes, but in a contemporary context, and create songs that I feel could have been part of their repertoire and could have come from their own experience.”

“The acoustic blues revival is in safe hands. Much like Taj Mahal Eric Bibb has been mining a rich seam, although one with a stronger gospel-folk tinge … His latest collection yields some of his earthiest work to date.” SundayÊTimes

Tour dates:

APRIL 30th Cheltenham Jazz Festival MAY 3rd Gateshead - The Sage 4th Crawley - The Hawth Centre

5th Cardiff - St David’s Hall 6th Aberystwyth Arts Centre 8th Lewes - The Town Hall

10th & 11th London - Bloomsbury Theatre

14th Edinburgh - Queens Hall 16th Sheffield - Memorial Hall

19th Basingstoke - The Anvil 20th Worcester The Huntingdon Hall 21st Bilston - The Robin 2

22nd Frome - Cheese & Grain 23rd Southampton - The Brook 25th & 26th Milton Keynes - The Stables

27th Birmingham - Town Hall 29th Galway, Roisin Dubh 30th Dublin - The Abbey Theatre

JUNE 1st Letterkenny - An Grianan Theatre

TelarcÊBluesÊisÊdistributedÊbyÊProperÊNote:Ê020Ê8676Ê5114

AskÊyourÊdealerÊtoÊorderÊfromÊProper:Ê0870Ê444Ê0805

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DEDICATED JAZZ AND BLUES

VENUE

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conveyed in a new medium. Although, an amazingly interesting CD, ‘maybe’ not for the Blues purist!

Carol Borrington

DANNY BRYANT’S REDEYE BAND Just As I Am

Continental Blue Heaven Records

Two years down the road from “Black And White” and having played countless gigs along the way Danny and his stalwarts release their seventh CD at the start of February. With the same production team, the excellent and intuitive Dave Williams at the helm, father Ken on bass and drummer Trevor Barr at the back you could be forgiven if you

B.B KING

asked has anything changed? Well the answer has to be no and yes. The CD again sounds crisp and clear throughout whether being driven hard or at more usual listening levels. The rhythm section gel together like the seasoned professionals they are. This time around you get eight original cuts and one John Hiatt cover. So what has changed? I think, overall, it comes down to that difficult to define thing called maturity of confidence. Danny’s playing is more measured and his solos appear to have just the right amount of notes to do the job, rather than cramming in more than necessary. Danny’s writing deals with love slipping away and the general hardships that life can throw at us. Don’t think that this makes for depressing listening, oh no. The Blues has that weird ability to lift you up your spirits even when the subject matter may not be the happiest. Good examples from this set are ‘Slipping Away’, ‘Blues For Buddy’, ‘Just As I Am’ or the brilliant closer ‘Alone In The Dark’. This is good, very good indeed. -Graeme Scott

L.A. Midnight/To Know You Is To Love You

CHRIS FARLOWE 14 Things To Think About/The Art Of Chris Farlowe

BGO

The 2CD set of BB King come from 1972 and ’73 respectively, and both are quite obscure studio albums. The former is by far the better and opens with some soulful Blues with ‘I Got Some Help I Don’t Need’, and instantly you notice his voice sounds young and fresh. King conducts a call and response conversation with the horn section on a fine instrumental take of ‘Help The Poor’. This disc is a win/win album for both voice and guitar, with plenty of Lucille to be heard, it sounds as if he just wanted to get in a studio and let off some steam. Taj Mahal, Jesse Ed Davis, and soon to be Eagle Joe Walsh guest to jam with the Blues legend. The second album was recorded in Philadelphia and flirts with the soul sound that was popular at the time. The set is more song orientated and sounds a little flat after the previous set. The title track is a strong Bluesy update on the Stevie Wonder tune, who actually guests playing piano. It’s a decent album in it’s own right, but Blues fans will be playing the former too often to give this too spins. The two albums from Farlowe are his debut and follow- up album, both released in 1966. 14 Things is a white soul effort, with traces of the Blues, especially in the ex-Colosseum and Atomic Rooster frontman’s voice. The set opens with his hit cover of Jagger & Richards ‘Think’, whilst the songbook’s of Dylan and The Beatles are also raided for this enjoyable slice of mid 60s English soul. The Art Of follows on in much the same vein, the Stones being the main composers, with a pop reworking of ‘Paint It Black’ with a heap of orchestration’. ‘Cuttin’ In’ is an up-tempo Blues, whilst ‘North South East West’ is a great rocking number where Farlowe lets loose. There is the occasional miss, such as the cover of Otis Redding’s ‘I’ve Been Loving You Too Long’, being too polished and sweet, and having none of the power of the original.

Andrew Baldwin

ARTHUR ADAMS Stomp The Floor

Deltagroove

Listening to the youthful voice and contemporary sounds of Arthur Adams, it is hard to believe the age of this smooth Bluesman, until one refers to his accomplishments over the last forty years. He was born in Medon, Tennessee not far from Jackson. Much of his musical odyssey has been spent in California as a Blues and soul artist, session man and writer. From giving B B King ‘Mean And Evil’, to penning other hits for the likes of Albert King and Quincy Jones, this aspect is perhaps his finest legacy. He played guitar on Bonnie Raitt’s grammy winning ‘Nick Of Time’, but after somewhat losing his way as a solo artist he subsequently re-emerged with the soul-tinged “Back On Track” (1999) and ‘Soul Of The Blues’ (2004). Another five years on, and the best of the three “Stomp The Floor”, represents the man in his latent prime. Comparisons with B B King are inevitable because of his guitar playing and style, but the vocals are those of a pure tenor. His voice is beautifully preserved and he brings the most out of songs like ‘You Can’t Win For Losing’ and ‘Nature Of The Beast’. The instrumentals, two of which close the album, ‘Around The Sun’ and ‘Blue Roots’ add variety to this great album.

Noggin

BARE BONES BOOGIE BAND

Bare Bones Boogie Band

Myspace.com/barebonesboogieband

It is easy to file Bare Bones Boogie Band alongside the likes of Northsyde and Never The Bride; talented Blues stalwarts of the UK scene. Indeed, Scots Helen Turner and Iain Black may be better known in their previous band incarnations of Red Road and 3 A.M. It is to their credit they can also be filed next to The Rolling Stones and Janis Joplin. The opener, ‘Baby, Baby Be Mine’ has the infectious riff and rhythm of the latter two in particular. Guitarist Iain Black composes six of the tracks, so it’s no surprise that the album is a guitar gumbo with shades of Peter Green most welcome. ‘Black Cat Strikes Back’ has an air of early Texas, only better, with Helen Turner giving heartfelt feeling to the vocals; certainly more Lorna Fothergill than Sharlene Spiteri. The boogie element

of the band only comes across on a couple of tracks and is almost a misnomer as their focus works best on the slow shivering Blues. Turner rejuvenates Joplin in ‘One Good Man’ and this sound is surely their stripped down bare bones niche. A crowd-pleasing precipitator, ‘I’d Rather Go Blind’ is emotively raw and leads sweetly into the Jagger/ Richards avalanche of rock ‘Live With Me’. It’s a super debut.

Gareth Hayes

BELLEVUE RENDEZVOUS Salamander

Proper Music Distribution

After a well received first album, “Tangents”, released in 2007, the acoustic trio from Scotland is taking us with “Salamander” on a beautiful journey throughout Europe, a journey of subtle flavours, misty colours and stormy seas. In mediaeval times, it was said that salamanders could live in the fire and this CD is certainly as vibrant and bright as the biggest bonfire. By combining unusual instruments, the three musicians, Gavin Marwick on the fiddle, Ruth Morris on the nyckelharpa (a traditional Swedish instrument) and Cameron Robson on the cittern, guitar and jaw harp, take us to a world full of troubadours and minstrels, castles, knights and damsels in distress. A world without TVs, computers and mobile phones, a world where life wasn’t simple but felt simpler. A simple life is what you’re hoping for when accompanying our trio on their travels to France, Sweden, Poland, Finland, Macedonia and of course Scotland, and each stopover leaves you under the spell, wondering what to expect next. Each of the ten tracks is a beautiful, sparkling melody combining tradition with original arrangements, each with a story of its own exquisitely interpreted. You can’t help but feel haunted by ‘Firedance Parts I and II’ composed by Gavin Marwick for a play about Irish immigration in Canada or join the devil in a dance with the polska style ‘Hårgalåten’, a Swedish folk song. A truly original and magical album for those long evenings by the fire with playful salamanders included of course.

BEN ANDREWS Gallows Pole

Powerhouse Records

This is an excellent record. It just drips with passion and respect for the Blues. Ben was born in Yugoslavia before moving to the States and growing up listening to Folk and the Blues before playing in various bands around Washington DC. It is very clear when this is spinning that he has completely absorbed the past masters of Delta Blues and on this release you get eleven covers or traditional cuts and only one original. I could wax lyrical about ‘One Kind Favour’, ‘Broke Down Engine’, ‘Stagolee’, ‘Mad With You Baby’ or ‘Salty Dog’ but what would be the point. I know that many more eloquently equipped than I have done so often times in the past. On several of the tracks West Weston harmonica, Roger Hubbard slide, Richard

Frankie Bluesy Pfeiffer and Nat Harrap

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Studholme bass joined Ben and Mike Thorn drums. Those cuts were all recorded live and essentially as a jam and they have a lovely groove to them. I particularly enjoy listening to ‘Death Have No Mercy’ as it shuffles along. Closing out the album is the title track ‘Gallows Pole’. Weighing in at a hefty eleven minutes and five seconds it is sparse, doom laden and heartbreaking as the condemned man beseeches his parents to do all they can to keep the inevitable from happening. Both Ben’s guitar playing and singing on this track are just superb. Undoubtedly this is the standout track on the album. Even though I have just said that, trust me that none of the others are any less deserving of being on the album. This was excellence personified.

Graeme Scott

BEN WATERS Hurricane Hypertension

‘Hurricane’, the latest album from Ben Water’s finds the acclaimed Boogie Woogie Piano maestro in fine form in an album of mainly original songs. Aided by a tight band of bass, drums, and a full brass section the songs range from a mid tempo tribute to one of Waters heroes in Booker, to the softer ballad and the album’s closing song, ‘Inconsequential’. The boogie woogie Piano expertise that makes his gigs so memorable is in good supply, in the dextrous tals ‘Helicon Boogie’, and the jump piece ‘The Wasp’, which features two handed contrapuntal Piano and full use of the Saxophonist Derek Nash, and also in the album’s only cover version Amos Milburn’s ‘Rooming House Boogie’. The album features sterling contributions from co-songwriter

Richard Hymas who plays guitar, bass, and vocals, a tight rhythm section being completed by drummer Ady Milward, and the colourful additions of Clive Ashley on Saxophone and Vocals. The songs stray far from the more traditional blues themes, and looks at the effects of global warning, and tabloid society, in such songs as the title track, ‘Hurricane,’ and ‘Mother Nature’s Molecules’. Relationships though are explored in such songs as ‘Who U Lay’, which features the albums only use of Organ, and a guitar led instrumental middle eight with a distinctive 1960’s sound to it. This album is good, but it does not really do justice to the band, who are always at their best when playing live, and it is only a small sampling of what this band can do on the concert platform.

Ben McNair

BERNARD ALLISON GROUP

The Other Side

Jazzhaus

Delightful soul-tinged Blues from Bernard Allison. He has a classy sound with a sweet and soulful edge to the music and his voice is almost as good as his guitar playing. He is very ably supported by Bruce McCabe on keys and Jose James on sax but the music is guitar based and you wouldn’t really expect any different from Luther Allison’s son but he is easy in his groove and the album is one of gentle passion rather than any Otis styled explosion of emotion. Tracks like ‘I Wouldn’t Treat A Dog (The Way You Treated Me)’ are full of music and some excellent playing but he doesn’t quite make you feel the depths of his mistreatment. ‘The Otherside’ is a seriously funky little number and his voice takes on a whole different demeanour – almost Larry Blackmon – as the whole band take the intensity up a notch. ‘Slide Master’ keeps the groove on and his durrrrty vocal and fuzzed slide show a whole other passion. All through the album Allison shows the different guitar styles he is capable of and he manages to turn his hand to slide or picking or riffing with equal ease but he sounds happiest when he is laying back and playing it easy alongside the sax or keys. When he moves into N’Orleans territory on ‘Leavin The Bayou’ he manages to get a clean rolling swagger as he moves along Highway 1 towards Chicago and the guitar is exquisitely developed from a Bayou chop into a Chicago slide. Bernard Allison is a player in his own right rather than his father’s son and he makes some really fine music; this album continues a fine development. -

BILLY WALTON BAND

Neon City

www.billywaltonband.com

Andy Snipper

This New Jersey trio has toured Britain several times, most recently in late 2009, though a month later Billy returned as guitarist with Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes. That may give some idea of the man’s talent - and it also gives a rough idea of his approach. The major figure to emerge from this scene has been Bruce Springsteen of course, but Southside Johnny has long purveyed a soul inflected rock sound, and Billy has taken the sound of the British Blues-rock of Clapton, Zeppelin and others and combined it with the New Jersey rock and pop sound and some music from further south (think perhaps Derek Trucks and, Gov’t Mule). Some of the tracks here are out-and-out rock (like the spooky, X-Files-ish ‘Jersey Devil’), other tracks such as the glorious cover of “blue-eyed soul” singer Roy Head’s 1965 hit ‘Treat Her Right’, the Jimi Hendrix styled ‘Spreading The Blues’ and the wonderful rendition of Motown hit

‘Papa Was A Rolling Stone’ are pure riffing rhythm ‘n’ blues-rock.

Norman Darwen

BILLY LAVENDER Memphis Livin

I55 Productions

A long-time feature on the Memphis music scene, Billy Lavender is a native of the city, a left-hander who plays right-handed guitar upside-down and who got his first musical inspiration from rock band Grand Funk Railroad – now he is an excellent all-round player. For this set he has assembled a cast of local musicians - most likely to be familiar are harmonica man Blind Mississippi Morris and his frequent accompanist Brad Webb on guitar, but vocals are shared around several top-notch singers and stylistically the music runs the whole gamut of Memphis sounds. Rocking Blues (‘Let’s Party’ which has Mississippi Morris laying down some fine harp) to sweet soul, rockabilly to tough funk, moody rock to a Beatles inflected item, blues-rock to country; you’ll find it all here. Vince Johnson takes front-man duties on several tracks, including the slow-ish blues ‘Cold As Ice’ and the jazzy rocker ‘Shake It’, and he also supplies some fine wailing harp. The overall feeling is of a bunch of friends jamming together and having a good time playing music they – and you will – like. A lot. -

Norman Darwe

BLACK CROWN STRINGBAND

Black Crown Stringband

Independent

First of all, this is not an album for the blues/folk music dilettante. If you find those grainy 30s recording of Robert Johnson just a little bit too grainy then look away now. If you happen to actually quite like those old recordings, then listen to this album and you will be rewarded with a musical treat. Right from album opener Shady Grove, to album closer Pretty Little Indian, this is an album of unashamed ho-down music. Ignoring how esoteric this music is, the major flaw of this album is that all the tracks do sound rather similar, with the upbeat mood becoming slightly tiresome after a while – it really would be nice to hear a more mournful song or two. This is the music civil war-era America, complete with mandolins, fiddles, and the obligatory banjo. And here in lies the key to their music: it is so evocative of a distant time, that the fact it sounds like the last 150 years of music never happened doesn’t matter one jot, so immersed do you become.

Adam Bates

GORDIE TENTREES

Mercy or Sin

www.tentrees.ca

Canadian singer songwriter

Gordie Tentrees presents a selection of tunes that are generally self composed or written in partnership with some of his accompanying musicians. The musicianship throughout is first rate and the outstanding track is Gordie’s excellent version of Bert Jansch’s ‘Ramblings Gonna Be the Death of Me’. In several places he sounds very reminiscent of Steve Earle. The album is atmospheric and as Gordie spends a lot of his time touring Canada he captures something of the feel of the great outdoors. Gordie’s songs are interesting but the lyrics are a little too wordy and his message is somewhat obscured. There is the suggestion of an underlying theme of sustaining some sort of faith through all the trials and tribulations of life on the road. The artwork points to this metaphysical theme with illustrations from the famous Ottenheinrich Bible which dates from around 1530. The artwork is obviously intended as an integral part of the presentation and though interesting I found it quite disturbing. All in all that this is an interesting album that promises much for the future although too many echoes of Steve Earle could prove counter-productive.

Vicky Martin

BLACKBURN Brotherhood

ANDERSON/SLOSKI

Footwork

Make It Real Records

“Brotherhood” is described as the first Blues recording of Toronto quartet Blackburn. Yet following the opening upbeat blues shuffle of ‘Movin’’ it is apparent that there is far more to the album than blues. However this is not a bad thing as this is an interesting album of musical diversity. The brothers of Duane, Brooke and Corby Blackburn, plus bassist Mark Ayee are well recognised in Toronto’s African Canadian music scene and this release it is clear why. Duane is a soulful vocalist and is unafraid of applying his vocals to a mellowed version of ‘Fever’ and ‘The Thrill Has Gone’ and in both cases carries it off. He is also a mean Hammond organ player, Brooke’s guitar playing is restrained but effective and the album jumps with a funky urban groove. ‘Soul Searching’ has a hip hop vibe, ‘Sister Rosa’ has a gospel flavour. There are moments of introspection in the mournful traditional cut ‘Hush’ and a sincere and reverential reading of Champion Dupree’s ‘Junker’s Blues’. The Blackburn’s father used to lead the band at a tavern in Toronto in the 1970s and his sons pay tribute to those times with the funky instrumental ‘Back At The

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Zanzibar’. Sounds like they were worth catching back then too. Fellow Canadian musician Lance Armstrong produces the album and he demonstrates he is adept at more than a mixing desk with “Footwork” recorded by the organ duo Anderson/Slonski. Throughout the album Anderson plays a 1958 Cherrywood Hammond B3, using the bass pedals for his feet. His companion Michael Sloski provides equally impressive drum patterns combining regimented support with flamboyance to truly fill in the orchestration behind Anderson. Combined they tackle a range of well-crafted originals and covers by amongst others, Jimmy McGriff and Billy Preston. It might appear their sound might be limited yet this album varies from the jazz Blues shuffle of ‘Michael’s Blues’, to the soulful groove of ‘Chillin’’ and the New Orleans funk of ‘Right Place, Wrong Time’. The fourteen tracks are largely instrumental, although Anderson takes the lead for the laidback ‘Devil With The Blue Dress’ and an inventive version of ‘She Caught The Katie’. Furthermore guest vocalists Steven Ambrose and George Oliver appear on the lowbeat version of ‘Superstition’ and equally frantic ‘World of Love’. This is a creative set and will be appreciated by far more than Hammond connoisseurs. Indeed since this has been recorded Anderson has appeared on an album by Ian Gillan. In summary, it’s a perfect soundtrack for a moment of relaxation in the wee wee hours. --Duncan

Beattie

BON JOVI

The Circle

Mercury Records

This is Bon Jovi’s eleventh album and there is a subtle

change to previous. The band has gone back to their roots in the New Jersey sound. There is freshness and a distinct Blues Rock taste to this CD, driven by the impeccable guitar riffs of Ritchie Sambora. A number of the songs mirror classic blues story-telling mode and the CD echoes the socio-political problems of the modern day, found in the music of their New Jersey brethren Springsteen and Trout and the influence of 60s Blues on Sambora. The CD opens with, ‘We Weren’t Born To Follow’, a catchy Bluesy Rock number. It is followed by a cracker of a number, ‘When We Where Beautiful’. Basically a rock ballad, with great vocal gymnastics by Jon Bon, power drumming and captivating Blues rock riffs, with riveting sustain, precision technique and most important classic Blues feeling from Sambora. ‘Work For The Working Man’, again demands you listen not only to the lyrics but to the musical format they are presented in. It kicks off with the Bon Jovi signature bass and drum before moving into Blues rock guitar riffs, a melodic chain-gang chorus and drum beats like the oars time-keeper on a slave-ship, all drawn together by Jon Bon’s emotive rock vocal. ‘Learn To Love’ finishes the CD in story-telling and rock mode. This exquisite number is raised to perfection by soul wrenching blues guitar riffs. It may be rocky but Bon Jovi’s gone got the Blues!

Casket Music

VARIOUS Rare Bluegrass From Nashville – The 1960s

T-Bird

Don’t worry, this isn’t a bluegrass revolution. In case you were wondering, bluegrass evolved from the old-timey string-band music in the early 1940s, mixing venerable folk sounds and newer forms such as Blues, ragtime and jazz, and played on banjo, mandolin, fiddle, guitar and bass – or combinations thereof. OK, the Blues has got a mention, and this set – a counterfoil to “Rare Blues & Soul From Nashville – The 1960s” is likewise compiled and annotated by blues guitarist/producer Fred James. Lovers of Americana will appreciate the straight bluegrass sounds and the country tracks of Carl Story – the latter must have already sounded dated in slick 1960s Nashville - and also included are six amazing tracks from The Wade Family, hangovers from the previous century. So too are the attitudes, if not the lyrics of Earl McCollum’s ‘If God Had Wanted Us On The Moon’, but all 28 tracks will be of interest to lovers of American roots sounds.

MICHAEL ROACH Innocent Child

Stella

COTTON BELLY’S

Cotton Belly’s Independent

To be honest, it’s rare to find a first album as classy and successfully put together as this one. To release such a gem, you can’t help but feel that the five Cotton Belly’s members have either spent an incredible amount of time to write, rehearse, record, mix or they’ve done it with the insolence only very talented guys can afford. And what a talent they have, confirming that France has some great Blues bands on offer. When a band like Cotton Belly’s has a singer with the perfect English phrasing and intonations, there’s no doubt they can aspire to an international career. Let’s not forget that said singer Yann ‘Willywood’ Malek is also an extremely talented harmonica player, just wild enough to make the difference. You also go from the electric six-string to the acoustic and resonator and in the rhythmic section, from the double base to the electric bass, drums and cajon, giving each of the twelve tracks its own, unique atmosphere. You hop from a sparkly ‘Cup Song’ to a frenzied ‘Cotton Jig’, which follows a beautifully acoustic ‘Shy Boy’. This album is like a spicy sauce full of rich and varied flavours showing the breadth of the Cotton Belly’s musical palette. And the leading track of this album must be ‘Mambo’. There’s everything there, the soft intro, the voice calm and assured rising powerfully to end in a Bluesy tsunami you can’t quite recover from. Cotton Belly’s: a French export to be reckoned with!

Frankie Pfeiffer/Nat Harrap

STOMPIN’ DAVE ALLEN

Fake American Accent

STOMPIN’ DAVE’S ELECTRIC BAND

Live At The R.P.A.

www.stompindave.com

- Norman Darwen

Back in the 80s I read about this young singer/ guitarist who was hanging with older Washington DC (and environs) Blues greats such Archie Edwards, John Cephas and John Jackson. Those three are all gone now, and Michael lives in England, where he has established a solid reputation, works in both electric and acoustic modes, and is responsible for the European Blues Association, whose week long ‘Blues camp’, attracts acts outside the usual festival fare. This all-acoustic CD marks a return to Michael’s roots, drawing on Mississippi John Hurt (is it via Archie Edwards?), John Jackson, and older acts such as Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Willie McTell, Josh White and even a snatch of Robert Johnson. Fellow East-Coaster Johnny Mars takes a break from his usual high energy harmonica style to supply some wonderful rural and early Chicago styled Blues licks on six tracks, and the excellent vocal group Black Voices contribute some gospel feeling – try especially the a cappella ‘Didn’t It Rain’, very much in the joyous jubilee style of The Golden Gate Quartet. Michael’s children even contribute, ensuring the tradition is passed on – as it was to Michael himself and as it should be.

From 1999 until 2006 Dave was known as Doctor Stomp, but he then adopted his present soubriquet. “Fake American Accent” gives a wonderful idea of one area of the man’s talents. It contains 27 tracks, all solo efforts recorded with no overdubs. The material includes plenty of bluegrass, old-timey sounds, hoedowns, deep folk tunes, old minstrel numbers and of course Blues, played on fiddle, banjo or guitar. The set is split fairly evenly between instrumentals and vocal tracks, and even though Dave may be using a fake American accent, his high, slightly nasal sing-

Carol Borrington.

Norman Darwen

CD REVIEWS

ing does sound very authentic. Stompin’? “Tap dancing” as the sleeve calls it, though that does not convey the sometimes quite crazy ‘foot breaks’ that can be heard. Dave is an energetic performer and this CD successfully captures that plus his skill and his sense of fun. Dave started his electric band in 2007, and here he plays rack harp and electric guitar backed by drums and bass “in front of a very small audience at the Royal Portland Arms, Dorset” in 2009. Hearing the weak sounding harp on the opener I wondered if Dave would let me down. No! It may be a warts-and-all CD but it is a delight to hear him working his way into the set, gaining in confidence as it progresses. Dave is less individual in electric mode but there are still numbers among the Chicago styled outings that don’t really sound like anyone else – and he can range from T-Bone Walker to Hendrix, even within the same song. A little rockabilly and boogie really do enhance a CD that will please Dave’s existing fans and hopefully bring him some new ones.

Norman Darwen

CHARLIE POOLE

The Essential 2CD Box Proper Records

One thing’s certain every month – of you’re talking ‘roots’ then that’s Proper Records. Well, it doesn’t get more ‘roots’ than this.

Charlie Poole, (1892-1931) to the uninitiated, was, to quote this box’s excellent 24 pages of liner notes, “to country music what Charlie Patton was to blues”. We also learn that Poole. ‘a hellraiser of the highest order’, influenced, among many others, Jerry Garcia of the Grateful Dead, (Garcia’s bluegrass super group, Old and In The Way took their name from a Poole song, featured here). It is also important to realise that Poole’s three finger banjo style, a classically influenced technique, was highly influential and was picked up by banjo maestro Earl Scruggs, and can be heard today in many bluegrass outfits. There’s just about everything you need to know about this superb music in the 4 CD set, but it is a hell of a chunk for a reviewer to listen to all in one go. Yet running through the disks is quite an experience, because as well as the banjo wizardry, there’s a hearty helping of beautiful guitar and fiddle playing from a variety of legendary artists such as fiddler Posey Rorer (1891-1956) guitarist Roy Harvey (1892-1958) and various other line-ups featuring Leonard Copeland, the Allegheny Highlanders, and of course, Poole’s own superb

band, the North Carolina Ramblers. Considering the age of some of these recordings, the transcriptions are terrific. The lyrics are always clear, and these songs will raise a smile in many instances – George Formby would have loved ‘em. Two of Poole’s works, included, Sweet Sunny South and White House Blues, are acknowledged today as country standards. When it comes to covering all your bases of down-home, roots music history, this fascinating and entertaining box is an absolute must.

Roy Bainton

Feelin’ Good

CHRIS FARLOWE Born Again

Rokoko

This album was originally released in 1986 and marked a second phase of Chris Farlowe’s career as he returned to recording after almost a decade away. The production on this is noticeably more opulent than on his earlier albums.

I preferred his earlier albums but he still stands out as a really black sounding blues and soul singer. In fact coming back to listen to Chris after a long time I was struck by how much he sounds like Tom Jones, no bad thing in the light of the Welshman’s late career renaissance. The album comes with bonus tracks added. One of these ‘We Can Work it Out’ is pure filler and doesn’t add anything. Highlights include the title track, ‘One Night Stand’ and ‘Never too Old to Rock’. Best track for this writer was the ballad ‘Living Ain’t Easy Without You’. All the songs on here are up to standard. It’s a little overproduced for my taste and it sounds less like a band than earlier albums, more lie Chris with session guys, but if you like Chris Farlowe you’ll certainly enjoy this. He was in very good form at the time.

Vicky Martin

CHRIS MERKLEY Thirty Miles From Nashville Old Boy

Based in New York, Merkley’s claim to fame, is that he composed several pieces of music for the critically acclaimed HBO series Generation Kill. He certainly is a talented individual, and takes almost full control on this album, playing electric and acoustic guitar, drums, bass, and harmonica as well as lead and back-up vocals. This does not detract from the sound however, as it sounds like a full band effort, and is a really enjoyable listen.

‘Wading’ kicks proceedings off with a good dirty Blues riff that just starts to get really tasty when the track finishes. Merkley has a good voice and is very accomplished on guitar and harmonica. You can definitely hear his influences from the past, such as The Rolling Stones, Robert Johnson and Led Zeppelin, as well as present day acts such as The Black Keys. ‘Tarbox’ is an excellent, hypnotic Blues groove, but again finishes too quickly at only three minutes, that if it had been fleshed out to double that would still have been too short. The track ‘Carousel’ is a slight departure, being very atmospheric and has an almost Indian raga feel, but is no less enjoyable, indeed it could well be the highlight. Steeped in the Blues, with some excellent music on offer, my only complaint would be that at half an hour the CD is too brief, but his is a name worth checking out.

Andrew Baldwin

COTTON BELLY’S Cotton Belly’s Independent

To be honest, it’s rare to find a first album as classy and successfully put together as this one. To release such a gem, you can’t help but feel that the five Cotton Belly’s members have either spent an incredible amount of time to write, rehearse, record, mix or they’ve done it with the insolence only very talented guys can afford. And what a talent they have, confirming that France has some great Blues bands on offer. When a band like Cotton Belly’s has a singer with the perfect English phrasing and intonations, there’s no doubt they can aspire to an international career. Let’s not forget that said singer Yann ‘Willywood’ Malek is also an extremely talented harmonica player, just wild enough to make the difference. You also go from the electric six-string to the acoustic and resonator and in the rhythmic section, from the double base to the electric bass, drums and cajon, giving each of the twelve tracks its own, unique atmosphere. You hop from a sparkly ‘Cup Song’ to a frenzied ‘Cotton Jig’, which follows a beautifully acoustic ‘Shy Boy’. This album is like a spicy sauce full of rich and varied flavours showing the breadth of the Cotton Belly’s musical palette. And the leading track of this album must be ‘Mambo’. There’s everything there, the soft intro, the voice calm and assured rising powerfully to end in a Bluesy tsunami you can’t quite recover from. Cotton Belly’s: a French export to be reckoned with!

Frankie Pfeiffer/Nat Harrap

CRAIG HUGHES Pissed Off, Bitter And Willing To Share Channel Nowhere

By just reading the album’s title, we thought… here we go again, some self-pitying Glaswegian who’s got to moan about everything and the black and white album sleeve doesn’t help us feel more upbeat about it, but Craig Hughes’s music isn’t about that at all. Just prove you shouldn’t judge a CD by its cover or its title! This kind of Blues isn’t for the faint-hearted, there is true grit and plenty of gravel in Craig’s voice drawing us to the dark side with plenty of slide guitar and stomping. Tracks such as the excellent, fast-paced ‘You don’t care at all’ and ‘Cuban Necktie’ remind you that Craig Hughes on electric guitar was and still is a damn good rocker. There are twelve tracks in this album all written by Craig, and true, life is tough in Craig’s world: war, recession, death and bankers of course as in the very factual and heartwrenching ‘Everybody’s Fault But Mine’ or ‘On A Rooftop With A Rifle And A Scope’, the story of a guy who’s just had enough of it and takes a rifle on the roof. ‘Dancing On Your Grave’ feels as if Craig has been inspired by Eric McFadden’s latest album “Train To Salvation”. There’s definitely some humour in Mr Hughes’ lyrics, black of course!

Difficult to describe Craig’s music and its many facets, it’s as if a Blues line-up of Black Sabbath had decided to play Tom Waits with a hint of Velvet Underground.

Frankie Pfeiffer/Nat Harrap dalestorr.com

VARIOUS Crazy Heart: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack

New West

The movie ‘Crazy Heart’ deals with the hard-living country singer Bad Blake, played by Jeff Bridges, who sings many songs on the soundtrack; so too does actor Colin Farrell, and both do it well too, even when put up against someone like Waylon Jennings, whose classic ‘’Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way’ is also included, as are other older items from Buck Owens, Lightnin’ Hopkins ( a down-home ‘Once A Gambler’) and The Louvin Brothers, whose ‘My Baby’s Gone’ shows just what rock and rollers The Everly Brothers picked up on. T-Bone Burnett worked on the soundtrack, following on from his work on “Raising Sand” for Robert Plant and Alison Kraus, and his recent efforts on BB King’s “One Kind Favor”. He adds a rootsy, Americana touch, and Bad Blake is loosely based on Stephen Bruton, perhaps known to some readers from his own records or his playing with Delbert McClinton, Bonnie Raitt, Sonny Landreth, Marcia Ball and many others; Stephen contributed musically and as a consultant. If the film is as good as the soundtrack, it should be a must-see for all lovers of Americana.

DANNY BRYANT’S REDEYE BAND

Just As I Am

Continental Blue Heaven Records

Two years down the road from “Black And White” and played countless gigs along the way Danny and his stalwarts release their seventh CD at the start of February. With the same production team, the excellent and intuitive Dave Williams at the helm, father Ken on bass and drummer Trevor Barr at the back you could be forgiven if you asked has anything changed? Well the answer has to be no and yes. The CD again sounds crisp and clear throughout whether being driven hard or at more usual listening levels. The rhythm section gel together like the seasoned professionals they are. This time around you get eight original cuts and one John Hiatt cover. So what has changed? I think, overall, it comes down to that difficult to define thing called maturity of confidence. Danny’s playing is more measured and his solos appear to have just the right amount of notes to do the job, rather than cramming in more than necessary. Danny’s writing deals with love slipping away and the general hardships that life can throw at us. Don’t think that this makes for depressing listening, oh no. The Blues has that weird ability to lift you up your spirits even when the subject matter may not be the happiest. Good examples from this set are ‘Slipping Away’, ‘Blues For Buddy’, ‘Just As I Am’ or the brilliant closer ‘Alone In The Dark’. This is good, very good indeed. -

Graeme Scott

DANNY KALB

Norman Darwen

I’m Gonna Live The Life I Sing About Sojourn

The emphasis on the “British Invasion” sometimes overshadows the fact that at around the same time there was a very small number of white Americans who were reinterpreting the Blues. Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield were the best-known but not far behind was The Blues Project out of New York. The band did not last very long, but here is founder-member Danny Kalb 45 years later, still playing the Blues - extremely well. Danny came out of the Greenwich Village folk scene and swapped ideas with Bob Dylan, Dave Van Ronk, Al Kooper and others, and this CD bears witness to a sixties sensibility, a deep Blues knowledge, and decades of experience. Danny plays both both acoustic and electric here, in the case of the latter generally with a small rhythm section; on acoustic guitar he reveals traces of Big Joe Williams, John Lee Hooker, Elizabeth Cotton and Reverend Gary Davis, whilst his electric style is more individual and less easy to classify; laid-back, Bluesy but also open to wider influences. He has an intimate, thoughtful singing style, and overall this set reveals a fine artist who has been out of the public eye for far too long.

Norman Darwen

DAVE MORETTI BLUES REVUE Bluesjob

myspace.com/davemorettibluesrevue

Dave Moretti and his band are Italians whose stated aim is ‘to continue the blues tradition the West Coast way, mixing down blues, jazz and funk.’ They are therefore primarily in the area of swing, and to this they bring a lot of energy and passion. This well-produced CD has a big sound and is full of rousing music in that style right from the opener, the self-explanatory ‘Jump Tha Blues’. This number is one of six originals of the ten tracks, the others made up of Percy Mayfield, Ray Charles and Little Walter covers. Dave Moretti has a commanding presence as

front man, with powerful vocals and a fat harp sound, and he and his band do justice to the style of material they are seeking t o emulate. The CD is very much of a ‘live band recorded’ nature and it suggests that they probably kick up a storm in clubs. There’s plenty of good musicianship from people who are clearly serious about what they do but having a lot of fun too, and there’s some variety to the sound with some sax, a bit of banjo and an excellent female lead vocal on ‘Love On The Phone’. All in all, the band succeed in doing what they set out to do – which is to replicate the style of others in a genre of blues, create some original material that is firmly in that style and show what a good live band they are.

Mark Harrison

CHICAGO BLUES HARMONICA PROJECT

More Rare Gems

CHARLES WILSON

Troubled Child

Severn

Two fine releases from the Severn label and very different from one another.

Like Chicago Blues? Like harmonica? Like new artists you haven’t heard before? If the answer to all three is yes then you are going to love the Chicago Blues Harmonica Project. The variety of styles and consistency of quality is remarkable – all these guys are currently making some superb Blues in Chicago. The style of playing encompasses funky soul Blues by the likes of Reginald Cooper – gorgeous voice and light and heady harmonica style – or the hard Blues blowing of Charlie Love as well as Harmonica Hinds who plays in a boogie woogie style. The album includes classic wailing Blues as well and then the combination of Russ Green’s harp and Jeff

Taylor’s vocals on Johnny Guitar Watson’s ‘Gangster of Love’ delivers the funk. You have to hear Big D as he wails away on ‘I’ve Got To Be With You Tonight’. Hearing Reginald Cooper wailing out ‘Give Me Back That Wig’ tells you of something that should be given to the world –special. Charles Wilson delivers 40 odd minutes of pure soul in the classic mode. Wilson’s voice is sweet and pure and he carries emotion as well as delivering power but he does it without straining and that, today, is a rare talent. The music features sweetly played strings and melodious horn as well as a rolling and funky keyboard and electric piano but the story here is his voice. Like all the great soul voices he can swell and build with the music and then take it down and give the listener the softer registers with equal aplomb. The title track is very much in the Marvin Gaye camp and has the feel of the ‘What’s Goin On’ album with sweet strings and gentle wah-wah guitar while ‘Somebody Must Have Taught You’ is in Curtis Mayfield territory, albeit without that sublime voice. This album is so much not a usual Blues album but if this is an example of modern soul music – as opposed to R&B – Charles Wilson is a good one.

Andy Snipper

DINAH WASHINGTON

The Essential & NINA SIMONE

My Baby Just Cares For Me Not Now Music

Two box sets to celebrate Dinah Washington and Nina Simone, two divas with extraordinary personalities, lives and fates, two women with voices indelibly linked to Jazz and Blues music. In the “The Essential” box set, you get two albums per CD: originally recorded in 1959, “What A Difference A Day Make” showcases the Queen of the Blues performing what has now become jazz and blues standards, bringing together Jazz and Blues fans thanks namely to Belford Hendricks arrangements. The second very jazzy album on the first CD, “The Swingin’ Mister D”, dates back to 1956 and explains why so many of Dinah’s Jazz fans found it difficult to accept her attraction to the Blues. She united them again through the other two albums featured on the second CD: “The Bessie Smith Songbook”, also released in 1959, is a tribute to the Empress of the Blues followed by “The Fats Waller Song Book”, released in 1958 and which should have maybe been placed before the tribute to Bessie Smith, helping us better understand the link which Dinah made between the worlds of Jazz and Blues. A link which Nina Simone strengthened later, whilst always fighting the racial segregation she experienced aged 10, when during her first concert a white couple asked her parents to leave their seats on the first row. She never gave up the fight with songs like ‘The King of Love Is Dead’, a song she wrote in 1968 after the murder of Martin Luther King or ‘Young Gifted And Black’, a hymn celebrating African-American youth. In this box set, there are two of the first three albums which Nina Simone recorded with Bethlehem Records: “Little Girl Blue”, recorded in 1958, with the addition of three track bonuses including the sensational ‘African Mailman’. It’s on this album that you’ll also find the legendary song ‘I love You Porgy / He Needs Me’, which sold a million copies. The second CD is in fact the third album recorded by Nina Simone. It opens with the jazz standard, ‘Blue Prelude’, and concludes with ‘Solitaire’, a ballad perfectly suited to a black female artist in racist America. These two box sets are definite must have: not only for their quality but because they are cult albums, the best of jazz and Blues music performed by the best of female singers.

Frankie Bluesy Pfeiffer and Nat Harrap

DAN HUBBARD AND THE HUMADORS

Self-titled debut CD

Independent his is Dan Hubbard’s fourth CD but was his first with the new band, The Humadors and was released in late 2008. The band is based in Illinois and Dan is a singer/songwriter. Dan’s vocal falls on the polished side, his range and intonation are good. The instrumentals are of a high standard throughout and the music is a mix of Blues rooted

rock and country, with at times hints of the influences of Neil Young and Tom Petty in Dan’s songwriting and overall production. The CD opens with ‘New Love Song’, a funky, RnB and country ballad, of merit. The following track ‘Circles’ sees a change to a more county rocker. ‘The One You Love’ is a very different track and stands out as the best track on the CD. It’s a get-down funky blues number. Dan’s vocal has just enough grit to beautifully carry off the lyrics, great harmonies, good percussion and emotive Blues rock guitar, make this a classy number. This is a solid and safe debut CD for the band, which begins to showcase the talents of Dan and the band and a solid foundation. Yet, you also get the subtle hint that maybe we are not quite hearing everything the band has to give. Throughout this CD the vocal, instrumentals and lyrics are solid, built on good foundations but you just get the hint that there is more to come in their 2010 release!

Carol Borrington

DELTA MOON

Delta Moon

Delta Moon Records

This album actually was recorded back in 2002 but certainly deserves to be tracked down via the usual outlets. Currently the band’s latest release is “Hell Bound Train” and the core of the band still revolves around Tom Gray vocals lap guitar keyboards and Mark Johnson bottleneck guitar. On this album added texture is provided via Gina

CD REVIEWS

Leigh’s vocals. I liked this album from the first play. It is simple and straightforward Southern Blues. Slightly gritty throughout, indicative of its influences it reeks of the backwoods. With a mix of six originals and five covers it strikes a good balance. I can’t confirm it but I suspect this could have been a debut release hence the previously indicated selection of songs. Son House’s ‘Preachin’ Blues’ gets things underway with Gina putting her vocals superbly around the track. ‘House Of Dolls’ tells the tale of a dancer working for tips and drinks in a sleazy club on Broadway. Samuel Miller, a disabled former cotton picker, gets his story aired in ‘Mansfield Road’ before we head into a nice take on Mississippi Fred McDowell’s ‘Shake ‘Em On Down’. There is a nice old-time feel to the traditional ‘She’s Mine, She’s Yours’. So it goes throughout this album, nicely crafted original songs and respectful covers. What’s not to like about ‘Wang Dang Doodle’? The band close the album with a very tasty rendition of ‘Play Me A Song Little Blind Boy’. So go on search it out, you won’t be disappointed.

Graeme Scott

DOUG WARNER Fading Gracefully

WhirlyFair

Apart from Arlene Warner’s background vocals on the opening Katrina inspired ‘The Hammer’ this is entirely Doug Warner’s work. He wrote all fourteen tunes, played all instruments, sang every note, produced the album and released it himself. As one would expect with such singularity, it is very much one man’s vision, and suffers somewhat from the consequent lack of what a band might bring to the table. The topics of the lyrics is varied and often wry, the music is fundamentally country Blues-based and both playing and recording is of a high quality. The sessions were recorded at a home studio Bluejay Productions in Medford, Oregon, and most of the tracks were based on first or second takes through a RCA vintage microphone. Other instruments were added later to produce the ensemble feel. The instruments too are vintage and detailed on the cover; they include dobro resonator, Martin acoustic, Strat and hollow body guitars, harp and some minimalist percussion. Warner has a warm and engaging voice, which perfectly suits the downhome nature of these compositions. Without ever blowing you away this is a gentle warm album, which will slowly engage you after a few playings, and ‘Time To Get It Right’, with its Tony Joe White feel, is wonderful. With few reservations this is a handsome tribute to forty years of multi-talented Doug Warner’s music.

blues guitar instrumental originals and covers with his latest release. Over the eleven tracks that make up ‘MojoZone’ he covers Kenny Burrell, Earl Hooker, and Mel London, as well as putting in a testimony to his own talents. Although the influence of such players as Freddie King and Stevie Ray Vaughan are noticeable, in such tracks as the opener ‘Say No More’ or ‘Sweet and Skanky’ with its rock’n’roll back beat, he brings a lot of his own personality to proceedings. A tight rhythm section of Simone Serafini on bass and drummer Silvio Berger provide tight backing, whilst Pietro Toucher adds jazzy piano and a number of Hammond Organ solos to the album, and stops it being a pure guitar showcase. A few slow burning minor key pieces, such as the touching ‘Last Night in Atlana’ and ‘Blues for Larry Johnson’ show a more sensitive side, whilst Burrel’s ‘Midnight Blue’ is a showcase of Hammond Organ and slippery, expensive sounding chords. The album closer, ‘Dano-mite’ is a Crivello original and shows the fun to be had with a baritone guitar. If you like your guitar playing to be singing and swinging, this album is well worth further investigation.

ERIC BIBB Booker’s Guitar

Telarc Blues

ENRICO CRIVELLO Mojo Zone – The Blues Guitar of Enrico Crivellaro

Blues guitarist Enrico Crivello has turned in a fine set of

This is a very special album, a classic in concept and execution. It is the perfect antidote to over production and takes us right back to the roots of the Blues. It was inspired when Eric had the chance to play the guitar owned and played by the late Bukka White. He was led to make an album of songs and music that are, in his words, ‘a handmade tribute to the music and musicians of a bygone era’. He wanted an album belonging to the recorded tradition of the blues songster. It is entirely acoustic and recorded close-up in a non-studio environment, a 19th century general store in Ohio. Eric is accompanied by harmonica player Grant Dermody. The result is a superb and intimate sound, as if Eric is sitting in the room with us telling his stories. He works magic here that takes us right back to the aural tradition of years gone by. The songs are peppered with different characters recalling the old-time medicine shows – the Preacher, the working man dreaming of a new home, and the troubadour walking from town to town. Among the standouts are the title track, a very catchy tune, almost a calypso; ‘Flood Water’ which has an intriguing European almost French café air to thanks to the Chromatic harmonica. Best of all is ‘With My Maker I Am One’. This song reflects Eric’s Christian faith and also the strength and faith underpinning a musical tradition that transcended crushing oppression and brutality. -

Vicky Martin

Noggin

Ben Macnair

GARY ALLEGRETTO Many Shades of Blue BIG Fiore Records

This superb album by the American singer and harmonica player is under consideration for a Grammy Award as Best Contemporary Blues Album. It is mostly self penned and several name players appear including Ivan Neville. The sound quality is brilliant, so warm it feels as if you’re in the room with the band playing. You can truly appreciate the amazing empathy of the musicians who have obviously played together many times. This highlights a very special musical gift that seems to have been overlooked by the critics. Allegretto has a rare and distinctive quality as a bandleader. The same gift that Miles Davis was noted for; that of being able to conduct, lead, draw together a band with just a slight gesture musical or physical, it seems almost telepathic as, after a chorus or two of ensemble playing, the harmonica just draws all of the musicians back to the main theme. The solos are economical, and the instrumental interplay is faultless. The harmonica playing is exemplary and the drumming is impeccable with a lightness of touch and a perfect back beat. Every track is good but ‘Tattoo of Truth’ really stood out as the crowning jewel of a brilliant piece of work. Allegretto captures the feel and sound of John Lee Hooker’s early Chess tracks and marries it to a new song. Most styles of city and country blues are explored and the album gets better with every listen.

GEOFF ACHISON One Ticket, One Ride Jupiter 2 Records

It is a long way from Melbourne to Atlanta and in many ways it is as far musically as well. Howev- er in 2007 Geoff upped sticks with his family and moved to a new base in Georgia to continue honing his playing style and learning to play with a raft of new players under the Souldiggers banner. I don’t know of Geoff’s previous work however as evidenced by this collection of ten selfpenned songs and four instrumentals his time was well spent. I was impressed by the ideas behind ‘Sent To The Edge’ the excellent opener. I can’t think of another song immediately about prisoners sent from Britain to Australia

and set over of driving Blues shuffle. This mix of our history and the obvious musical parallels with slavery and the Blues works very well. When ‘My Little Bag’ kicks in and you hear the lyrics about folk’ being reluctant to give up their devotion to these plastic items that carry shopping it clicks that this guy has a slightly different approach to writing. Throughout there are varied time signatures and arrangements that keep you guessing what is going to happen next. I like the addition of brass on some tracks which both fills out the sound and gives a slightly funky edge. ‘Soul To Soul’ is the obligatory love song and the epic string enhanced Jazz Funk ‘Bridge’ is super. For pumped up fun though you just can’t beat ‘Testosta Rhonda’. Great stuff.

HENRIK FREISCHLADER Recorded by Martin Meinschäfer Cable Car Records

This album appears to have been a labour of love for the 27-year-old Freischlader. He wrote each of the thirteen songs, he performed all the instrumentation and its production, releasing the album on his self-formed label Cable Car Records. His main outside help was Martin Meinschäfer to whom the album takes its name. While this approach might be considered a risk, the results show this was an inspired decision as the album is of exceptionally high quality. Each song has a firmly defined identity and mood with a selection of songs ranging from the sprightly upbeat Blues shuffle ‘So Damn Cool’ to the semi-acoustic ballad ‘In Your Arms’ which seems destined for the larger European festival stages. The powerful ‘Breakout’ demonstrates Freischlader’s bass playing and drumming are equally adept to his guitar work. ‘The Bridge’is built upon a riff reminiscent to Peter Green’s ‘Drifting’, yet musically is far darker, drawing the listener to each of the thoughtful vocal lines. Green’s influence is also apparent on the mournful ‘Cry Again’. Freischlader’s vocals are clear, nonaccented and very soulful, in particular on the sublime ‘Desert Love’, which flourishes with a beautifully melodic solo. Atmospheric slide guitar work paints the scene for ‘Bad Dreams’ before Freischlader strips it down to his voice and Dobro for the uplifting ‘Your Love of Mine’. It’s a very accomplished recording, devoid of cliché and confirms Henrik Freischlader is a force to reckon with far beyond his native Germany -

Duncan Beattie

Vicky Martin

Graeme Scott

Roll! Roll! Roll! The R&B Years

HOT “LIPS” PAGE

SONNY BURGESS AND THE LEGENDARY PACERS

Gijon Stomp!

LAURA B & THE MOONLIGHTERS

Jump AndTHE ACES

No One Rides For Free VARIOUS

Rock With It – Rockin’ With The Rhythm And Blues #2

VARIOUS Got Them Hill Billy Blues El Toro Records

The El Toro label is Spain’s premier rocking label and these six releases uphold that reputation, whilst also showing the range of the label’s outlook and output. There is of course much to attract the attention of the Blues fan, but every issue I have heard on this label has had plenty of interest. Hot Lips Page had the misfortune to be a wonderful jazz-based trumpeter and a warm if gritty singer. Misfortune? Well, it is a distinct disadvantage when you’re signed to Louis Armstrong’s agency – they’re not going to push a possible rival for Satchmo’s popularity, are they? So Lips never broke through to the big time, instead becoming one of the pioneers of rhythm & Blues, and this material, recorded between the mid-forties and Page’s death in 1954, swings and jumps and is very reminiscent of Louis Jordan in many places. Lips also sang the slow Blues convincingly, and there are four duets with female singers that could have brought him some success a few years later. If you like to jive, you owe it to yourself to buy this pronto! Sonny Burgess formed his band in Newport, Arkansas in 1955 and made some wild records for Sam Phillips’ Sun label. The guys were still playing music just as wild when they went into a Spanish studio in 2007. The notes state that Sonny and co. were “always tougher, grittier and bluesier than anyone else in the Sun stable”. Despite being in their seventies, they still play tough, gritty and very Bluesy music. Try the chugging Jimmy Reed medley (‘Baby Whatcha Want Me To Do In Virginia’) if you aren’t sure – that will convince you. The mighty fine Laura B and The Moonlighters are a seven-piece outfit from Britain, mainly working in a rollicking jump-jive style, but Laura can also turn her hand to a fine soul ballad if required (‘Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye’). Lovely work from all concerned; but I will single out the exemplary work of tenor/ alto man Evan Jones and pianist Henri Herbert. The Aces – no relation to any other group of the same name! - are a harp-led Californian group, with a nice line in raw and/ or rocking Blues. This is their debut set and it bodes well for the future – shades of Little Walter, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Lester Butler. Loo k out for these guys – we’ll be hearing more from them, I guarantee. ‘Rock With It’ is a follow-up to El Toro R&B 100, detailing the early rhythm & Blues tracks that can, in retrospect, be viewed as direct precursors of rock and roll – either by using the term itself, or musically. The listener is treated to 28 slabs of prime sounds from the likes of Johnny Otis, Lowell Fulson, Professor Longhair and many other lesser-known figures. Good-time music par excellence… Many Blues artists profess a love of country music. The final CD examines this premise by looking at just where this influence manifests itself. There are gems aplenty from Chicago Bluesmen (Magic Sam is here!), rhythm & Blues stalwarts, nascent soul singers, and even a genuine white rockabilly – with some slick New York Bluesmen behind him. Dave Penny’s notes ask if this is “Black rockabilly” or “downhome Blues boppers” - whatever, it’s great rocking, Bluesy music.

Norman Darwen

HIGHTOWN CROWS

Way Down South Clawhammer

The Hightown Crows

Chicken Shack Records

Have you ever wondered what it would be like if Link Wray gave The Stray Cats a kicking, down a back alley with a punk Blues band riffing away in the background? No? So it’s just me, then. Well, my question could have been answered a good few years ago if I’d stumbled across the Hightown Crows back when they first formed in 2004. Mind you, I don’t often venture into the English countryside looking for a high octane rocking Blues band, but now that I know about Dorset’s self-proclaimed “finest rockabilly Blues outfit”, I may have to get out more. It’s a claim that may also turn out to true, but as a statement it certainly undersells them. Because I had a great time catching up with the three albums they’ve put out over the last few years. Their self-titled, mini-album debut came first, as it would, with ‘Long Black Train’ and the country bluegrass of ‘Gravedigger’s Revenge’, my favourites, on an offering

a few songs for free from their website, and I really would recommend it. They’re also available for weddings and wakes, so start saving now!

Stuart A Hamilton

HOWLING DIABLOS

Devine Trash Highway

Xmas In Jail

Funky D Records

The Howling Diablos are a long established Detroit based band who blend rock, funk and Blues in an cool and infectious manner. The band have appeared on Fat Possum releases by Nathaniel Mayer and RL Burnside, which were also produced by vocalist Tino Gross. The opening If You Love Somebody is a laid back rhythm and Blues tune featuring some tasteful steel guitar from guest Calvin Cooks. The faster paced ‘Moonshine’ is more typical of their jam style, commencing with some powerful drumming from Johnny ‘Bec’ Bandanjek and horns provided by Johnny Evans which interweve with guitars by Erik Gustafson. ‘Check It Out’ is funk based with a rap from Gross over a funky backbeat of horns and Hammond piano. A melodic version of Randy Newman’s Momma ‘Told Me Not To Come’ features a gospel chorus before the melancholy blues ballad ‘Rainin’ In Memphis.’ Mexican Laundromat’ had a distinctly hip hop flavour, a multitude of backing vocals and sequences of slide guitar, while the bar house Blues of ‘Leaving In The Morning’ follows a far more conventional style. In the hands of the Howling Diablos, both are compelling listens. It is far to say that not every title makes the cut, yet this is an enjoyable and unpredictable set of songs that touch bases as disparate as Howlin’ Wolf, Captain Beefheart, Sly Stone and Canned Heat.

which is at times a bit too lo-fi. Then came the EP “Clawhammer”, which saw the three-piece of guitarist / vocalist Hinton Admiral, Rufus Stone on double bass, and percussionist Emery Down augmented by the splendid harmonica work of Canford Cliffs. It definitely saw them moving in the right direction with tunes like the searing ‘Breakdown No. 4’ and the moody ‘Wailing Souls a step up from their debut. It’s a direction fully realised on the full-length release “Way Down South”. The twelve track album sees them rampage their way through a wide array of sounds, ranging from sixties British Blues to rockabilly, via some vintage skiffle, on into some swamp rock and a touch of country. There’s loads of top quality entertainment on offer, and I found myself shoogling in a most unfortunate manner to tunes like the shufflecious ‘Zombie Love’, the boogiefied, harmonica drenched title track, the Link Wray rumble of ‘Death from Above’ and the swampy ‘Stumbledown Stairs’. The band sound as though they’re having the best time ever, which adds to your listening enjoyment, and what it lacks in polish, it more than makes up in spittle. You can download

The Howling Diablos also released a seasonal EP entitled “Xmas In Jail”, the opener is quite a straight cover of the Clarence Carter song ‘Back Door Santa’. The live and studio versions of Tino Gross penned ‘Xmas in Jail’ provide some festive cheer despite the narrator being detained in Jackson. Yet the stand out is ‘Another Xmas story’, a moody and though provoking tale of the homeless on Christmas Eve. The socially aware lyrics combine with effect with funky horns and a superb solo by Jimmy McCarty.

Duncan Beattie

JEFF RAY

Blue Mara

Peace Stream

This is the fourth album from this Minnesota blues singer/ guitarist/ multi-instrumentalist; he spent three years in Memphis, Tennessee, and his music has been described as a blending of Mississippi Blues with Bob Dylan, whilst other influences Jeff cites include The Allman Brothers, Nick Drake, and Chris Smither. Here Ray plays mostly resonator guitar (he also handles banjo, organ, raagini – which supplies an

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east Indian flavoured drone – and “portable front porch”), aided and abetted by several folky and Bluesy musicians from the Upper Midwest. Jeff has a warm singing voice and plays some stinging slide guitar work. These tracks –eleven originals and a fine version of Muddy Waters’ ‘You Can’t Lose What You Ain’t Never Had’ – are sometimes very reminiscent of Smither himself, though Jeff occasionally incorporates different styles of Blues and even the odd Indian flavour into the mix, and the Dylan comparison is certainly justified on a couple of songs. The overall result is impressive, with the dozen songs bearing traces of the darker side of Americana, though far bluesier than is usually encompassed by such a definition.

- Norman Darwen

JEN CHAPIN Re-Visions

Chesky Records

There are certain artists whose music is instantly recognisable the moment it comes on the radio, in a club/bar or CD player. Stevie Wonder is just such a musician so it takes either the act of a madman or a gifted interpreter to take on the deconstruction of those classics and turn them into something completely different. Jen Chapin is certainly not mad and what we have here is a very unique take on twelve Wonder songs, as you have never heard them before. Using just voice, upright bass supplied by Stephan Crump and saxophones from Chris Cheek recorded live using only one microphone; the results are quite stunning. Having said that, this is not an easy listen at one sitting. The sparseness of the jazz arrangements allows for no hiding place for performers or the listener. However dipping in and out as I have done over the past days is the way to go. If you do that then you will be both rewarded and challenged. For sure most of us like our comfort zones but a good kick in the backside every now and again is no bad thing. You will be stretched intellectually and aurally on every song here whether it is for example ‘You Haven’t Done Nothin’’, ‘Visions’, ‘Village Ghetto Land’ or ‘She’s Gone’. We oftenbandy words like extraordinary around the place when talking about music, however such a word is totally justified in this case. Audiophiles will lap it up, jazz lovers will as well. What of the rest of us? Well the shoes are not as soft as a pair of old carpet slippers and may not fit immediately but please try them on for size.

Graeme Scott

JENNI MULDAUR

Dearest Darlin’

Continental Blue Heaven

This album arrives some sixteen years after Jenni Muldaur’s first release, and is both well worth the wait and also represents a stirring tribute to vocal skills honed during many years working in the studio as back-up vocalist for the likes of Steely Dan and Michael McDonald. It is easy to see why Muldaur is much in demand, and she draws

comparison with the equally impressive Becky Bramlett –it’s must be in the genes. Jenni is of course the daughter of Maria and Geoff Muldaur, and her soulful voice owes much to her mother. This release flirts with the Blues, for example in the knowing ‘I’ve Got A Feeling’ and wistful ‘Comatose Town’. It really scores as a soul and Rhythm & Blues album, in the ilk of 1950s and 1960s classics; for example the raucous ‘You’re Breaking Me up’ or ‘Just Ain’t No Love’. Even the Bo Diddley format in the title track suits her varied style, enhanced by some sparse harmonica and shredded guitar. Elsewhere the percussive ‘Hopali’ really works, especially when Muldaur sings off mic. The ballad ‘I Lost Someone’ is right out of the Otis Redding / Aretha Franklin songbook. The seductive and jazzy ‘Just Kiss Me’ is another vehicle for her expressive vocals, and the Stax beats of ‘You’ve Got Me Uptight’ would grace any Northern Soul album. It is impossible to sit still when assailed by the infectious grooves and seriously powerful voice of this talented singer, except perhaps when she sings sweetly in the charming ballads that give the album such balance and grace.

JEREMY WALLACE TRIO Suicide Suitcase

Bub Risky Music

Born in Brookside New Jersey Wallace was in punk and metal bands yet in country based electric Blues he appears to have found his real home. Suicide Suitcase is his trio’s third release. The album is a diverse set of songs and opens with a rough and ragged version of Sleepy John Estes’ ‘Broke and Hungry’, with some fierce slide guitar. Wallace’s voice is raw and raspy, ideally suited for this style of music. The track is one example of Wallace’s ability to put a personal stamp on a traditional song, as he provides with Delta style take on the Willie Dixon standard ‘Back Door Man’, and a radical re-working of ‘Death Letter. Despite these is it is Wallace’s originals that leave the strongest impression, he is a story teller in the mold of Tom Waits or Steve Earl. This is lyric based song writing and he subject matter of these impressive self-compositions cover subjects such as unrequited lovers, sloppy drunks and wife killers. In ‘Two Busted Legs’ for example an upbeat blues melody backs the story of a drunkard unable to escape his demons. ‘Virginia’ is a reflective solo county ballad, before the impassioned piano lament of ‘Lillian’ to the unrepentant instigator of a domestic tragedy within ‘You Might Do It Too’. The songs are generally sparse and allow focus on the stories and vary from heavy down-home blues to mellow folk this is an album of contrasting moods and styles.

Duncan Beattie

RUMPSHAKERS

Noggin

Following a few years behind the White Stripes, and many others, The Rumpshakers are a blues derived garage band from Detroit. Unsurprisingly there is no bass player, although the band does have a differential of having two guitarists. The album commences with a raw version of ‘Leavin’ Truck’ and is a clear indication of what is to follow: frantic guitar, distorted vocals and some blues harp. ‘Boogies Through The Night’ is a nod of the hat to Sonny Boy Williamson, although perhaps the harp work is not quite to his same standard. The slow and moody title track is a lament to how inner Motor city has declined, a theme that continues on several songs. More fun is the rave up of ‘Back Seat Saloon’ and ‘White Trash’ has a sound not too dissimilar to The Black Keys. Vocalist Chef Chris Sirvinskis is keen on adding spoken narrative to his songs, and it did get a little tiresome after a while. Not so on the cover songs contained on the album. ‘Who Do you Love’ is actually a medley of Bo Diddley tunes which surprisingly sequences into a Tony Iommi riff, before an interesting interpretation of that American truck drivers anthem ‘Six Days on The Road’. My expectations of Rollin’ N Tumblin’ were surpassed as it is performed at a slow tempo by only by vocal and harmonica. While the album is not without its highlights, neither the material, nor the instrumental is exceptional and my feeling is that other bands such as the sadly defunct Sole- dad Brothers covered this ground with more conviction.

Duncan Beattie

JOHN LEE HOOKER

Live At Soledad Prison/Never Get Out

Of These Blues Alive

BGO

Following John Lee Hooker’s success with his 1970 album with Canned Heat, he coasted along, regularly releasing not terribly interesting albums until ‘The Healer’ came along. Such is the general opinion, but it is an over-simplification and also something of an insult to fine recordings such as these two early 70s albums. The recently resurrected John Lee Hooker Junior opens the ‘Soledad’ CD, proving he has been singing the Blues for a long time. At the time sets recorded in penal institutions were, if not the rage, at least not that uncommon. John Lee Senior turns in a fine and energetic set, which will sound very familiar to anyone who witnessed his shows in the last three decades of his life: deep blues, up tempo boogies, those instantly recognisable vocals. Veteran Chicago guitarist Luther Tucker gets plenty of space for instrumental breaks, and he also turns up on the studio album, with others including Van Morrison, guitarist Elvin Bishop, and harpman Charlie Musselwhite. Some of the music has dated slightly –Michael White’s electric violin (another fad of the time) was unnecessary – but not overly so and both components of this double CD are worth your money. -

Norman Darwen

JON BROOKS Moth Nor Rust

Independent

Jon Brooks is a Canadian singer/songwriter with a firm view of his role in the world: “I want my songs to be three and half-minute pills which, if digested, induce upon the listener empathy toward others”. The music here suggests that he is very good at doing exactly that. The opening song ‘War Resister’ tells the story of Jeremy Hinzman, a notorious Iraq war resister who refused to go with his unit to Iraq and paid the price. The song carries a sense of the split in his mind in the vocals but also in the delivery; weary and disturbed vocals over a simple acoustic guitar and kickbox. This could be Steve Earle or even John Prine and he gets the point across brilliantly. Brooks is very much the protest singer, railing against the iniquities of modern society – ‘The Crying Of The Times’ – or the lack of justice in the world. In ‘God Pt. IV’ he suggests a conversation between John Lennon, Larry Norman and Bono based on Lennon’s conversation with God in 1970 while the improbably titled ‘If We Keep What’s Within Us, What’s Within Us Will Kill Us But If We Give What’s Within Us What’s Within Us Will Save Us’ looks at the growing separation of the haves and the have nots and the gradual destruction of the skilled jobs for socially useful jobs as shelf-stackers and peanut vendors at sports that the vendors can’t afford a ticket to. Like I said, a protest singer but he is enormously listenable to and while the songs cover painful subjects and the tone is unremittingly negative this is a massively worthwhile album and one to take a great deal of satisfaction from

Andy Snipper

JON GOMM Don’t Panic Independent

This guy creates noises that no acoustic guitar is supposed to be capable of. He uses every part of the guitar to create music that most guitarists can only manage with an array of electronics and he makes music that is intense, emotional and heartfelt as well. He has been playing for years and he has worked with the likes of Nick Harper and Bob Brozman although he is a disciple of Michael Hedges the American avante garde composer and guitarist who sadly died in 1997. Add to all that a history singing and playing Blues in his native Blackpool and you begin to see an all round musician whose undoubted skills are also tempered with a deep feel for music that hits the soul as well as the brain. The opener ‘Waterfall’ has him playing percussion on the guitar body as well as playing some jazzy runs and singing in an intense high pitch as he recites an ancient Hindu poem and then follows that with a funky and snappy little number called ‘Afterglow’ (yes, that kind of afterglow). He does nothing twice – every song has a unique and considered feel and the music begins to weave a spell around you so that after a few minutes you aren’t thinking “How did he do that?” anymore, just enjoying the ride as he takes your mood along with him. He is quite capable of being light hearted as well though – ‘Gloria’ is an almost conventional song in a waltz rhythm and ‘Rescue Song’ was written as a Valentines gift. ‘The Weather Machine’ is

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my favourite number as it visits gypsy, middle-eastern and even Flamenco styles and playing but sets all that against some rocky and hoarse vocals. Jon Gomm is a real talent and unlike so many others he is genuinely original – and very listenable.

tion are excellent and there are some thoroughly authentic arrangements. There is the occasion misstep. ‘Crossroads’ is not the Robert Johnson Blues tune you all know and love, but rather an original that doesn’t quite work. But having said that, this record serves as an appetiser for their live shows. According to their website, they can even do a burlesque cabaret show. I say! Ding dooong!

Lee Hooker about it (no bad thing) which is then followed by the title track itself. It could have been a depressing song about the loss of freedom endured by Woodie. In fact though it is strangely uplifting. The brooding darkness surrounding ‘Animal Farm’ is another matter taking Jubal into territory that most of us can only attempt to understand. ‘Piece Of Wood And Steel’ is potentially anthemic in a Springsteen/Bon Jovi’esque way There is much to enjoy just not a lot of Blues, however good music is always worth a listen.

Graeme Scott

JUMP4JOY Tasty!

Sonic Rendezvous Records

Are you in the need for Swede? Or rather several groovy Swedes? Then read on. The aforementioned Jump4Joy are a Swedish band, who specialise in New Orleans R&B. Ulf Sandstrom, who acts as the master of ceremonies, in order to keep the party going all night, fronts the group. The band play a lively gumbo and funk, rock and soul. It might not be as gritty or be in the same league as the Neville Brothers or the Meters, but it’s played with passion and you can tell everyone is having a ball. The band regularly tour around the world, and have gigged in Havana, Moscow and Berlin. Tracks like ‘People’ and ‘Hoodoo Voodoo Man’ are as good as anything that Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra have put out. The horn sec-

It’s only a matter of time before the secret is out on this guy. He’s already garnering raves overseas, but his music has mass appeal.

Bottom line: He’s dynamite. Don’t sleep on this one.

US)

KOKO TAYLOR What It Takes – The Chess Years (Expanded Edition)

Geffen

The late Koko Taylor represented the last flourish of the Blues at Chess Records; 1966 saw her have a hit with ‘Wang Dang Doodle’, the last hit by “a stone Blues artist”, as the informative notes describe her And Blues artist she was; her mighty roar – the first track, ‘I Got What It Takes’, features her at her ferocious best – was the female equivalent of Howlin’ Wolf at his most powerful, and there is no trace of a soul inflection to be heard. There are a few nods to rhythm & Blues – the occasional vocal group pops up - but many of the songs are Willie Dixon’s, whose influence on this set is huge. He produced all but one number, plays bass on some titles and can be heard singing on several. The Chess session men include guitarists Buddy Guy and Matt Murphy, and harmonica ace Walter Horton, among others, on material dating from between 1964 to

Jamie Hailstone

1972, but Koko is way out in front. She went on to record some wonderful material for Alligator, of course, but these sides set the template. One track is called ‘Blues Heaven’, which does sum it up.

Norman Darwen

LARRY GARNER WITH NORMAN BEAKER & FRIENDS Live At The Tivoli

NLB

Louisiana blues man Larry Garner and British blues group

The Norman Beaker Band join forces on this 12 track live set, recorded at Wimborne’s Tivoli Theatre in October 2009. Largely made up of Garner originals, this CD captures the power and vitality of a sizzling show. Jaunty opener ‘Jook Joint Woman’ is followed by a slow-burning rendition of Henry Gray’s ‘Cold Chills’ before the band really hit their groove on ‘No Free Rides’. With the brass to the fore, Garner’s rich vocal tones are supported by some fine guitar interplay between him and Beaker, a solid rhythm section and some deft keyboard playing. Beaker delivers a passionate and gutsy vocal on ‘Lies Like A River’, one of two of his own songs included here – the other being the lively ‘Option On You Baby’. The melodic and soulful ‘The Road Of Life’ and ‘Heavy Pieces’ are two more impressive numbers, while the more powerful ‘Had To Quit Drinking’ and ‘Kleptomaniac’ both demonstrate the humour and irony of Garner’s lyrics. Elsewhere, the short, sharp ‘Scared Of You’, funky ‘Shak Bully’ and epic stomper ‘Raised In The Country’ complete the set in style. Garner returns to the UK in April / May 2010 – this CD will initially be available from shows and www.normanbeakerband.com

Pam Henderson

LEADBELLY The Definitive SONNY TERRY & BROWNIE McGHEE Cripple Creek Not Now Music

These two double CD releases take us back to a time long before the Blues revivals, when the Blues was seen as an antecedent of jazz, as a ‘primitive’ folk music, and as a potential vehicle for social change. Huddie “Lead Belly” Leadbetter’s material here was recorded between 1935 and 1945, though the majority of the songs date from later rather than sooner, Subtitled “50 of his finest recordings on 2CDs”, this set is close enough to “definitive” as it contains most, if not all, of his best-known songs, including ‘Midnight Special’, ‘Rock Island Line’, ‘When The Boys Were Out On The Western Plains’, ‘The Bourgeois Blues’, ‘The Gallis Pole’ and of course. ‘Goodnight Irene’. There are occasional other accompanists but most tracks just feature Lead Belly’s strident voice and driving 12 string guitar

playing (the heavy bass-lines he employed were reputedly inspired by proto boogie-woogie piano players); many Blues numbers are included (not always the case) and there are also examples of his rarely recorded slide guitar playing. In short then, worth checking out if you are not too familiar with the music of a true American great. Singer/ guitarist Brownie McGhee and singer/ harmonica player Sonny Terry both came out of the East Coast Blues scene and worked asa duo from the forties to the eighties. Their release contains forty titles – four complete albums made for the famous Folkways label in the fifties (two recorded separately and two together), plus some bonus titles from their often overlooked ‘race’ recordings. Their materialBlues both country and urban, gospel and folksongs –

ercised a huge influence on fifties skiffle and both blues booms of the sixties, and its reverberations can still be heard on the present-day Blues scene (think of Cephas and Wiggins, for example – or Paul Lamb). Any Blues collection worthy of the name should contain some of Sonny and Brownie’s material, and “Cripple Creek” is certainly as good as any other release – and better than quite a few.

Norman Darwen

LEILA ADU • MIKE COOPER • FABRIZIO SPERA

Truth In The Abstract Blues

ai Trade

It is not often that the Blues is subject to experimentation as fundamental as this. Just occasionally there are tentative steps to modernise the genre, for example Skip ‘Little Axe’ MacDonald sampled the echoes of the Blues pioneers and blended them into a more contemporary sound. This CD is completely different, basically deconstructing the idiom and producing sounds that are to the devotee, freestyle and pure jazz, or contrariwise a discordant cacophony to those who don’t get it. Sixty-seven year old Mike Cooper is a veteran of the 1960s British acoustic Blues and folk scene. In this album he is joined by Fabrizio Spera whose free-form percussion is perfectly suited to the work and Leila Adu also adds haunting vocals. Claiming to draw inspiration from the abstract Blues of the likes of Son House, Sun Ra, Skip James, Blind Willy Johnson, et al, this is a distinctly disturbing and jarring experience. It is experimental music painted on a faint Blues canvas. Unfortunately it does not ignite emotion, which is the backbone of the Blues. Even the liner notes describe the music in baffling terms. There are two extended jams, ‘New Earth’ at over fifteen minutes, and ‘Hollers ‘N’ Drones’ which is timed at nearly eleven. Each has six pieces within them, and the ‘Abstract Blues’ title theme appears on five occasions dur-

ing the course of the album. “Truth In The Abstract Blues” accurately describes the genre, but does it work? Not to these ears.

Noggin

LITTLE MISS HIGGINS

Live Two Nights In March

L.M.H. Music

Listening to this CD is a bit of a strange experience. I do not mean that in a negative way at all. Instead I think I mean that it is, in a way, like stepping back in time, as the music contained on this collection is redolent of the 1920’s and 30’s. A mix of Country and Blues I found it intriguing and uplifting. I had not come across this lady before however she and her band mates are another fine example of the terrific depth of talent to be found in Canada. These songs were recorded live, as the title suggests, in two different small, well that is how it sounds to me, venues in Saskatoon and Calgary. There is very much a collective vibe going on here even though LMH is the front person. When you add stomp boxes, call outs, trumpet, clarinet, up-right bass, electro acoustic guitars to the vocals this is very organic music making. You can imagine this quartet standing on a flatbed farm rig captivating an audience. LMH writes most of the material and mixes in some traditional cuts as well. Personal favourites include ‘Dirty Ol’ Tractor Song’, ‘In The Middle Of Nowhere’, Minnie McCoy’s slightly risqué ‘I’m Gonna Bake My Biscuits’, ‘Radville’ and ‘Romance In The Dark’. This album is quite delightful, different musically from much of what is available today and for those reasons alone should be worth investigating.

Graeme Scott

LONNIE JOHNSON

A Life In Music: Selected Sides

1925-1953

JSP records

This is a mightily impressive four CD set with 100 tracks, taking you through the career of Johnson from his start in New York in 1925 to his last recordings made coincidentally in New York too. The material takes us on a tour of Cincinnati, Chicago, Memphis and St Louis too where Johnson recorded. Each CD is accompanied by a sleeve with a full discography including where and when each track was recorded and who accompanied Johnson. If you are interested in Johnson’s career you will find this collection comprehensive. It is a very enjoyable listen, showcasing Johnson’s extreme versatility which was not limited to the guitar. The collection encompasses Blues, jazz and ballads and is well produced and re-mastered making the music clear and evocative. The highlight of course is Johnson’s

mastery of the guitar. He is widely acknowledged to be one of the masters of the genre, and what strikes me about this collection is the Lonnie Johnson’s stylistic breadth and depth which led me to ponder his influence on a range of 20th century musicians.

Kevin Wharton

LUCKY PETERSON Heart Of Pain

JSP Records

Tired of the debate about the future of the music and just want to enjoy it, then take 45 minutes to listen to 11 tracks of classic timeless Blues. This CD does not push boundaries or ask any questions, yet it is not just for the purist. It is dynamic, relevant and varied with good songs exquisitely presented and played by the multi talented Peterson and one can only assume his soubriquet refers to his abundance of musical talent. The opener, a rollicking twelve bar with honky tonk piano is followed by the classy Blues workout of a title track with lovely compelling and evocative picking guitarwork with a tone reminiscent of the great Otis Rush. The whole album is a perfect showcase for the warm dusky vocal, sizzling guitar and impressive keyboards and ‘Age Ain’t Nothing But A Number’ is a delightful soulful homage to age from an artist at the peak of his powers with guest vocalist veteran Jimmy Ellis. Soul and Gospel too with his wife Tamara’s vocal on ‘He’s The Answer’. The lone instrumental track ‘Lucky’s 88’ is a cohesive and foot tapping tribute to his keyboard virtuosity. This CD oozes class from every pore and the judicial use of a horn trio did not set off my allergy to intrusive brass sections. Appearances at major gigs and festivals could serve, on the back of this release to raise his profile and place him deservedly right at the top of the Blues tree. Buy it!

Bob Chaffey

LUTHER ALLISON Songs From The Road: CD/DVD

Ruf

“Songs From The Road” is a live CD/DVD set. It celebrates the last gig and career of US Blues singer/guitarist Luther Allison. It was recorded at The Montreal Jazz Festival in July 1997 by Canadian TV. Four days later, Allison was diagnosed with lung cancer, forced to retire and sadly died a few months later, Allison moved from Arkansas to Chicago as a child, by 17, he taught himself the guitar and started hanging out in local Blues clubs. This introduced a host of Blues legends and saw him playing with Howlin Wolf, James Cotton, Muddy Water and John Lee Hooker. The DVD runs for 56mins and is taken from the original TV footage. It has been remastered for surround sound and the picture is excellent. It also includes an informative and well structured interview with Allison and a documentary of his life, The CD runs to 80minutes of the original 90minutes concert and features some of Allison’s best music in tracks like ‘Cherry Red Wine’, ‘It Hurts Me Too’ and ‘Serious’. Allison was brought up alongside the cream of the Blues and greatly influenced by the guitarist Otis Rush; his music integrates the Blues with gospel, soul and rock. The set vividly displays all facets of his music, it underlines Allison’s

ROOTS & new

DIABEL CISSOKHO/RAMONGOOSE

MANSANABLUES CD+DVD

To be released on april 12th

Ramon Goose, well-known for his work with experimental/alternative group Nublues and the production of Boo Boo Davis’s latest efforts, spices up the new recordings of Senegalese singer/kora player Diabel Cissokho with superlative blues guitar lines. Adaring, seamless album that combines two musical idioms organically, Mansana Blues is both fresh and seminal. The poignant conversations between Diabel’s kora and Ramon's slide guitar are truly exhilarating.

GUITARGABRIEL

“Guitar GabrielThe beginning of the Music Maker Story” presents a selection made from the recordings of Guitar Gabe which Tim Duffy,director of the Music Maker Relief Foundation, possesses. His meeting with this artist in 1991 determined the creation of the Foundation and of the label. Almost all of these titles are yet unpublished. This CD is embellished with a 75 minutes DVD which tells the history of the Foundation, with extensive, incredible notes about the end of the life of this extraordinary bluesman with a flamboyant and eccentric personality.

(DVD : “TOOT BLUES” MOVIE : OFFICIAL SELECTION MEMPHIS INT.FILM FESTIVAL and NEW ORLEANS FILM FESTIVAL)

raw and emotive vocal. His dramatic guitar riffs and what a consummate showman he was right until the end. Allison sits among the Blues legends and this is a set for collectors.

Carol Borrington

MARK DOYLE AND THE MANIACS

Shake’em On Down: A Salute To The 60s British Blues Boom Free

Will Records

This CD was created to preserve and respect the British Blues music of the 60s. It’s the work of USA’s Mark Doyle and his new band. Doyle’s a guitarist, producer and arranger, who was heading for a blossoming career as a jazz pianist, then he saw The Beatles perform on the Ed Sullivan show and it was ‘hello’ guitar and the 60s music He’s played lead guitar for the likes of Meatloaf, Judy Collins, Hall and Oats and produced numerous top names. Yet, Doyle’s heart has always been with 60s British Blues. Thus this CD, which contains nine covers and one self-penned number. To Doyle and the bands credit they have upheld the spirit of the 60s, by creating and innovating on each song. The sound on this CD is pristine, the instrumentals top class and music is in line with Doyle’s aim, to preserve and respect. It kicks-off with ‘Mystic Eyes’, a fiery RnB number, talking Blues vocal, wailing harmonica, with Doyle displaying his skill as innovator on guitar, before drifting into a bit of classic ‘Rollin Tumblin’. The bands self-penned number ‘New Set Blues’ is like a case of ‘deja vu’, the sound of the 60s, in a new decade with same old problems! This is a good CD but I would really have liked some more self-penned ‘new’ 60s from these guys, offered to a generation who still crave more!

Carol Borrington

MARK TOLSTRUP & DALE HASKELL Street Corner Holler

Independent

available from all good record retailers or order direct from www.discovery-records.com

The title, “Street Corner Holler” fits the music and structure of the CD which has the feel of busking at a street corner, that live in the moment one take sound. The CD is a mix of songs written by the duo supported by a few covers. Their own songs are well developed and have strong vocals provided by both Tolstrup & Haskell who harmonise well. The slide and guitar work of Mark Tolstrupp is excellent combined with the strong rhythm supplied by Dale Haskell on drums. The CD is never two dimensional as the duo’s solid musical base is supported at the appropriate moment by great musicians including Tony Markellis (Bass); Ron Rost (Hammond Organ) Sten Isachsen (Mandolin) and the great backing vocals of MotherJudge. The selection and order of the tracks have been thought through with change of temp

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and approaches, highlighting the depth of musical skill and knowledge that has enabled the combining of the chugging electric sound on the Dylan cover ‘It Takes A lot to Laugh, It Takes A Train To Cry’ with the tinkling melodic sound of the next track of the Skip James’s ‘Hard Time Killin’ Floor’. Their own songs including the haunting and invocative ‘City In The Rain’; which provides strong lyrics and distinctive vocal sounds. This is a clever debut album combining a delightful blend of traditional acoustic slide and raunchy electric blues with a splash of gospel, mountain music traditional and modern blues and Country Americana in ‘I Was In The Room When They Died’ creating a CD that is certainly multi-faceted an enjoyable sound to listen to.

Liz Aiken

MAGIC BUCK

Thankful

French Blue

Ten years after

Nat Harrap

MEANTOOTH GRIN Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead

KAM Records

Sometimes albums just arrive out of the blue and you are left wondering how it came to pass and this was just such an album. I don’t know anything really about the band other than that hail from Wisconsin and are fronted by Tom Jordan guitar/vocals, Brian Miller

drums, Seth Heffner bass and Cole Holliday on harmonica. They sound low down, dirty almost grungy at times but there are no doubts that it is very deeply Blues influenced. So much so that, in a sense, there is nothing new. Now I don’t mean that in a negative way. You have the familiar that harks back to the masters of this wonderful genre melded to a modern sound with a twist provided by the band’s own endeavours. For example on ‘Dark Was The Night’, with some tasty Hammond, you just know where all the all the sections will end. It is a standard blues that telegraphs well in advance. However when it is played with such skill you just enjoy it. This is a super CD and one that stands repeated listenings. It opens with ‘Intro’ a spoken back porch Blues tipping its hat to the devil that is blues music and then blasts into ‘Drive’. The band is on fire for sure with vocals full of passion. Think Thin Lizzy mixed with a touch of ZZ Top and you will get the idea. ‘Killing Time’ has a nice shuffling and rolling groove and ‘Telephone Blues’ would not be out of place in Walter Trout’s set. I liked the way ‘Evil Woman’ sounds like an old crackling 78rpm, just Tom and some nice slide over a Resonator. So definitely something for all to enjoy on this wonderful debut effort. -

Graeme Scott

MEMPHIS LINDA JANE

The Soul Of A Woman

Independent Release

Born Tennessee, Linda Jane fell, young, for the funky sounds of Memphis (“a true melting pot of musical genres”), and was blown away by the likes of Junior Walker and The Allstars and Booker T and The MGs at high school dances. This album of tunes lifted from the songbooks of her heroes appears on the back of Linda Jane’s local live popularity, Little Johnny Taylor’s ‘If You Love Me’, a dynamic soul-blues work-out with blinding Todd Robinson guitar and sassy Stan Martin trumpet, groovy in extremis, somehow evokes Goldie Hawn’s and Ruth Buzzi’s tail feathers a-shaking the hully-gully and watusi on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh In – this track ain’t all that far away from the Janis Joplin’s Kozmic Blues Band’s freakiness. Willie Dixon’s “Too Many Cooks” gets a sax-led danceable Latino samba make-over, “Somebody Done Told Me” is slow, supper club doo-wop and “Do Ya” is catchy, good-time old-school R ‘n’ B, with great horns and harmony vocals, and we’re the last cats in the late-night bar sipping back that one-for-the-road on the sultry “Love Blues”, where piano and guitar are delights. Other bases covered are classic blues-structured torch song (“I’m Getting’ Long Alright”), gospel-styled celebration (“Take Your Hands Off Of Him”), and chopping, Steve Cropperesque guitar (Toolbox Blues”). Next step for Linda Jane has to be finding original material, and I was truly surprised by her anglicised vocal style and phrasing, although that don’t detract from the piece – this a smashing debut. -

Peter Innes

MICHAEL ROACH Innocent Child

Stella

Back in the 80s I read about this young singer/ guitarist who was hanging with older Washington DC (and environs) Blues greats such Archie Edwards, John Cephas and John Jackson. Those three are all gone now, and Michael lives in England, where he has established a solid reputation, works in both electric and acoustic modes, and is responsible for the European Blues Association, whose week long ‘Blues camp’, attracts acts outside the usual festival fare. This all-acoustic CD marks a return to Michael’s roots, drawing on Mississippi John Hurt (is it via Archie Edwards?), John Jackson, and older acts such as Blind Boy Fuller, Blind Willie McTell, Josh White and even a snatch of Robert Johnson. Fellow East-Coaster Johnny Mars takes a break from his usual high energy harmonica style to supply some wonderful rural and early Chicago styled Blues licks on six tracks, and the excellent vocal group Black Voices contribute some gospel feeling – try especially the a cappella ‘Didn’t It Rain’, very much in the joyous jubilee style of The Golden Gate Quartet. Michael’s children even contribute, ensuring the tradition is passed on – as it was to Michael himself and as it should be.

MIKE MILLIGAN AND THE ALTAR BOYZ Holdin’ On Doc

Blues Records

There must be something in the water in Texas – from Blind Willie Johnson to S.R.V, over the years this state has produced ludicrous number of talented musicians. To these add Mike Milligan and the Altar Boyz, an Austinbased blues band with the chops to match their illustrious antecedents. If harmonica is your thing, then this album is for you - from first track to last, singer/frontman Mike Milligan’s virtuoso harmonica playing is writ large over “Holdin’ On”, with ‘She’s My Woman’ and ‘Permanent Insanity’ acting in particular as harp showcases. This isn’t to say that other members of the band are subservient to his musical will, with guitarist Scott Unzicker displaying his six-string prowess on ‘You Don’t Know Me’, and, indeed on every song. And here-in lies the problem – both harpist and guitarist feel the need to noodle on each and every song, detracting from the music over all, and making each song into a sometimes self-indulgent jam. If you can look past this however, there is much to recommend here. ‘Wash Over Me’ is a beautiful tune with more tasteful soloing than is seen on much of the album. It is clear that Mike Milligan and the Altar Boyz are consummate pros, and with improvisation and extended soloing key to their Texas Blues sound, it would be foolish to try and change them.

Adam Bates

MISSY ANDERSEN Missy Andersen

www.myspace.com/michaelaraeguitar

Main Squeeze RecordsDetroit-born singer Missy Andersen is what you would describe as old-school soul belter. Like Sharon Jones, the Bamboos and Sweet Vandals, she specializes in a deep funk that is perfect to dance to. She has a terrific voice and her rendition of Ann Peebles ‘I Can’t Stand The Rain’ is excellent. She even tears it up on ‘Ace Of Spades’, which in case you are wondering is not the Motorhead version! Readers might have heard this song a millions time and it has become something of an old chestnut, but Andersen genuinely breathes new life into it. Sadly, there are only eight tracks on this otherwise excellent record and credit should go to Jeppe Juul, who does a fine job greasing up the Hammond Organ. It might not have the production standards of a Daptone release, or be quite as club friendly, but it’s pretty close. And if deep groove ain’t your thing, then Andersen does shift gear back to the Blues on the final track ‘Stand Up And Dance’. This welcome slice of backporch Blues, proves there is more to this diva than soul alone. Those years spent singing backup vocals for Earl Thomas have paid dividends. The former Juke Joint Jezebelle has broken lose and she sounds great. - Jamie Hailstone

Norman Darwen

MONKEY JUNK Tiger In Your Tank Beefy Productions

This Ottawa, Canada-based trio were formed less than two years ago, but have already won numerous Maple Blues awards in their homeland, including entertainer of the year, and electric act of the year. This is their debut and features the talents of Steve Marriner (vocals, harmonica, guitar), Tony D (guitar) and Matt Sobb (percussion). The band cook up an energetic blast of swamp Blues with a real strong boogie sound that has a distinctly live feel. The title track gets the ball rolling on the Willie Dixon penned Blues classic, and from the off these guys show they can clearly play. ‘When Push Comes To Shove’ is led by a Hammond organ, and features a tasty guitar break that is clean and tasteful. The original instrumental ‘Beefy’ is a shootout between slide guitar and harmonica, both vying for top billing in the Blues stakes. The band have a full-on, contemporary sound, and Tank is chock full of good time grooves, but they can slow things down when necessary. ‘Pay The Cost’ is a fine Blues, that is part original, part cover, whilst ‘Boogie Man’ epitomises their sound, and illustrates what they are all about. Entertaining, harmonica-led Blues that does not disappoint, and is worth seeking out.

NICOLE HART Treasure

Independent

A real delight and somewhat unexpected too. Ms. Hart has a full and powerful contralto with lots of emotion and she can really belt out soulful Blues. Her band includes – is led by – her husband Lance Ong who sadly passed away in December and his contribution here suggests that the Blues world has lost a really fine musician. The rest of Hart’s band are Ian Carroll on drums and Sean ‘Mr Helpful’ Villere on guitar and they really do kick up a storm but it is Nicole Hart’s name on the cover and her vocals that really put this one away. The music has a jazzy and soulful groove to it and the band can really funk it up when called upon and Hart’s vocals really are perfectly suited to the way that the band plays. The album kicks off slow and sassy with the lady crooning a love song over a jazzy piano and guitar accompaniment but the moods lifts with a countrified ‘Heart Trouble’ that snaps along nicely. The whole album kicks up a gear and a half as the band swings into a seriously funky version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Higher Ground’ and we are just beginning to hear Lance on Hammond and kicking it out while her voice takes on a pleading tone and really delivers – you can see this as a live favourite. From that point on the whole album goes into a different realm to the first few tracks and the sound becomes more funky and Bluesy and there is less ‘little girlishness’ and more sass. The title track has her sounding very Aretha and Lance’s keys are full and boiling nicely while ‘Singing The Blues’ is downright sweaty and steaming. This lady should not be

confused with the Nicole Hart who won ‘Laddette to Lay’ on TV last year – this Nicole Hart is every bit the lady and a damn fine one at that.

Andy Snipper

NISSE THORBJORN CPH Slim Cope Records

It’s been the best part of decade since John Lee Hooker died, and Nisse Thorbjorn seems intent on bringing the blues masters’ patented jump boogie back. There really is a raw delta feel about the Danish blues singer of the year 2009’s brand of blues, with nothing more elaborate than an acoustic guitar, harmonica, slide and a metronomic stomping foot – a style particularly evident the hypnotic ‘Goin’ Down to Gainsville’. He even covers Hooker’s ‘The Waterfront’, and superbly so. However, does him a disservice to merely call him a Hooker clone – ‘Waiting for an Angel’ is a gentle acoustic ballad, and ‘Where did you sleep last night’ is another perfectly executed folk song, graced by the seductive vocals of Kira Skov. Indeed, the only criticism I can offer is that for a bluesman, there are perhaps a few too many ballads, with the second half of the album consisting of nothing but them. This is a nuanced album from a versatile musician. His singing growls on album opener ‘Scarecrow’, and his harmonica soars on almost every track. If its delta blues with a modern twist you want, you won’t find anyone better than Nisse Thorbjorn.

NORAH JONES

The Fall

Blue Note Records

The woman who soundtracked a million dinner parties is back – and this time it’s personal. The good news is that unlike the insufferably dull Katie Melua, Jones has always had good taste. For her latest effort, she has managed to reinvent herself a little. She’s still the singer you could take home to your parents, but she’s roped in some of Tom Waits’ sidemen to keep things interesting. Step forward guitarist Marc Ribot and producer Jacquire King. Some of the other sessioners have equally impressive pedigrees. Make no mistake, this is no “Swordfishtrombones”. There’s no atonal screaming or jazz poetry monologues. It’s an impeccably tasteful record. The millions of adoring couples who use Norah Jones to soundtrack their candle-lit suppers will not be disappointed. For the rest of us, it’s a step in the right direction, but Norah Jones is still an artist that you cannot get genuinely excited about. Don’t get me wrong. She’s a great singer. Listen to her on ‘Light As A Feather’ and you can a truly great vocalist, capable of getting every

Andrew Baldwin

Adam Bates

ounce of emotion from a track. She just needs to cut loose, but having sold 36m records already – she’s probably not going to turn her back on her fans anytime soon.

Jamie Hailstone

VARIOUS ARTISTS Beautiful Star: The Songs Of Odetta

www.wearsthetrousers.com

This compilation has been put together by the magazine Wears The Trousers to celebrate one of the most significant women in the history of popular music, Odetta Holmes. The singer was once dubbed the ‘Queen of American folk music’ by no less than Martin Luther King and was a key part of the American civil rights movement. The 16 tracks on this CD feature some of her best-known tunes, including ‘This Little Light Of Mine’ and ‘Motherless Child’, all performed by modern independent singers. Blues fans will lap up Gemma Ray’s stirring version of ‘900 Miles’, which features the British singer’s trademark slide guitar and haunting vocals. All of the performers treat the material with a certain degree of reverence, while at the same time, making each song their own. It is essentially a folk album, with a few world music touches added for good measure. Arboiea’s lonesome and almost ambient ‘This Little Light Of Mine’ is a stunning conclusion to a very understated, yet enjoyable album. The profits from this CD will also go to charity. All in all, this is a fitting tribute to a great artist and a great record in its own right.

Jamie Hailstone

OTIS REDDING

The Best: See & Hear,

Rhino CD/DVD set

What is there to say about something like this other than –fabulous. Because Otis Blue left us so tragically early the material he left behind seems more powerful than ever. All the tracks on the audio CD are brilliant – Sittin On The Dock of The Bay, Tenderness, Respect … all the best material. This music makes you realise why Otis Redding towered above all other soul performers. What passes for ‘soul’ these days (thanks to shouters like Whitney Houston and off the scale note benders like Mariah Carey) is how many wobbling glissandos you can get into a phrase without losing your breath. But listen to this album and the word ‘soul’ has true meaning; Fa-Fa-Fa- Fa-Fa (Sad Song) and the wonderful I’ve Got Dreams To Remember are a case in point. And there’s even a stirring duet with the mighty Carla Thomas on Tramp. Over 4 decades on, performances like Mr. Pitiful continue to blow away all the pale pretenders such as Michael Bolton and Mick Hucknall. If there was a royal family of soul, then it only had one queen – Aretha Franklin – and here’s her

king – Otis Redding. Sadly, I couldn’t get the accompanying DVD with this US pressing to play, which is a shame, because it features the Stax/Volt tour of 1967 and other ’67 live material, and includes performances by Sam & Dave, as well as Booker T and the MGs playing, of course, Green Onions, and it includes Otis’s brilliant live 1967 rendering of Try A Little Tenderness. Hopefully, the UK release will have a Region 2 DVD. If you love soul with a side helping of groovy blues, look out for this. Total music, ultimate talent.

Roy Bainton

PAT THOMAS His Fathers Son

Broke & Hungry

Son of the late, revered, James “Son” Thomas, Pat has followed in his father’s footsteps into both the world of art and that of music. Now at the age of 49 he has released his debut album, a twelve-track collection of down-home rural Blues. Six traditional interpretations, featuring the likes of ‘Dance With The Red Dress On’ and ‘Big Fat Mama’. Two originals, including a lively instrumental ‘Leland’s Burning Down’. Four covers, one of which is a fine version of John Lee Williamson’s ‘Sugar Mama’ and another an interesting take on John Lee Hooker’s ‘Dimples’. This is real old school. Studio recorded over two days it retains a live feel. It’s not smooth or polished but has a life and vitality that so many productions lack. Apart from two tracks that feature Pat on electric guitar and a few that feature drummer Lee Williams this is just the man himself on acoustic guitar and vocals. A self taught style and some good old Blues songs from a man who is truly his father’s son.

Thomas Rankin

PAUL BURCH

Still Your Man

Ramseur

esonating acoustic reflection from Nashville, this latest Paul Burch excursion begins with a JJ Cale meets The Beatles melody ‘Like A Train’ before mellowing to Johnny Cash in ‘Little Bells’. It’s a retro-album that uses the phrase dance music in the traditional sense rather than that newly associated with rave and club culture. Aiming for a sonic sound of a ballroom or juke joint, there is indeed an echo of sentiment running across every number. The gentlest of rockabilly comes through on ‘Honey Blue’ and images of shiny shoes below dark suits prevail. There’s a rolling accordion turn providing Cajun-come-Appalachian backbeat on ‘Down To The Blackmarket’ that conjures up the atmosphere of community hustle and bustle. From his band WPA Ballclub, Marty Lynds skiffles away on Little Walter’s ‘It Ain’t Right’ and a revival sound that soothes once more. The warm embrace continues in cantina

sunshine through ‘Vena Amore’. With a portrait of Burch on the inner sleeve making him look like a street-savvy Dennis Hopper, it’s of no surprise that the album is cinematic in its reach, offering threads of imagination to a different time. The final, and fourteenth, track on the album, ‘Paul Burch’s Rattlesnake Daddy Blues’, is a trembling immersion into wonderful contemporary nostalgia. Burch says that many of the songs are devotional, and as such it is perfectly fitting that he chooses to have his wife, in dancing mode, don the album’s cover; a restrained romantic turn.

Gareth Hayes

POPA CHUBBY The Fight Is On

Provogue

I like Popa Chubby. And not just because I feel positively sylph-like beside him. No, it’s his gutsy, roadhouse rockin’ Blues that has been a close friend of mine over the years. Now his recordings have been a bit up and down, but I’m pleased to say that this is one of the good ones. Now that may be because Popa sounds pissed off on a lot of the songs. Something that is apparent from the hard rocking, opening double salvo of ‘the Fight Is On’ and ‘We Got Some Rockin’ To Do’, right through to the closing, live cover of Motorhead’s ‘Ace Of Spades’. Popa claims to be particularly pleased with the power ballad ‘Locked In A Memory’, but it’s all a bit deep-fried hippy for me. I’m much more at home with the seventies Blues rock of ‘Rock And Roll Is My Religion’, but his Lou Reed / Snoop Dogg mash-up on ‘NYC 1977 Till’ probably made more sense down the pub. Thankfully, he’s remembered that he’s got some rocking to do and some tales to tell, the best of which is ‘Wicked Wands’, before things come crashing to a close in fine Motorhead style.

Stuart A Hamilton

shines brighter than in beatnik mode - ‘The Parable Of Skag Addict And Quack’ and ‘Jonah’ are atmospheric highlights. The delivery of lines like “...calm your blood lust, beast/For here is a prophet of the Lord!” is passionate in way that will attract plenty of non believers and agnostics in addition to the offbeat religious subscribers who will undoubtedly love it. There won’t be much to entice blues fans though, but 60’s traditionalists will find the odd Kink-like interlude among the general bedlam. ‘Hand, Foot And Mouth’ is a stand out and there are plenty of other bright moments, especially when the innovative brass section is as evident as it is in “Turtle Dove Waltz”. Edward Lear meets John Wesley – fully committed, morally potent, spookily addictive and like the best tub thumpers, probably magnificent live.

RICHARD NEWMAN Bluestones

MR Productions

If you’re unfamiliar with Richard Newman, then we can report he’s an ultra-efficient, all-round bluesman with a total grasp of his material. There’s ten tracks here, 6 selfpenned originals and four highly respectable nods in the roots direction. Whether on electric or acoustic guitars, the man can cut the mustard, and the production is crisp and clean. He puts his own clear stamp on his readings of songs such as Tampa Red’s ‘New Stranger Blues’ and the traditional ‘Forty Four Blues’ and his own compositions have their lyrical appeal, especially on ‘Collateral Damage’. If there is any down-side to what is, essentially, as good a calling card as one could have for an act, then it lies, albeit slightly, with the vocals, which seem to soar on some tracks yet are a little lack-lustre on others. That said, Richard Newman can hold his own among the plethora of current artists treading today’s ever-widening blues groove.

Roy Bainton

ROB PAPAROZZI Etruscan Soul

Righteous Holler

Described elsewhere as “Suffolk’s answer to Captain Beefheart”, the Rev describes himself as a “folk symphonist, sinner songwriter and eccentric evangelist”. And so it as that those most difficult to trap in a descriptive pigeon hole attract the most adjectives and anchoring comparisons. ‘Lions’ is in truth, chaotic, occasionally discordant, ever-anarchic but never dull. The good preacher employs a band of ghostly backers who contribute everything from tap dancing to stylophones and rook call, while he himself ranges from the robustly growling to whimsically falsetto. Although all his lyrics are engagingly kooky, he can put aside the nuttiness occasionally to present a poignant observation of the dark side. When he does, he perhaps

Honeydrippers Records

Now I did not know that. Turns out that Rob Paparozzi has been frontman for Blood, Sweat And Tears since 2005. But this is no Johnny come lately as Mr Paparozzi has been performing in Blues bands since the late sixties, including a stint with Steve Cropper in the Original Blues Brothers Band. And you don’t get gigs like that by being a bit rubbish. And that’s when he’s not playing in his own band, the Hudson River Rats. As well as singing he’s also a dab hand with a harmonica and, barring a fatally flawed start with ‘Ticket To Ride, this solo

album sees him taking on some of his favourite tunes in mighty fine style. He’s brought in some great players including Leo Nocentelli from the Meters and the fabulous Phoebe Snow adds vocals on the Delbert McLinton gem ‘Monkey Around’. A song that also features the legendary Hugh McCracken on guitar. I loved this album so am hard pushed to pick favourites, but try out Stephen Stills’ ‘Love the One You’re With’, Keb’ Mo’’s ‘Keep It Simple’ and Little Willie John’s ‘Let Them Talk’. It’s a couple of tracks too long, so I’d have lost the aforementioned ‘Ticket To Ride’ and dumped ‘Strange Brew’, but that apart, this is an utter delight.

including the first and title track seem to my jaundiced ear (for whom ‘Albatross’ is the bench mark) a tad busy and contrived, lacking flow and cohesiveness. Jimmy Reed’s ‘Can’t Stand To See You Go’ has some lovely harp and tenor sax interplay and all the easy accomplished instrumental competence you would expect but, as throughout the album, the rather thin and clipped vocal style pales in comparison to the sumptuous instrumental quality. Another classic, Big Bill Broonzy’s ‘Key To The Highway’ is given a refreshing makeover from the usual guitar based renditions and has some superb piano work from Miss Honey (Piazza). The band’s 24th CD release contains some interesting historical references with the inclusion of George Smith’s ‘Sunbird’, an instrumental which Rod Piazza produced in 1983, and the only real blues track ‘Tell Me About It Sam’ with a narrative concerning it’s first rendering in 1992. ‘Hey, Mrs Jones’ the 13th and final track is really jazz. Certainly a satisfying release for existing fans but in terms of the stated aspiration in the sleeve notes, 54 worthwhile rather than great minutes of listening.

Bob Chaffey

RUDY ROTTA Blue Inside

Peppercake

ROD PIAZZA & THE MIGHTY FLYERS BLUES QUARTET Soul Monster

Delta Groove

I was fortunate to witness their excellent performance at Burnley last Easter and wonder if like some other bands they do not quite do themselves justice on CD. Certainly the virtuosity and quality of the musicianship on display here is impeccable, and there is a variety of material with classic blues tracks leavened with self penned material, all flawlessly executed. However the instrumentals on offer

There’s a lot of classy blues-based stuff coming out of Europe and here’s some more. Nicely packaged with excellent graphics and a fold-out lyrics sheet, this is an 11-track, all self-penned by guitarist/vocalist Rotta, with a couple co-written with Elizabeth Lee and Deborah Kooperman. The opening salvo, Lady, has an attention-grabbing vocal intro by a harmonic outfit called Robin Brown and The Triumphant Delegation. Other tracks achieve a distinctly gospel ambience with choruses from other backing singers. Is it a blues album? Well, in a traditional sense, no, but in a modern sense, yes. The lyrics are certainly bluesy, and there’s a dramatic track, ‘No One Cares’, which deals with the September 11 2001 attacks on the World Center, complete with tapes from various US news agencies. This leads into a smart, thoughtful modern slow blues, ‘Had A Friend’. Throughout Rotta’s vocals hit the spot, and his guitar playing burns when it needs to, and is held under control if the mood demands it. Brilliant mixing from Italy’s Tobacco Road Studios and overall slick design combine to convince us that the blues Euro can match the blues dollar any day. -

Roy Bainton

Stuart A Hamilton Rocket

SEAN COSTELLO A Memorial Restrospective

Landslide

When Sean Costello died, the day before his 29th birthday in April 2008, the blues world lost a fascinating, lively and entertaining blues all-rounder who should have had a long, glittering career ahead of him. Costello was steeped in blues and jazz lore from an early age, and was already wowing audiences at the age of 14. Like many lads discovering the blues, he was blown away when he heard his first Howlin’ Wolf record. Yet his guitar style rocked on way beyond Chess influences, and as you’ll hear on this fine 20 track CD, he possessed an urgent, rollicking urban bounce and a great vocal style. Everything’s here – you can smell Hooker, Wolf, and much more, and his band are damned good – remember, they backed many top blues artists on international tours. Every track here is a gem. Pianist Paul Linden also plays a mean harmonica, and on the instrumental ‘Big Beaver’, Costello’s command of jazzy

chords and solos is superb. As well as the music being so great – and anyone who buys this will play it to death (or they ain’t got no soul), then take a look at the pictures of Sean – a good looking man who could’ve made movies. It’s albums like this which continue offer a reviewer that rarity – an unexpected joy, yet sadly darkened by the fact that Sean Costello isn’t still with us.

Roy Bainton

SERIOUS SAM BARRETT Close To Home

Yadig

Serious Sam has come a long way from the moment when I met him for the first time just under a year ago, or at least I can only assume that this is the case. “Close to Home” is one of those rare treasures that make sense in more than one dynamic; because of this I will try my best to lay them all out for you, the reader. ‘Lay a White Rose’ opens

of Leeds’, out smarts all of

I hope you can

‘The Female Drummer’ remains my Barrett’s traditional reis so lyrically perfect the demise of a friend-

the latter pours out into an apathetic portrait of one of thoseter how much drink is drunk. If all of that proved that Barrett

SHELDON BAYLOR & FRIENDS

-

SHAKE YOUR HIPS Blues Twins (2 CDs)

Mosaic

The Impossible, It Can Be Done -

music, choir directors and soloists to treat us to a fresh

even the most blasé to Blues music. “Blues Twins” is in fact a very punchy ‘Can’t Down’. Shake your Hips really mean play ‘live’ and let out they are as in this the concert they did one Summer Nantes. It’s molten

Minister of Music for the Fountain Baptist Church. You

and ‘Here Is My God’, two of the three titles which have

STEVE CONTE & THE CRAZY TRUTH

Matthew Clarke

Your Hips.

Frankie Pfeiffer/Nat Harrap

Frankie Bluesy Pfeiffer and Nat Harrap

Steve Conte & The Crazy Truth

New York Dolls. It’s a fast, frantic, heavy-duty, full-on affairthe attitude of Jim Morrison with the cool of early Aeros-

- Richard Thomas

TASTE

Bad Reputation

dysfunctional at the same time.

Mumbo Jumbo And Murder

Quiff Records

th anniversary of the fall of Frankie Pfeiffer/Nat Harrap

Life with a Slow Ear

chunk of tasty raw meat thrown into the lions enclosure

fault, it’s the hype’s. Twelve tracks is perhaps a couple too rock constructions while drummer Brendan Heaney needs followers may think this a little coarse and unseasoned

the sound of Taylor’s voice. The only word that I can thinkand its off-shoots. -

Vicky Martin

Gareth Hayes

THE CSL JR. BAND Voice Of The Heart

Independent

The Blues world thrives on bands like the CSL Jr. Band. These are guys who play mainly because they love to play the music and who don’t expect to get rich – or even laid – by playing the music but who relish the chances that fall their way to play and be heard by like-minded types. Unusually for the genre these guys are also pretty damn good! Greg Lefholz has a gruff and raucous way about his vocals and Chuck Lancaster and Jamey Shepherd are no slouches around a six string. Les Gifford (bass) and Carl Michael (drums) drive the band along at a fair lick and the whole thing works as a band with a solid Missouri pedigree to it (Sedalia no less). The music is all original and their twisting the music around. ‘Hangman’ shows what they can

do when they switch the electricity off and play gutbucket style with Lefholz’ vocals coming from way down deep in the pit and ‘Coupe De Vill’ brings us back to the pounding rhythms again. 10 tracks on this album and there is nothing here that doesn’t deserve to be on my iPod. The music suggests that they would be a killer live act but until they stray to these shores the album will do – this is streets better than the usual unsigned bands one comes across.

Andy Snipper

THE JEFFREY LEE PIERCE SESSIONS PROJECT

We Are Only Riders

Glitterhouse Records

The American punk Blues outfit The Gun Club were one of

those cult bands whose influ ence is overlooked by many. They were fronted by the late Jeffrey Lee Pierce, who also used to run the Blondie fan club in Los Angeles and fused Blues, punk, rockabilly and new wave into a truly unique sound. One of Pierce’s contemporaries and frequent collaborators Cypress Grove recently found a cassette of half-finished songs by the man himself and decided to finish them off with some help from his friends. The end result is a starstudded cast, including Nick Cave, Debbie Harry and Mark Lanegan. There are alternative versions of the same song – for example, you can hear both Nick Cave, David Eugene Edwards and Cypress Grove take on ‘Ramblin Mind’. Everyone is on fine form and Debbie Harry really does nail ‘Lucky Jim’. Mark Lanegan’s growling voice is particularly effective, giving his tracks a real sense of menace and darkness. Admittedly, it’s a very sombre album and short on party tracks, but fans of Cave and Lanegan will not be disappointed. This CD is a fitting tribute to one of music’s forgotten heroes, who has impacted by the alternative music scene and the Blues in equal measure.

Jamie Hailstone

THE NEW LOST CITY RAMBLERS Where do you come from? Where do you go?

SARAH LEE GUTHRIES & FAMILY Go Waggaloo

Smithsonian Folkways Recordings

The New Lost City Ramblers are highly influential in American Folk music. A contemporary old-time string band they formed in 1958 with Mike Seeger, John Cohen and Tom Paley who was later replaced by Tracy Schwarz. They still perform today and this very well produced three CD package celebrates 50 years of their reviving and performing old-time American music. The first CD ‘The Early Years’ contains the pick of tracks recorded between 1958 and 1962, the second the years 1962 to 1973. The third presents tracks by the original artists with standouts including Elizabeth Cotton, Clarence Ashley and Roscoe Holcomb. As a fascinating overview of traditional American music this album will be invaluable to listeners and musicians in particular. Each CD comes with a 72 page booklet the presentation is top notch. Sarah Lee Guthrie’s album is an album of children’s songs, all original and very well played. To me it was a bit twee, and sad to say, in the present computer based culture it won’t appeal to British kids. In summary then a well played and produced album but much more suitable to the American market.

Vicky Martin

THE PINES Tremolo

Red House

This Minneapolis based duo is made up of Benson Ramsey and Dave Huckfelt, and they blend folk with country Blues, creating a strong roots, Americana sound that is dark and mysterious one moment, and heartfelt and bittersweet the next. Both sing and play guitar, both acoustic and electric, and they write their own material. The music is very laid back throughout, with vivid imagery through their intelligent lyrics, such as the politically driven opener ‘Pray Tell’, to the gorgeous ballad that is ‘Behind The Time’. This is an album that reveals a little more of itself on each subsequent listen, and all ten tracks are thoroughly enjoyable, there’s nary a dud in the pack. The emotional ‘Meadows Of Dawn’ is an exquisite tune that just about takes top billing, with a slide guitar gently nudging the tune along. The band are augmented by drums, bass and flourishes of keyboard, but it is the whispered vocals, and gentle strumming that most appeals from this set. A splendid version of Mississippi John Hurt’s ‘Spike Driver Blues’ is one of only two covers, and it’s an excellent county Blues, with a murky underpinning. This is their third full-length release, and these guys deserve to be more well known, this is earthy, honest and compelling music.

Andrew Baldwin

THE SNOWY WHITE BLUES PROJECT

In Our Time Of Living

TSWBP Records

Ok lets get the one gripe out of the way first. The complete absence of liner notes lets down this otherwise good album. I know it might seem a bit picky but I guess I am just somebody that enjoys reading either lyrics or credits etc. Right that is the moaning over with and so to the music. This is the first new studio body of work since 2005’s “The Way It Is” and very welcome it is. Snowy is one of these players who have been around since the early 70’s and to many folk he perhaps is an unknown sideman. That is a great pity as these thirteen tracks, including two covers, all very nicely recorded and produced by himself. Joined by Ruud Weber Jnr on bass/vocals, Juan van Emmerloot drums and Matt Taylor guitar/vocals this is a solid band with a great feel for Blues. ‘Rolling With My Baby’ starts this album rolling (sorry about that) along at a nice pace. Having the two guitars playing, a la Wishbone Ash, sounded wonderful. There is something special happening sonically when that music hits your ears as riffs are traded throughout the album. The first cover is the Leadbetter/Lomax ‘Good Morning Blues’ I

CD REVIEWS

know that we have all heard it hundreds of times before but it is always interesting to hear a slightly different take on it by different players. Then the next raft of tracks all come from within the band. ‘Blue To The Bone’, ‘I Ain’t No Doctor’ or ‘Red Man Blues’ all hit the spot as does Skip James’s ‘I’m So Glad’. The whole this is engineered cleanly and simply by Curtis Schwartz and it sounds great.

Graeme Scott

THE SOJOURNERS The Sojourners

Black Hen

The links between gospel music and the Blues are many, yet plenty of Blues lovers tend to overlook them. They should take a listen to The Sojourners. This vocal triobased in Vancouver, Canada, though the three men are from Texas, Louisiana and Chicago – has a sound which is in the tradition of the great groups of

Stirrers, The Swan Silvertones and others. It is a joyous, yet often thoughtful approach (‘Another Soldier Gone’ is a good example, with a very contemporary relevance). It can also be very, very Bluesy, as for example, the driving ‘Strange Man’ here, and of course the cover of Reverend Gary Davis’s “holy-blues” ‘Death Don’t Have No Mercy’, whilst ‘When I Die’ is a dead-ringer for Curtis Mayfield and The Impressions. Nor do they always look backwards – there is a fine, slightly heavy version of the Los Lobos socially conscious number ‘The Neighborhood’. Producer Steve Dawson has supplied a small, very sympathetic group for this, the group’s second album. How’d I miss the first, and how do I get hold of it?

Norman Darwen

THE ACES

No One Rides For Free

l Toro Records

It’s well known and many musicians will confirm it, a trio is a tough formula to get right as it means a strong rhythm section as well as great flexibility to allow the three musicians to express themselves fully. So when a trio decides to do without a bass guitar to keep only a drummer, a guitar player and a singer-harmonica player, it becomes a kind of balancing act and this is what The Aces do, walking on a musical tightrope. The six string and drums are so powerful, so beautifully juggling between the highs and lows that you wouldn’t notice that there is no bass guitar. To demonstrate the gamble had paid off, The Aces even asked two ‘guest’ guitar players not to play bass but rhythm guitar. The album is a hyper vitaminated, spicy Blues, switching between boogie and shuffle with a pinch of rockabilly on some tracks. Sky O’Banion’s voice is as furious and blazing as his harp when the rhythm goes wild and as

intense and warm when a slow Blues dictates the pace as in ‘Drinkin Song’, probably one of the most beautiful slow Blues recorded in 2009. In the breathtaking ‘Shed Some Light On Me’ and the staggering ‘You’re Gonna Lose’, the harp player’s control is such, you feel the perfect technique is not for showing off but solely for the music. The Aces is a band worth its weight both by its talent and its originality. Don’t miss this little gem!

Frankie Pfeiffer/Nat Harrap

TONY STEVENS SLOWRIDE Back To The Fog

Eastworld Records

One thing that the UK always did well was to produce really fine Blues based rock bands. One only needs to think in terms of Free, Thin Lizzy, Nazareth, Whitesnake, Family, Deep Purple etc to know how true that is. These bands had a very recognisable sound due in no small part to strong vocalists, driving rhythm sections and terrific guitarists coupled with a mix of hard and yet melodic songs. There was always a clear separation between us and the Yanks however this is the Uncle Sam with a UK hat on. Or should that be Foghat? Bassist Tony and drummer Eddie Zyne are former alumni’s of that band and are joined here by both Billy Livesay and Tommy Hall on guitars and vocals. Collectively we have a very fine seasoned band of musicians who know there way around the genre. I really enjoyed this album that has a mix of originals, Foghat covers ‘Looking For You’, ‘Fool For The City’ and this band’s moniker ‘Slowride’ plus three cracking outside covers. The Who’s ‘Join Together’ is the first of these covers all sequenced together. It fairly moves along and you find yourself belting out the hook. ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ is far removed from Willie Dixon’s version but no less relevant. Just wait until you hear their blistering take on ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. There may be a Classic Rock feel here but this is contemporary music and is truly a joy on the ears.

VARIOUS ARTISTS

Oil City Confidential: The Story Of Dr. Feelgood

EMI

There was a time when pub rock ruled the world. There was a spell in the 1970s, when bands and singers like Nick Lowe to Ian Dury took old-school Rhythm and Blues and shaped it into something truly great. The hardest rocking of all these acts hailed from Canvey Island in Essex and went by the name Dr. Feelgood. The story of this remarkable, but frequently overlooked band is now the subject of a

Graeme Scott

feature length film and this newly issued CD contains some of their greatest hits, live recordings and a couple of gems. For anyone who is curious or new to the magic of the late Lee Brilleaux and Wilko Johnson, this is truly the perfect introduction to Dr. Feelgood. No one could match them when it came to paired-down blues and boogie. Brilleaux was one of the great voices of the 1970s and had a commanding presence, while Wilko’s fiery guitar playing was the stuff of legend. They might have fallen slightly out of public favour when punk and new wave became the musical styles de jour, but 30 years on, the music they put out still sounds incredible. The various live tracks and singles make this an essential purchase in tits own right, but two bonus Johnny Kidd & The Pirate tracks and a song by The Paramounts mean this is one record no self-respecting pub rocker can be without.

Jamie Hailstone

VARIOUS: The Village

429 Records CD

From 1963 onwards, acoustic folk music grabbed back its political banner which had been trodden down during the horror years of Macarthyite red-baiting. It was to the new club underground in America that a new generation of singer songwriters gravitated, and nowhere was more important than Greenwich Village. So although this compilation isn’t a blues album, it celebrates that stand-up-and-be-counted live musical attitude which forms the large part of all intimate club performances. However, apart from stand out tracks like Los Lobos’s fine, organic rendering of Guantanamera or the excellent Rickie Lee Jones’s ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’, this Dylanesque collection of 13 tracks did plunge me into a slightly morose mood. Perhaps it will appeal to many elderly folkies who remember the days when governments actually took notice of demonstrations, but there’s such a sadness in some of these performances, fine though they are, that I had to give up. In short, one needs to be in the right frame of mind for this kind of thing. It’s a fine collection, but light up some jazz tobacco and a joss stick and you’ll be OK.

Roy Bainton

of the year? As I write this there is about a foot of snow outside, but what happens when the days lengthen and the mercury rises? Well, I do recall seeing Charles Brown, the king of the seasonal Blues, at London’s 100 Club many years back and I would have felt cheated if he hadn’t performed ‘Merry Christmas Baby’ – even though it was Easter Sunday. Charles didn’t disappoint me! So I guess if the circumstances are right, it’s OK. The music on the two Christmas double CDs is most certainly fine – yes, there may be a couple of over-stuffed stockings worth of ‘jingle bells’ quotes and sleigh bells in the backing, but as the fine notes point out, the vast majority of the songs themselves fall into the categories of “this is what I want my baby to give me this Christmas” (with more than a nudge-nudge, wink-wink) or “this is a time to be happy but my baby’s left me”, with a further sub-category of “we have a new year coming up, let’s make it a better one than last year”. Stylistically the music ranges from the raw Texas Blues of Blind Lemon Jefferson or Lightnin’ Hopkins to the sophisticated swing of Lionel Hampton’s band, via joyous jubilee gospel, jump-Blues aplenty, guitar evangelists, vaudeville Blues, boogie-woogie, fire-and-brimstone preaching, rock and roll, early doo-wop, some jive, and cool Blues, down-home Blues, smooth Blues, East Coast Blues, West Coast Blues, southern Blues and the urban Blues. No Charles Brown though, which is something of a mystery – until you realise he is the vocalist with Johnny Moore’s Three Blazers...No turkeys either, though.

The final set under consideration here is a budget line single CD, which really should need no further exposition from me provided you have read the newspapers over the last couple of years. Though consisting mainly of vintage pre-war blues and old-timey sounds, much of it depression era, examples from the forties, fifties, sixties and the angry nineties blues-rock of native American Russell Means prove that fiscal mischief didn’t disappear between 1929 and the end of the noughties. The Document label itself was almost a credit crunch victim, and this set is intended as a riposte to greedy bankers. Buy it and help “save a heritage Blues label from being chewed up and spat out by the fat cats...” What more incentive do you need? Maybe the fact it has some wonderful music should help persuade those with reservations (unless you’re a banker).

Norman Darwen

WALTER TROUT Unspoiled By Progress Provogue

Document Records

Does anyone listen to Christmas music during the rest

It’s hard to believe that Walter Trout will be 60 next year as he still seems like a new kid to me, 20 years after he left John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers. Some people see his music as being formulaic, blue collar, Blues-rock, but anyone who lent an ear to his last studio album, “The Outsider”, will know that isn’t always the case. Things kick off with an anthemic call to arms in the shape of ‘They Call Us the Working Class’, a fiery, political diatribe about the state of the world, and one of the finest songs of his long career. From then onwards, it’s a mixture of studio and live material from the last twenty years, with the first live tune being a fantastic run through of the Freddie King classic ‘Goin’

Down’, taken from a 1991 BBC radio session. Amongst the other live gems are barnstorming takes on Little Richard’s ‘Long Tall Sally’ and John Mayall’s ‘Somebody’s Acting Like A Child’. For people who think that Trout is too much rock and not enough Blues, take a listen to one of the new tracks, ‘Two Sides To Every Story’, a delightful piece of country Blues that Trout says was written after listening to “a few hours of Lightnin’ Hopkins”. Trout may regard himself and his music as unspoiled by progress, but when you can put out, what is essentially an album of outtakes, and have it turn out this well, then progress be damned!

Stuart A Hamilton

WILSON T KING Follow Your First Mind

19 Miles High

Difficult to understand why this guy is a stranger to me – he is a stunning guitarist with a whole career full of different sides. He has played in a whole coterie of different British Indie bands and he has also played with the likes of Alice Cooper and Nigel Kennedy but the blurb that came with this album has it that his first love is the Blues and he certainly shows that here. He sounds as though he wants to rediscover the whole idea of the guitar solo and the songs are rampant with them. His inspirations are the classics – Hendrix, Jeff Beck, Duane Allman and you can hear so many of his influences in his playing but the overall feel and delivery are his alone and this album is a real revelation. The album kicks off with a dynamite solo on ‘The Light Behind The Sun’ and he has a deep and moody feel to the song, very much in Robin Trower territory and with a world-worn feel to his vocal. The guitar on ‘Vigilante Man’ is epic; slow Blues with a howling edge to it and he invokes a dark place where the Vigilante Man visits hell and damnation on the evil doers. This is a man who is obviously in love with the sound of but he is also one of those rare souls who can make music with it rather than using it to show off their prowess or jack themselves up with it. The play on ‘Now I Know’ is superb; slow, echoey exploration of a theme and completely contained with just a slow and unobtrusive bass for company – Yngwie Malmsteen should listen to this to hear just what a solo guitar can do. There are ghosts all over this album but they are standing and applauding a man who plays Blues in the classic manner but with a modern head – I can’t help but join them.

WOODY PINES

Counting Alligators

www.woodypines.com

Woody Pines gives his name to this wonderfully authentic country Blues outfit, which is basically a three piece with a number of other guests adding tasteful embellishments. Pines affectionate capture of Americana is right on the money. For a while he lived in New Orleans and soaked up the Louisiana experience, both musically and culturally, before settling in North Carolina. This album is from start to finish a classy homage to those experiences, but by no means restricted to New Orleans jazz / Blues; just influenced by it, like the traditional ‘Harlem’. He evokes comparison vocally and perhaps occasionally stylistically with Bob Dylan, for example in ‘Walking Down The Road’, where the guest fiddle by Ketch Secor is sublime. Elsewhere he breathes new life into the traditional ‘Rich Gal, Poor Gal’ which is fondly remembered as ‘My Gal’ on the first Lovin’ Spoonful album. The story-telling in the brief ‘Cocaine Bill’ is vintage, and the wonderful accordion and acoustic harp adds flavour to the gorgeous traditional ‘Satisfied’. This album was recorded in Nashville, Tennessee and in Brevard, North Carolina and draws life and vitality from all points West. Fabulous.

THE RUMPSHAKERS Urban Decay

Funkyd Records

Following a few years behind the White Stripes, and many others, The Rumpshakers are a blues derived garage band from Detroit. Unsurprisingly there is no bass player, although the band does have a differential of having two guitarists. The album commences with a raw version of ‘Leavin’ Truck’ and is a clear indication of what is to follow: frantic guitar, distorted vocals and some blues harp. ‘Boogies Through The Night’ is a nod of the hat to Sonny Boy Williamson, although perhaps the harp work is not quite to his same standard. The slow and moody title track is a lament to how inner Motor city has declined, a theme that continues on several songs. More fun is the rave up of ‘Back Seat Saloon’ and ‘White Trash’ has a sound not too dissimilar to The Black Keys. Vocalist Chef Chris Sirvinskis is keen on adding spoken narrative to his songs, and it did get a little tiresome after a while. Not so on the cover songs contained on the album. ‘Who Do you Love’ is actually a medley of Bo Diddley tunes which surprisingly sequences into a Tony Iommi riff, before an interesting interpretation of that American truck drivers anthem ‘Six Days on The Road’. My expectations of Rollin’ N Tumblin’ were surpassed as it is performed at a slow tempo by only by vocal and harmonica. While the album is not without its highlights, neither the material, nor the instrumental is exceptional and my feeling is that other bands such as the sadly defunct Soledad Brothers covered this ground with more conviction.

Duncan Beattie

Andy Snipper

Noggin

HIDALGO AND TAJ MAHAL

American Horizon

MIGHTY MO RODGERS Dispatches From The Moon

Blues Entre Les Dents PURA FE’

Full Moon Rising

which leaves a marked imprint on the sound, even when they vitally important here. The Blues

RHYTHM KINGS The Best Of Rhythm Kings

Repertoire

that has imprinted itself into the soul and every cell of Bill era when music was creative and innovative. It was okay their improvisation of Creedence Clearwater Revival’sis pristine. Then, when you look at the liner notes, there is Carol

Borrington

well crafted albums from the periphery of mainstream Blues. as if from a radio station on the moon. Some of the

shows and hip hop street-

to Michael Jackson, ‘Moonretro harp on ‘Faraway Blues’. If a Bluesman on the moon

that has an emotive stance underwritten in the Blues, tapestry and weaves it with every colour of music. The And Blues’ veers towards native vocal rush. It’s the -

marvel and hope with despair and redundancy. BewitchGareth Hayes

Norman Darwen

MUSTANGS

You have been on the scene in the South for some 5 or 6 years now and have just released what I believe to be your fifth album, and yet, there are still a lot of people out there who have never heard of you, indeed, this will be the first time that we have interviewed you! Can you give us a brief potted history of the band, introducing the line up and giving us a quick run down on them? The band began back in 2001 after an open mic session at the Fountain in Rowland’s Castle. I got up and sang with this odd collection of guys on stage and we blasted through some Muddy Waters tunes, and had so much fun we decided to do it the next week, then the next. Then people started asking about booking us and the Mustangs were born! We went though various line up changes but in 2004 settled on the best - and only – real Mustangs line up in my opinion, which is me and Derek Kingaby as founder members with Jon Bartley on drums and bassist Ben Mckeown. I met Derek at the

very first jam and we struck up a rapport immediately. His blues harp adds that immediate authenticity to the band, and when it’s not there, we don’t sound like us. I’ve known and played with Jon since we were 11 years old in school. We know each other’s playing inside out and can read the dynamics of a song in exactly the same way. Ben is also an old friend and someone who’s musical taste and judgement I trust 100%. It’s really a joy not just playing with these guys but also travelling and even just waiting in hotels with them! It’s one of the band’s strengths that we are very close and democratic about everything…there’s a lot of respect there for each other not just as musicians but as people. Having said that, I sing and play guitar but I think I’d better leave any comments on that to the other guys!

The Mustangs is not a name that automatically conjures up images of a Blues band, more in my own head, a US Country band, so how did the name come about?

Oh god, well I’m afraid it just came to me out of the blue after someone asked what we were called after, I think, the second session at the Fountain… and it stuck. Not very inspired, I know! I kind of wish I had had more of an imagination at that moment as we have since discovered that there is a Spanish Mustangs, a Croatian Mustangs and probably loads more. But you can always tell which albums are ours by our band Logo….so look out for it – don’t buy imitations!

Your last album was another self penned production that was very well received, incorporating a lot of variety and some great musicianship. What can we expect from the new album? Thanks. Well, we are very proud of the fact that we only put originals on our albums and though I take the lion’s share of writing, both Derek and Ben have written, and do write, some wonderful songs. So this album is more of the same in that respect – 11 Mustangs originals you won’t hear anywhere else. And once again we are sticking to our ‘keep it short’ mantra – so many bands on the circuit do long solo-heavy blues numbers that go on for 12 -15 minutes – or more! And that’s fine, but we much prefer to get in, knock them dead with hooks, and move on to the next one…it helps keep the shows and albums zipping along and full of life. With regards the sound of this new album, I think we have all loosened up a bit and are ready to have some fun with the songs – hence the title Cut Loose, so it’s a much more live sounding record – warts and all! We recorded it completely live and wanted to keep it that way. There’s an energy and openness in the songs and sound that you may not have heard on our previous records. We are also known for our variety of songs; there are rockers, blues, ballads, pop tunes on all our records, but we always sounds like us, and this albums is the same in that respect.

Have you been tempted to slip in some old favourite blues tunes?

No. All original. It helps set us apart. We slip one or two old blues classics in the live show but even then we change them a lot. We want to be part of the progress of the blues, not the nostalgia.

Talking of Old favourites, what or who are your influences?

Well I think you can hear a lot of influences in what we have done and what we do, but with the sound we make it all ends up being the Mustangs….but clearly we all love Led Zeppelin, Cream and the British r’n’b of the late 60s….but further back there is Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Son House that stand out. But I also love the folk element, which comes from Ben and my love of Fairport Convention, Neil Young and Dylan and names like that.

Are the band full time now? Do you play the clubs, or the Festival circuits? Have you played in Europe, or have you any plans to play in Europe?

What’s in a name?

So I didn’t think that The Mustangs sounded very Bluesy. So what? How much does a name matter? If we go back to the early Blues recording stars, they were mostly female and initially they used their real names. Generally accepted as the first Blues record, was ‘Crazy Blues’ recorded by Mamie Smith. One of the first singers to be identified in any other way was probably Ethel Waters who was billed as “ Sweet Mama Stringbean” One of the most famous of course was Bessie Smith who used her real name, along with Ada Brown, Georgia White, Clara Smith, Maggie Jones and Ma Rainey, but we also have Memphis Minnie and Barrelhouse Annie amongst others. When the first male singers appeared on the scene, they tended to use their own names, sometimes adding their place of origin like Mississippi John Hurt, or a description such as Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Blind Willie McTell. Sometimes like T Bone Walker, the name was a corruption of their real name (Thiebault in Mr.Walkers case). Sooner or later as competition made an identity necessary you had names like Howling Wolf ( Chester Burnett) and Muddy Waters ( Mckinley Morganfield) Bo Diddley ( Otha Elias Bates McDaniels) Eventually the solo singers became groups and that started a trend for stand out names, originally based upon where they came from, like The Memphis Jug Band. These names soon evolved into the wide range of varied names that we have today, based upon song titles ( The Rolling Stones) tongue in cheek ( The Pretty Things) and I suppose with no particular reference to anything, The Mustangs, which is of course, where I began.

MUSTANGS

I’m full time, as I also do a lot of solo stuff. We have played in Europe, yes, and it was a brilliant experience. We have played a lot of festivals all over the UK and are always looking to do more, so that’s very much a part of the plan over the next two years. We’re hoping to get back to France in 2011, and also looking at Holland, maybe this year. But mainly it’s the blues clubs from Dorset to Lancashire and everywhere in between. It’s live that you really see what the magic of the Mustangs is about. We have an energy and dynamic thrust that seems to really set us apart from everyone else. It helps that I can’t help leaping all over the place like a wiredup madman on a pogo stick.

I saw once from your web site that there was a vote on which of the band would look best in Speedo. Any comment that you’d like to make on that?

Haha! Yes, I’d like to say that if the public really think Derek is the band member who would look best in Speedos then they are deluding themselves - clearly it’s me with my skinny legs! Seriously though, the monthly vote is always good fun and another way for us to interact with our fans. We are very proud of the website and hope everyone enjoys visiting it – there’s a lot to see, read and do on there.

Back to the serious stuff, where do your songwriting influences come from? Are you able to discipline yourselves to sit down and write to order, or do you have to wait for the Muse to strike? What comes first, lyrics or the music? Who in the band is the main writer?

I’m the main writer, but have always encouraged everyone to write, and I also like to write with the guys. Speaking just for me, my influences come from a lot of the names I mentioned earlier – my mum was a folk singer so obviously that’s where my love of Fairport and, Richard Thompson comes from. But I grew up in America and at the time on mainstream radio you could still hear Chuck Berry, Elvis and Fats Domino all day long, and I think my love of the blues stems from that. I think one of the real strengths of the Mustangs is that we love to write crafted, intelligent blues-influenced songs, but we never want to lose that feel – which is the crucial element. It has to feel good! But the muse can strike at any time at all, whether it is lyrics or melody - there are simply no rules, and if there were, song writing and music in general would be a very dull world.

If you could collaborate with or have as a guest artist (alive or dead) who would it be?

Oh wow, now my mind is racing…I’d love to vocally spar with Steve Winwood….jam with Clapton…..just bask in the genius of Stevie Wonder….but I would love The Mustangs to have backed Muddy Waters, just to sit with him as a band and let him lead us, like some powerful African chief, through his primal, hypnotic blues would have been a unique musical experience! Hmmm…am thinking of loads more now too…I’d better stop…..oh, and I’d have been happy just to carry Jimmy Page’s dragon outfit for him, let alone play with him

Back to the new album, Cut Loose, what are you hoping it brings for the Mustangs?

Well some tasty reviews and a few copies shifted is a good start, but if it brings more friends and fans into the fold then that’s great. We also want to do more festivals in the next couple of years – there are still a handful of biggies we’ve yet to play and hopefully the invites will come – we know that live we are a match for anyone so we are always ready to get on a big festival bill and trade punches, as it were, with other acts.

The band always looks like its having such a good time on stage?

Yes, that goes back to what I was saying earlier about us being mates….but it’s also a unique thing making music , especially songs no other 4 people in the world know how to play offhand, so when you combine that with the friendship of 4 guys, and the experience of a big crowd enjoying what you do – what’s not to love!? Who wouldn’t be smiling and having fun!

photos Alan Kemp

BLUES TRAVELLING; THE HOLY SITES OF THE DELTA BLUES

Steve Cheesborough

University Press of Mississippi

Guide books. Sometimes as dry as a Temperance convention in the Gobi Desert, they can be as inspiring as drying paint on a library ceiling, and as helpful as a chocolate kettle. Or, they can be like this; totally absorbing. Let’s face it, few of us will ever have the opportunity to of Blues pioneers like Robert Johnson and Howlin’ Wolf, and perhaps fewer still have even considered such a trip, preferring instead to conjure our own idyllic notions of the area, the ambience and the legends. Steve Cheesborough’s book doesn’t strip down the magic of our imagination but fuels and

THE GANGSTER OF LOVEJOHNNY “GUITAR” WATSON: PERFORMER, PREACHER, PIMP Vincent Bakker

www.createspace.com

When I was a kid back in the mid-sixties, my older brother was into Blues and soul, and I remember he’d often sing a song that went, “I was looking back to see if she was looking back to see if I was looking back at her” – he’d seen the song’s author, Johnny “Guitar” Watson at The Twisted Wheel in Manchester, I think. Whatever, it was my introduction – I thought it was sooo cool!to the subject of this 321 pages long biography (a real book incidentally – not a web-book), which the author introduces by stating boldly, “If you want to keep your dreams of our guitar hero, don’t read this book”. The English is a little, shall we say, “quirky” at times but always more or less understandable, and Dutch journalist Vincent overcame a whole load of other obstacles to write this tome, including a sometimes palpable indifference or downright hostility towards Watson. The book is truly a labour of love - 1954’s ground-breaking ‘Space Guitar’ is detailed, ‘Gangster Of

many musicians and members of Watson’s family. However, the reader is left with no illusions after reading the fall-out from Watson’s death on stage in Japan in 1996; he left no will and the quarrels and litigation that followed, involving his mother, children, and partners is painstakingly chronicled, with no-one – not even Watson himselfcoming out in a good light. The book would certainly

suspect Vincent used an English spell-checker – just one example, “condo” or what we in England would call a block of interest to Watson’s many fans, though, as Vincent says, the story sure ain’t a pretty one.

Norman Darwen

DEBBY WALLACE AND DANIEL COSTON

Outskirts Press, Denver, Colorado

Thomas

any other representation to send you scurrying to your local travel agent. Nicely formatted in traditional guide book style, it gives a concise potted history of blues music, busts some jargon, usefully explains local protocols and details of etiquette, and then straps you in for the trip of a lifetime. The mapping is functional but perfectly adequate and you and explains, informs and advises without winning any Booker prizes. Though the utterly pedantic may take issue with the rather utilitarian photographic reproductions, anything grander would make this less affordable, and somehow less appropriate to the subject. In addition to becoming a history of the blues as a happy by product, it comprehensively outlines the notable places of interest; arranged in regions, and starting with Beale Street in Memphis, it marks Radio stations, drug stores, record shops, studios and jook joints; places to eat, places to pray, places to drink and places to avoid. You are taken to Sonny Boy Williamson II’s last home, Robert Johnson’s Crossroads, Graceland, Sun Studios, and to the resting places of legends, lowlifes and ne’er do wells. Everyone has a story, and inevitably for any book centering on the Blues, Robert Johnson permeates regularly, and his is the most enigmatic tale of all. It is somewhat surprising therefore, to see that his grandson runs the grandly titled ‘Robert Johnson Blues Foundation Headquarters and Museum’, aided by his father, the great man’s only known child, Claud. Cheesboruough is aware of the mystique but pulls no punches; if something is shabby and anti climactic he tells you. It’ll give you an appetite for travel, which for a guide book, is the ultimate accolade. - Richard

This uplifting little book is the story of a man who has succeeded in the music business – at least to some extent

– and managed to keep his ideals and retain his integrity. In 1973

Nick Karres opened The Double Door Inn in Charlotte, North Carolina, and it is still going – it now has the distinction of being one of the oldest Blues clubs in the United States. Obviously this is a celebration of that, and as such is going to be biased, but the picture that emerges is of a genuinely honest man, respected and loved by the staff he employs, the musicians he hires and the club regulars. The staff are mostly long-term employees, the musicians Blues and Americana artists (generally) and the club regulars – well, some of those not attending gigs are the children of the original punters. The reason for this incredible loyalty is detailed in interviews with many different people, and the physical club itself is attractive and unusual – set in a building that was originally a residence when it was built in 1911. Numerous photographs detail the changes in the club’s layout over the years, and of course the artists who have played there – from Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughn and Roy Buchanan to R.L. Burnside and Link Wray. Reading this definitely leaves a warm feeling and a desire to take in a night at the club.

Norman Darwen

MORE MILES THAN MONEY

Garth Cartwright

Serpent’s Tail

While travelling America in search of music is hardly an original concept, Cartwright delivers a travelogue that works terrifically well on several levels. This Kiwi, mad keen on American roots music in its many glorious forms

Woodstock Experience Various

including our beloved Blues travels great swathes of the USA, partly accompanied by Les, a chain-smoking American who makes for easy company and jovial banter. Cartwright is forthright about what he likes and doesn’t like, “U2…those awful purveyors of stadium cheese.” Tales of Elvis and W.C Handy we’ve heard before but where Cartwright excels is his championing of the underdog and he coaxes out their lurid tales and in doing so they tell the tale of modern America. Sam the Sham, famous for ‘Woolly Bully’ tells us, “They say what I’ve been through builds character…I just about OD on character” and he finds Kell Robertson, cowboy poet and country singer, down on his luck living in a chicken coop, and Jimmy Castor angry, “You sample me, you better damn well pay me.” Each meeting with a musician who Cartwright feels should have been celebrated more reveals an America of menace, heartache, drugs, race divisions, guns and poverty. Despite its unromantic portrayal of America’s dark past and its present as all malls and casinos, lacking community spirit, with Corporate “botox” music choking the life out of real music, Cartwright ultimately sees America as, “A chrysalis, worth believing in”. So much great music is mentioned in this book, it’s possible to forgive America almost anything.

Duncan Jamieson

Next issue BLUES BEFORE SUNRISE – THE RADIO INTERVIEWS, HOME OF THE BLUES – 35 YEARS OF THE DOUBLE DOOR INN, INDEPENDENCE DAYS: THE STORY OF UK INDEPENDENT RECORD LABELS & GIVE MY POOR HEART EASE– VOICES OF THE MISSISSIPPI BLUES

Trippy – and that’s simply the layout of the book, before the momentous events in the outskirts of New York in the summer of ’69 are even considered. “If you can remember it, you were never there” goes the old saying, and for earth children who have wondered about their enormous laundry bills for 40 years, this fascinating two volume archive will explain. Henry Ditz’s evocative photographs in Volume 1 set a nostalgic backdrop and Woody Guthrie’s foreword is a pithy summary of the social context; current teenage rebels should read it just to understand how Grandma and Grandpa took their own furtive steps towards dissent. Then, it was about giant mushrooms, nuclear fallout and challenging the natural order of government – “If you know the guy driving the train was out of his freaking mind” says Guthrie, “you’d get off the train, wouldn’t you?”. Suddenly, there is credence to naked people dancing in the rain while iconic musical figures played legendary sets in the background and Michael Lang explains how sub cultural dreaming turned into a growing mass of musical invention, and how his whimsies morphed into the greatest show on earth; the key was securing some big acts to establish momentum – once Jefferson Airplane, Canned Heat and Credence Clearwater Revival signed up, others followed. Santana’s seriously businesslike contract is here, as are set lists, anecdotes and admissions a plenty, notably one from Keef Hartley that he sneaked into Grace Slick’s hotel room just to smell her bed sheets. You get Hendrix’s manager’s hardnosed financial negotiations and stories about Pete Townsend advocating care when eating and drinking because “everything is spiked”. The medical infrastructure is described – starting out like a first aid post at a scout camp to serve a population the size of Coventry, it quickly improved with the help of the army; indeed, as Richie Havens admits, everyone was anti-war but if it wasn’t for the military flying the acts in by helicopter, the thing may never have happened. The format is snappy and sharp although volume 2 is photo heavy with less commentary and is the poorer for it – overall however, here is a scrapbook chronicling the most iconic festival in history well suited to the coffee table so you can pick it up and put in down at will, although fans of the 60’s will lose themselves in it for hours without coming up for air. Outstanding.

Richard Thomas

DVD REVIEWS

Releases with a Blues vision

JOE BONAMASSA Live From The Royal Albert Hall

Provogue

This DVD encapsulates two stories, the performance of Joe Bonamassa and his band at The Royal Albert Hall in May this year, and his twenty-year journey to playing that prestigious venue. The two-disc package includes over two hours of live footage and an extensive interview. It commences with Bonamassa humbly discussing his long held ambition as the camera follows him travel ultimately to the stage. There’s a spine tingling moment as he starts to play the opening ‘Django’ and you view the sell out crowd rise to greet his appearance. The performance throughout is exceptional and includes the addition of a second drummer, Anton Fig and a brass section. Fig works perfectly in unison with Bogie Bowles; for example the synchronised introduction to ‘Highwater Everywhere’ while the horns enhance the slower songs, like ‘So Many Roads’ and ‘The Great Flood’. Bonamassa’s own guitar playing is flawless in spite the significance of the occasion to him and he is fine voice throughout. Eric Clapton is proudly introduced to the stage for ‘Further On Down The Road’ and receives further homage as a signature lick from Cream’s version of Crossroads from the same venue is repeated during ‘Lonesome Road Blues’. Paul Jones also makes an appearance later in the set as recognition for his part in achieving this goal before the fans’ favorite ‘Mountain Time’ delights the audience. The camera work and editing is excellent and helps maintain the viewer’s interest throughout the show. Whilst the majority of shots feature Bonamassa, these are balanced with those of the other musicians and the crowd in order to successfully capture what was a momentous occasion.

Duncan Beattie

JOHN FOGERTY Comin’ Down The Road: The Concert Royal Albert Hall DVD

Verve

Over a year after John Fogerty’s Royal Albert Hall performance on 24th June 2008 the DVD of the concert has finally been released. Fogerty, who has often courted controversy, was not the villain of this piece; rather it was director Michael Darren. Much has been written about the way that the paying customers were treated by him on the night. It is alleged that what was billed as a concert turned out to be more akin to a film or video shoot, with

long interruptions, costume changes, pre-applause and other distractions. However, what emerges from the cutting room is a slick and masterful DVD, displaying Fogerty at his best. Both vision and sound are exemplary, and all of the extraneous material has been erased. Fogerty seems somewhat tense in the earlier numbers like ‘Rambunctious Boy’, but by mid-point and especially during the catalogue of Creedence Clearwater Revival classics he is at his best, a genial and eternally youthful rocker, whose vocals are simply brilliant. The extended ‘Keep On Chooglin’ is vintage Fogerty, and other CCR gems like ‘Down On The Corner’, ‘Hey Tonight’ and of course ‘Fortunate Son’ are spot on. The band are as tight as one would expect, and with sidemen like guitarist / vocalist Billy Burnette and drummer Kenny Aronoff the performance is rock solid. Just occasionally typically American sentimentality surfaces, for example in his tributes to his wife and kids, but on the other hand sons Tyler and Shane Fogerty’s contribution to ’Up Around The Bend’ is well placed. Any set that ends with ‘Travellin’ Band’, ‘Rockin’ All Over The World’ and ‘Proud Mary’ is worth the money. Superb. Noggin

More reviews held back for next month!!

THE HOAX @Carlisle Brickyard

28/12/2009

The opportunity to see the classic lineup of the Hoax for the first time in Cumbria this century was something many were keen to witness, as evidenced by the crowds outside the Brickyard. Expectations were high. The band, as stylish as ever, came to the stage to a large cheer. As Jon Amor started the funky riff of ‘Twenty Ton Weight’, the band appeared particularly motivated, with Hugh Coltman looking particularly wired up. The momentum continued for the frantic paced ‘High Expectations’ as Robin Davey and Mark Barratt maintained that tight trademark groove. Amor and Jesse Davey still had an almost telepathic level of understanding as they traded guitar licks. The other vital ingredient, Coltman’s harp, was high in the mix and dominant through the powerful ‘I Want To Be Loved’. Given the passing of time it was remarkable how precise the band sounded, to how they did before their split. The appropriately titled ‘Groovebreaker’ was the first slackening in pace before Barratt’s drum solo led into ‘Long Way Home’. There was a surprise feisty performance of the Beatles’ ‘Come Together’. Coltman announced the next song to be his favourite, as the band commenced a sleazy ‘Feeding Time’, the guitars dropping to a silence during Coltman’s spoken narrative, before rising to a flourishing finale. Inevitably it was time for the slow extended Blues of ‘Don’t Shake My Hand’, with a crest fallen Coltman remorsefully singing the introduction before a shimmering emotionally charged solo by Amor. Later, it was the flamboyant Robin Davey’s turn yet through his solo struggled to hide a smile. Indeed, you could sense each song was played with relish and a great feeling of camaraderie. Much more than an evening of nostalgia, the exciting songs and

photo Christine Moore

timeless sound wowed equally existing fans and those that had heard of the Hoax only by reputation. The familiar Texan styled ‘Bones’ saw out the set in style, before encores of a highly powered version of the Red Devils’ ‘Automatic’, followed by their interpretation of ‘Superstition’. Let’s hope we do not have to wait so long for the next appearance!

Duncan Beattie

LARRY MILLER @Beaufort Theatre, Beaufort.

21/11/09

Saturday night crowd at the Beaufort Theatre, near Ebbw Vale waited with eager anticipation for Larry Miller, supported by Simon Baker (drums) & Allan Penford (Bass) and were rewarded with a typical rock blues performance. “`The Best in-yer-face rock band around` - The Guardian” and this is what the audience definitely got as Larry returned to the U.K. after his tour in Germany. Picking up what was to be the favoured guitar tonight in his own words his number 1 guitar - 1974 Fender Stratocaster (Larryocaster) maple neck, Larry opened with “Rebbecca” a 12 bar number from his latest album “Outlaw Blues” quickly followed by two songs from his “Fearless” album “Missy Mango” and the slow blues track “Sinking Sand”, where he swapped his swaggering Srat with a more sombre 2002 Gibson Les Paul standard. Following the mid-session break, Larry picked up his acoustic and told the audience tales of recent travels, before launching into “Man of Mystery” and throughout the evening his ad-libbing was the normal high entertaining standard. Living up to his reputation as a fantastic guitarist that doesn’t take himself too seriously – in fact confirming what has been written about him as being ‘archetypal English’. The evening disappointedly comprised several covers including “Red House”; “All Your Love”; “Voodoo Chile” and a loud rendition of “Star Spangled Banner” and even “Amazing Grace” though all played with his usual energy and gusto left me feeling short changed as I hadn’t heard the enough of Larry Miller’s own material. The one exception being “Calling All The Angels”; which saw his Les Paul being used once again with a powerful and emotive rendition of this great track from “Outlaw Blues”. The audience found the performance exhilarating and mesmerizing warming to the Larry Miller charm and guitar playing expertise enjoying hearing his versions of well known Rock Blues classics. Larry Miller will probably have the award in 2009 of being the first entertainer to wish you all a Merry Christmas and the crowd this evening certainly went away with a feeling of seasonal goodwill towards Larry Miller as the axeman of the year in Ebbw Vale.

JOANNE SHAW TAYLOR @Milkwoodjam, Swansea.

17/11/09

et, windy Tuesday night in November so it must be the blues gig at popular Milkwoodjam, tonight everyone who ventured out to see Joanne Shaw Taylor, ably supported by Nick Gibbs (drums) & Roger Inniss (6-string Bass) was rewarded with a confident performance. With a flick of her blonde hair Joanne launched in to a raunchy 12bar guitar jam which gave notice to the audience of the delights to follow as she played her telecaster against the strong bass line delivered by Roger. With the audience and musicians warmed up, Joanne introduced the first track of her debut album; “White Sugar” - ‘Going Home’, with its strong guitar lick combined with Joanne’s slow and sensual voice, the live version had that edge that is often missing from studio renditions. The even progressed with a strong mix of songs from her album with the title track – an instrumental number deftly woven into the first Stevie Ray Vaughan cover of the evening the fast and furious ‘Rude Mood’ interspersed with slow Blues numbers such as ‘Time Has Come’ and ‘Blackest Day’. One of the highlights of the evening was her barn-storming rendition of Jimi Hendrix’s, ‘Manic Depression’, this fine cover went down well with the Tawe Delta Blues audience who were appreciative of a difficult Jimi cover that not everyone will attempt and she pulled it off with aplomb.

Joanne Shaw Taylor demonstrated that the relentless touring that she has recently undertaken has given her a stage presence and a confidence to play the blues with a feminine touch and creating her own vocal style and a recognisable guitar sound that is her own. Her potential is now realised as Joanne struts the stage with confidence and teases the crowd by coming forward and flicking her hair as her diamante Blues strap picks up light and reflects the sparkle of her guitar playing. There is no doubt that the best is yet to come and her live sound makes turning out a positive and enjoyable experience. Watch out boys the girl is definitely back in town and here to stay.

Liz Aiken

Liz Aiken

AFTER MIDNIGHT Albert Halls, Stirling

23/10/2009

They say that the proof is in the pudding. Well if that is true, then After Midnight are a fine example of a band being able to serve up a terrific blend of just the right ingredients. I don’t often review a Tribute band however these guys deserve to have a voice out to the wider world. Fronted by Mike Hall the quartet gave the audience a chance to experience two hours of the music of Eric Clapton’s full career performed to a very high standard. All the major hits were of course present and I will not insult your musical knowledge by listing them here. Perhaps of more interest to me were the not quite so mainstream versions of, for example, ‘Key To The Highway’ and ‘Hideaway’ (played on a lovely 335 rather than the more frequent Stratocaster Signature model). The Derek And The Dominoes take on Hendrix’s ‘Little Wing’ was a joy to listen to. John Foster, bass, shared the vocals on this one. Clapton left the Yardbirds in 1965 because he thought For Your Love’ was too commercial. Tonight it sounded as fresh as a daisy. Ably supported by Vince Mason on drums and vocals plus keyboardist Paul Warren the overall sound was excellent. Everything was clearly separated but with sufficient volume to give you that nice feeling inside. Well done Drew Clark of TWS Audio. Two electric sets with a fine acoustic filling in the middle sent folks home replete.

DALE STORR plus the SWAMPCATS WITH TIM AVES @ the Blue Boar Hotel Maldon, Essex

27 November 2009

This was a really uplifting gig at a wonderful venue. The Swamp Cats opened with their distinctive, good humoured tremolo laden swamp rock and rhythm and blues. The line-up was Dave ‘Werewolf’ Richardson lead vocals and guitar, Paul Lester drums, Jeff Johnson 2nd guitar, Tim Aves Harp, Chris Barrow Bass and vocals. They played a great version ‘Green River’ the Creedence classic plus originals like ‘Cadillac Walk’, ‘Treat Me Better’, ‘You Don’t Know the Blues’. Time Aves thundered out a swinging version of ‘Your Funeral and my Trial’. They are a quality act with refreshingly economical arrangements and a spot-on rhythm section. Sheffield based Pianist Dale Storr ’s pedigree includes numerous top-UK Blues related acts. His solo career is newly launched and on this his debut southern solo show, trumpeter Ian Sanderson accompanied. Dale hit the ground running with a stonking New Orleans style boogie ‘Boogie for Tuts’. The show, a tourde-force of rocking New Orleans style piano, paid homage to greats such as James Booker and Dale sang quality versions of Fats’ ‘Blue Monday’ and ‘Sick & Tired’ as well as Dr. John’s ‘Qualified’. Other tunes included ‘Outskirts of Town’ and a James Booker inspired ‘Sunny Side of the Street’. Dale’s show was very good indeed with the potential to be truly special as it develops, it may be lifted by a tad more light and shade; perhaps with a tune that allows space for the music to breathe a little, in the style of, say, Ray Charles ‘Sweet Sixteen Bars’. The show closed with Dale joining the Swamp Cats for a rousing rock ‘n’ roll session and the closing tune ‘Roll ‘em Pete’ was pure rock ‘n’ roll heaven. Beam me up there Scottie.

Vicky Martin

JON AMOR BAND @Milkwoodjam, Swansea.

16/02/10

Jon Amor Band, comprising of the Doherty brothers, Chris on bass and Dave on Guitar with the welcomed addition of Mark Barrett (ex Hoax) on drums stamped their authority from the start with a rip-roaring opening instrumental “Cheez Whizz”. As the band warmed up a string on Chris’ bass broke, a rare occurrence, and with hardly a break in the rhythm Jon swapped his electric with his acoustic guitar, and proceeded to entertain with an un-rehearsed solo acoustic number then with no fuss the band returned to pick up the set list again, Chris complete with a different Bass, the quip from Jon was where did you get that from... a skip? Jon’s easy charm and winning ways are a sure crowd pleaser when combined with excellent musicianship, strong lyrics and the ability to treat potential disaster with professional aplomb. The set list was a balance mix of tracks selected from Jon’s current and back catalogue of albums including his latest ‘Stories From a Crooked Room’; ‘Amor’ and ‘Unknown Soldier’; with the only cover of the evening being in reality a pseudo cover as any fan will know Jon was a guitarist for the Hoax. It was a typically powerful rendition of “Feeding Time” from Hoax’s ‘Humdinger’ CD. Jon’s live performance as ever was that of a consummate professional, this did not mean he was distant from the audience rather it was the excellent balance of seemingly off the cuff chat including his introduction of “In The Devil’s Back Yard” explaining that the inspiration came from a trip to Kazakhstan and prostitutes at a restaurant. The gig was never one dimensional with the band supporting Jon and taking centre stage; the premiering of Dave’s new shoes demonstrating the easy camaraderie between them all and reflected in the warmth and energy of the live sound.

Graeme Scott

Highlights of the evening for me had to be the song about predatory females “Another Stitch in Your Party Dress” and the extended version of “Cut Through The Graveyard” ensuring Jon Amor Band made many new friends tonight in Swansea.

Liz Aiken

CELEBRATION CONCERT FOR DAVY GRAHAM @ Cecil Sharp House

28 November 2009

Davy Graham died in 2008. He was one of the most influential and revered acoustic guitarists to come out of the UK. He invented DADGAD tuning and composed the tune Anji made famous by Paul Simon. He was a highly inventive player blending jazz, blues, and world music in a style that was way ahead of its time. For blues aficionados his version of Bill Broonzy’s ‘Hey Bud Blues’ on the album ‘After Hours at Hull University, 4th February 1967’ Rollercoaster Records RCCD 3021 is a breathtakingly inventive series of variations on Big Bill’s original theme. This celebration was organized by lifelong friend Eski Palmer. It was excellently stage managed by Gareth Hedges who has tour managed several blues luminaries including Fred McDowell. The concert included performances by folkies Martin Carthy, Steve Tilson, Bob Davenport, and Wizz Jones and J.C. Carrol. There was plenty of acoustic blues including a name known to blues fans; Tony Reeves who played with John Mayall, John Martyn, Curved Air, Colosseum, Elephant Shelf, and others. There was a moving spoken tribute by folk legend Roy Harper. A highlight was Forbes Henderson’s renderings of Bach on classical guitar, though the generally reverential audience seemed to delight in banging the doors during his set. All in all this was a successful event that it is hoped will be repeated. The atmosphere in Cecil Sharp House was generally reverential. One suspects that perhaps, by reputation, Davy Graham would prefer it to be held in a local pub, nonetheless, a very satisfying afternoon and evening.

Vicky Martin

DAVY KNOWLES & BACK DOOR SLAM @The 100 Club, London.

09/02/10

Knowles has spent the last two years touring the US supporting Jeff Beck and Chickenfoot (Joe Satriani described Knowles as his “new favourite modern-day Bluesman”), headlining in his own right and collecting many dedicated fans and media plaudits along the way. This likeable 22 year old Manxman is now setting his sights closer to home and this gig, the first of only two public shows on a short visit to the UK principally designed to “do the rounds” of the media, followed Knowles’ interview and brief solo performance on BBC Breakfast TV earlier in the day. Two critically acclaimed albums, the second co-produced by Peter Frampton, ensured a near capacity audience at this historic venue to witness Knowles’ virtuosity first hand. For this visit the band comprised a three piece with drummer, Steven Barci and bassist Paul Kemmish, known as “PK”. Ty Bailie, Knowles’ keyboard player had other commitments in the US. Despite Bailie’s absence, the sound was full if slightly muddy at the start. Using the same PRS guitar throughout the 90 minute set, Knowles played a mix of self-penned rocking and gentle Blues-rock numbers from his two albums plus a few covers. ‘Riverbed’ and ‘Tear Down The Walls’ got the blood pumping with their almost shouted vocals and stinging guitar breaks followed by ‘You Don’t Love Me’ (made famous by The Allman Brothers), with its instantly recognisable riff. While it was good to hear Knowles’ blazing guitar work on ‘Messin’ With The Kid’, Dave Crosby’s ‘Almost Cut My Hair’ (Knowles treasures Crosby’s note of praise for his version) and even ‘Oh Well’ in honour of the many bands that have played this prestigious venue, it was Knowles’ own material that provided light and shade. Each song being a beautifully crafted tale allowing Knowles’ slightly husky yet strong voice to shine through. The Blues numbers ‘Gotta Leave’, the almost folky ‘Roll Away’ and ‘Country Girl’, about his sister, being perhaps the best examples. But it was Knowles’ stunning guitar licks that drew most attention and for those who were at this gig, his next visit can’t come soon enough.

Philip Woodford

DEBORAH BONHAM BAND / NAZARETH @Rothes Halls Glenrothes

21/02/2010

A little over three years ago I caught Deborah and her band in a tiny, but very special, pub in the back of beyond. That show, whilst musically quite excellent, lacked the polished mature confidence of being a front person that was very much in evidence from this fine singer tonight. Strutting barefoot around the stage your eyes were constantly focused on her as she ripped into a well-balanced set. From the off ‘Shit Happens’ through ‘I Need Love’, ‘Grace’, ‘Lighting Ray’, ‘What We Got Ain’t For Sale’, ‘Duchess And The Shufflemeister’, ‘No Angel’ and others. Firmly rooted in the Blues, Deborah and her band were in great form. Musically tight, well balanced and clear sound was just what was needed on a Sunday night in Fife. The two closing numbers were somewhat emotional experience for her. ‘The Old Hyde’ written about her brothers John, Michael and her father plus the home they shared was stunning. However the cream on the top was the fabulous closer ‘Stay With Me Baby’ done as a duet with Dan McCafferty. Talk about a vocal marriage made in heaven! Truly and fitting an end to the start of the evening. Now Nazareth have been treading the stages of the

world for such a long time and I have never seen them delivering anything less than a full on performance. Once again from the off the energy was completely there. Dan’s vocals have to be one of the most immediately identifiable in the world. Join that to the absolute powerhouse from Pete Agnew bass, Jimmy Murrison guitar and Lee Agnew drums that drives the music along at a pace that leaves you in awe and you end up with the consummate rock band. Apart from a couple of tracks from the current album “The Newz” in ‘The Gathering’ and ‘See Me’ the set list comprised many of the songs you would expect from a forty-year plus career. Songs often sounding fresher than when first created. Only with a class act is that possible.

Graeme Scott

FROM CBGB TO THE ROUNDHOUSE Tim Burrows

Marion Boyars Press

Tim Burrows makes an excellent fist of describing the intimate relationship between a venue a scene and the music it serves. He manages to avoid the usual pitfall of focussing on a singular place or style to illustrate a point and the reader can get a strong sense of how important it is to have a ‘Place of one’s own’. The first sentence of the book proper sets the scene “If we are to begin anywhere let it be at the 100Club .....” and he promptly starts to set the mind racing with descriptions of the club and its origins. As he describes the various groups that have called it home you not only get the sight and sound (and smell) of the grand old dump but you also begin to understand why a dingy basement storeroom has been home to Jazz, Blues, rock & roll and even Punk and why so many people cannot but smile at the very mention of the place. But Burrows also goes into the characters that made the place a mecca for the punters and as he moves the book from club to ballroom to concert hall he also fills in the tales of the entrepreneurs and the wideboys and the chancers who were so often at the heart of any successful place. While still in England he covers the West Indian Calypso scene and its origins with a great deal of warmth and he obviously has a good feel for the development of the West Indian culture into ska, bluebeat and eventually reggae and dub as well as the Blues acts that were beginning to find their way across the Atlantic at the same time. His description of The Four Aces in Hackney is spot on. As Burrows moves across the pond to the US you might expect his familiarity to drop off but none of it – he describes the Fillmores and the Grande Ballroom in Detroit in real depth and takes the reader deep into the murk of Cafe Wha? and CBGB – his descriptions of The Armadillo World Headquarters in Austin really take you there. He isn’t perfect: there is a lot of focus on The Rainbow but nary a mention of Hammersmith Odeon, the Roundhouse is described in some detail but very little about the people who really made that place THE place and no mention anywhere of the myriad pubs and clubs that were the mainstay of the Blues boom (no Torrington?). There is also very little mention of the Blues clubs and bars across the States that were the home of so much of the music we are listening to today. What is here though is well researched and really has great feel and heart. Read this for a reference guide to where to go in Nottingham or Memphis and you will be sadly disappointed but if you want to know how dominoes kept the reggae scene alive or who were regular users of ‘The Phone Booth’ and why a scene can’t exist without a venue you’ve come to the right place.

Andy Snipper

MILLER ANDERSON AND KRIS GRAY @The Box, Crewe,

20/11/09

At 8:50 we walked into a virtually empty room, just Kris Gray and the support Joey Shields. I asked how many tickets had been sold, the answer was 6. Miller joined us and we adjourned to the bar where Kris bought the round. After a while we decided to return to find that in fact 7 people had bothered to turn up, so the bands decided to play. Look out for Joey Sields, from Liverpool, a gifted blues guitarist with a real good voice. Seven people don’t usually make for a great atmosphere, though after the 4th song was detailed as having been written by someone in prison the banter started. Miller Anderson followed and we were all treated to a fabulous evening of blues, both old and new, from the Keef Hartley days right up to current. His rendition of ‘House of The Rising Sun’ made the hairs on your neck stand up and ‘Just To Cry’ was outstanding. One of the many guitars hanging on the wall was a steel which Miller asked the owner if he could play. Oh, he could play and had us all spellbound with his slide work and then calmly hangs it back on the wall. The owner now steps in and buys everyone a drink (nobody is going to believe this) and Miller and Kris continue to a standing ovation and a good amount of hollering, sounding much more than seven people. Joey Shields joined Miller and Kris for a hugely deserved encore. For £5 and beer bought by the band and the venue owner … where were you?

Mike Allen

THE MATT SCHOFIELD BAND AND THE IAN SIEGAL BAND

@The Rescue Rooms, Nottingham.

11/11/09

This was no ordinary double header, it was a chance to witness the dual flagships of the Nugene record label and the cream of the current crop of British Blues artists. The Rescue Rooms isn’t our favourite venue but these two have outgrown the local pub circuit. The crowd waited with eager anticipation for proceedings to begin. Both bands have released new albums since we saw them last so plenty of new material for us to hear, and in the case of the Schofield band, a new format with the addition of a bass player. The Matt Schofield Band were first up and went into a selection of tracks from their “Heads, Tails & Aces” album along with old favourites from “Ear To The Ground” and “Siftin’ Thru Ashes”. Matt is a guitarists guitarist, many eyes were fixed on his fretboard as he rung every note and extracted every subtle tone. The Stratocaster is a much favoured weapon of choice of guitarists on the Blues scene but few can coax the response from it that Matt can. The Ian Siegal Band came next and it was showtime, with tracks from the instant hit album ‘Broadside’. ‘Kingdom Come’ is a typical Siegal song with catchy guitar riff and clever rhyming lyrics, and a great start to his set. The mood continued in true Siegal fashion with humour, ad libs, raw and passionate vocals, and guitar played with expression and tenacity. The new material fitted in seamlessly with his older favourites. The rhythm section of Andy Graham on bass and Nikolaj Bjerre on drums were excellent as always, intuitively following wherever Ian took them. They were joined on stage by Matt and Jonny for the finale which included a terrific version of Big George’s ‘Walk In The Wilderness’ with some memorable guitar from Matt. Between them they raised the roof, predictably the evening went on longer than it should, and the crowd were in no doubt they’d witnessed the ultimate Double Header.

GORDON SMITH & THE ESSENTIAL BLUES BAND Live! At Brooks Blues Bar

Note Music

Gordon Smith was one of the shoulda coulda guitarists from the sixties British Blues boom who, for various reasons, never got the props he deserved. He got off to a flyer with a debut album on Blue Horizon, but after a stint playing in Kevin Coynes band in the seventies, he largely vanished from the public eye. There have been a couple of putative comebacks but, hopefully, his latest will have some staying power and turn into the real deal. Not a great deal has changed in his world over the last forty years, and why should it, when your take on acoustic, country Blues is this engaging and this accomplished. In the company of Brit Blues stalwarts Alan Glen, Dino Coccia, Bob Haddrell and Jim Mercer, he settles into a set of well worn and well loved songs. There’s Blind Lemon Jefferson’s ‘One Dim’, Sleepy John Estes ‘Kidman Blues’ and Lonnie Johnson’s ‘Too Late To Cry’. The band provides subdued but effective accompaniment, with the piano rolls and harmonica trills particularly effective. Especially when you hear Mr Smith mention that they’d never actually played live before this night. The highlights for me were the takes on Lowell Fulsom’s ‘Talking Woman Blues’ and Muddy Waters ‘She Moves Me’, with the former an absolutely delightful treat.

Stuart A Hamilton

GOV’T MULE @The Forum, London.

21/11/09

Promoting their eighth studio album ‘By A Thread’, the Mule rolled into the capital for their sole British gig. The four-piece, including new bassist Jorgen Carlsson, powered into ‘Brand New Angel’, and from the opening notes to the last strains, it was to be a loud, thunderous evening. Warren Haynes uttered very few words all night to the pretty large crowd, but treated them to some excellent heavy rock and Blues. Mixing new material with the band’s vast catalogue of originals, plus a sprinkling of well chosen covers, the highlight of which could well have been ‘Have Mercy On A Criminal’, an Elton John

Tony Winfield (photo) & Sue Hickling

tune of all people. Fine lyrics matched with Haynes’ strong vocals and soulful guitar, telling the story of a sorry man. The band were all smiles on this evening and didn’t pause for any crowd appreciation between songs, they just powered full on ahead into the next dose of heavy Blues. Old favourites such as ‘Blind Man In The Dark’ and ‘Thorazine Shuffle’ removed any loose ear wax, whilst their instrumental ‘Trane’ was given a ferocious workout, incorporating nods to The Grateful Dead and the Mahavishnu Orchestra. New Blues rocker ‘Broke Down On The Brazo’s’ brought an end to the second set with the crowd shaking and dancing their approval to the funky guitar and rhythmic drums courtesy of Matt Abts. The band finished their 2h40m set with the crowd-pleasing encore of ‘Soulshine’, and with that the crowd from all over Europe and beyond spilled out onto the rain soaked streets with the band still ringing in their ears.

Andrew Baldwin

JIM JONES REVUE @ Jazz Café

04/02/10

The Jazz Cafe was absolutely rammed for Jim James and his boys and he didn’t disappoint the throng with a set of sheer aggression and rock ‘n’ roll power. From the first moment he hit 100 miles an hour and didn’t let up for the whole set. Jones vocal style was a barely controlled scream and the breakneck speed meant that subtleties were going to be unlikely but the playing was better than you might expect and Rupert Orton on guitar and Elliot Mortimer, piano, were excellent. The band played at vicious volume levels but the quality of the sound at the Jazz Cafe is such that the music still shone through and they avoided the levels of distortion that so many of their predecessors struggled with, The first time that they slowed down was for a brilliant version of ‘Burnin’ Your House Down’ but that was an aberration as the rest of the first half continued at the same rush. That they trooped off stage after an exhausting set was no surprise – the whole band marching off in line – but when I checked my watch they were only 30 minutes in! Mind, in that 30 minutes they had played more music than most bands manage in three times the length and, in common to the rest of the mob, I was exhausted. The shape of the Jazz Cafe meant that it was a long while before they reappeared but they came back refreshed and lit into a brilliant ‘Foghorn’ and audience singalong with ‘Elemental’. Subtle as a glass in your face The Jim Jones Revue were the epitome of the bad boys in the rock ‘n’ roll movies and their music was like Little Richard on super-strength amphetamine but they really kicked it and proved that punk ‘n’ roll works.

Andy Snipper

JOE BONAMASSA @ HMV Picture House, Edinburgh

05/12/2009

The penultimate date of Bonamassa’s UK tour saw his first show in Edinburgh for a concert that could probably have sold out three times over. As support before his appearance was local girl Sandi Thom and her band. Thankfully, they were no songs about punk rockers, and it was surprising how bluesy her set was, beginning with the slow burning ‘Barrier of Blues’, featuring some atmospheric harmonica work. ‘Show No Concern’ was more upbeat, before the slide boogie of ‘Runaway Train’. Her performance was well received and Thom, who is a fine vocalist, may reinvent herself as a Blues artist. The man she gave credit to for her return to roots music was up next. Bonamassa commenced with the powerful title track of his current album and presented a range of songs from his career. An early stand out was a heartfelt and melodic version of ‘If Heartaches Were Nickels’, the Warren Haynes penned song from Bonamassa’s debut album, and featured a particularly beautiful guitar solo. He was clearly in a playful mood as his smiles demonstrated during ‘Bridge To Better Days’ and the band chose to deviate from the set list with an impromptu and ragged cover of Mose Allison’s ‘Young Man’s Blues’, as covered by The Who. Next up was the outstanding Blues ballad, ‘The Great Flood’, from his most recent album with yet another surprise as Thom was invited back to the stage to provide full vocals for the song. Her interpretation excellently conveyed the melancholy of the lyrics, and complemented the melodic guitar leads. Naturally, the focus of the show was Bonamassa’s guitar prowess which was flawless, whether playing haunting slow blues, intricate acoustic picking or fast paced power chords, although the spectacle may have benefited from more interplay with keyboardist Rick Mellick. ‘Ball Peen Hammer’, complete with 12 string guitar was the first encore before the extended tour-de-force of ‘Just Got Paid’. The crowd was delighted and the likelihood is that on his return, Bonamassa will be playing a far larger venue. Get tickets early.

Duncan Beattie

JOHN MAYER @Glasgow O2 Academy 16/01/2010

There was an air of anticipation inside the venue before Mayer and his band appeared on the stage to a rapturous reception. As the opening bars of ‘Heartbreak Warfare’ echoed around, the wait was forgotten. It is one of Mayer’s best self-compositions and highlights his impressive song arrangements and insightful lyrics. Mayer’s vocals were polished and his guitar tone clean. A very different feel came across, as a few teasing Blues riffs heralded Mayer’s version of ‘Crossroads’. It was heartening to see so many knew the words of this classic Blues song, which featured an extended solo from Mayer and some added slide from sideman Robbie McIntosh. This tour is in support of Mayer’s latest album “Battle Studies” and much of the album was included in the set. ‘Perfectly Lonely’ dedicated to the singles in the audience, before the melodic guitar intro of ‘Half Of My Heart’, the lyrics of both familiar to many. A more intimate moment was the

semi–acoustic ‘Why Georgia’ before ‘Waiting For The World To Change’, a simple example of Mayer’s fine song writing. The conversation between songs was friendly yet concise. There was space for Mayer’s band, including McIntosh, drummer Steve Jordan and Charlie Wilson on keyboards, to make their impressions. An example was the interplay between Mayer and Jordan during ‘Vultures’, his tribute to the paparazzi. However the finest moment was the soulful Blues of ‘Gravity’. The song gave Mayer the opportunity to really stretch his playing fingers with a beautiful guitar solo and emotive lyrics silencing the crowd to a hush. ‘Friends, Lovers or Nothing’ closed the show and its repetitive chorus looks likely to become Mayer’s ‘Hey Jude’. This performance was by Mayer the musician, rather than Mayer the celebrity and as such he is extremely adept. Each song was aired with enthusiasm by the crowd. Although the evening might have benefited from a greater inclusion of his Blues based repertoire, nonetheless it fully demonstrated this man should be recognised for his songs-craft and performances which are guaranteed to draw him to an ever increasing fan base.

Duncan Beattie

MATT SCHOFIELD BAND @Milkwoodjam, Swansea.

05/11/2009

Milkwoodjam is fast becoming the venue at the heart of the Tawe Delta Blues scene, and provided a sparkling gig for Guy Fawkes Night with the Matt Schofield Band making their second visit to this venue this year. Tonight the temperature was considerably cooler than when the band last visited in June but the music was sizzling hot. A new member to the band was introduced to the appreciative Welsh crowd the bass player all the way from Madrid Javier Garcia Vicente combined with Alain Baudry (Drums) and Johnny Henderson (Keyboards and Wurlitzer) provided their usual solid accompaniment that gives this band its unique sound. The whole set was skilfully crafted with a delightful mix of tracks from previous albums “Siftin Thru Ashes” & “Ear to the Ground” and his latest “Heads, Tails & Aces”. The appreciative audience was treated to a new track ‘I Don’t Know’ showcased recently at the High Barn for a recording of a DVD. Matt and his band produced confident music that delivered a mix of fast and slow demonstrating the depth of musicianship within the band. ‘Live wire’, a second line New Orleans style rhythm that allowed Alain Baudry to display his quality drumming and his roots of New Orleans via Bordeaux, France. The fireworks were saved for later when the band exploded into a lengthy rendition of ‘Siftin’ Thru Ashes’ with the musical interplay between the performers reaching heights previously unscaled during this faultless performance, with all four of them delivering effortless and exciting solo cameo’s during this number. Matt used his SVL Sixty Custom guitar on ‘Once in a While’ for the rest of the night his firm favourite 1961 Fender Stratocaster did the job brilliantly. The two covers of the evening from his latest album Elmore James’ ‘Stranger Blues’ and as a requested second encore Freddie King’s ‘Woman Across The River’ delighted the appreciative Milkwoodjam crowd justifiably.

and photo by Liz Aiken

OIL CITY CONFIDENTIAL Movie Launch & Concert Juilan Temple / Wilko Johnson

KOKO Camden 02/02/2010

Koko was packed out with Essex flash and the Thames Delta equivalent of ‘Good Ol’ Boys’ for the launch of Julian Temple’s new rockumentary ‘Oil City Confidential’, the story of Doctor Feelgood and the Canvey Island sound. As the compere pointed out at every opportunity, this was being beamed live by satellite to around 7000 other viewers in cinemas around the country in a unique event that we were all part of. Julien Temple gave us a swift talk about the origins of the movie, about the tiny crew that had been used to make it and the importance of Doctor Feelgood to post-prog music – with this crowd he was preaching to the converted – and then got out of the way to start the show. Down came the screen and we were treated to grainy newsreel footage of the 1953 floods of Canvey Island with Wilko himself pointing out that the Island is actually below sea level and that that probably contributes to the uniqueness of its inhabitants. The movie took us all through the history of the band as individuals but concentrated more on Doctor Feelgood, the band, and Temple definitely got over the ‘gang mentality’ of the band and their thoroughly Essex take on life and the world. The audience at Koko were in great spirits and cheered to the rafters whenever Lee Brilleaux’s mother appeared onscreen or when pictures of Wilko as a hippy were aired and the applause at the end of the movie was long and genuine – finally Canvey has its own identity recognised and its favourite sons lauded. From a critics point of view the

movie achieves its goals – the origins and the rawness of the Feelgoods is documented but they are also treated as human beings and not just as metaphors for Canvey Island and kudos should go to Julien Temple for that. After the movie we were treated to a set by Wilko himself, ably abetted by Norman Watt-Roy and Dylan Howe (from the Blockheads) and treat it was!. Wilko is even more angular without hair and his trademark ‘stun-gun’ guitar was sounding on top form. He opened with ‘Sneaking Suspicion’ and they sounded great although having to take vocals seemed to stifle Wilko a little as he stayed anchored to the mike. All that changed as they announced Alison Moyet to take a stint on vocals and as she belted out ‘Down By The Jetty’ it seemed to release Wilko and he careened around like the madman of old. Moyet was in fine voice and the numbers that she gave us reminded me of just what a fine voice she has. After she left the stage Wilko did a terrific version of ‘Paradise’ – the number that took Wilko away from the band – with Charles Shaar Murray on harmonica. The audience has been thoroughly enjoying themselves all through the evening but as the band tore into the Feelgoods classic ‘She Does It Right’ they started pogoing in earnest and kept it up through ‘Dr Degrees’. Slim came on with his accordion (bandoleon?) for ‘Mendocino’ and then the band went into ‘Wooly Bully’ with the crowd baying the chorus and having a rare old time. The evening was topped off with a brilliant ‘Goodbye Johnny Be Goode’ with all the musicians onstage and another mass pogo in the stalls. A great evening and a real event to be savoured.

Andy Snipper

PAUL LAMB & THE KINGSNAKES

@ The Cluny, Newcastle upon Tyne

03/12/09

One of the highlights of the Christmas season was the return of the UK’s greatest harmonica player to his native north-east after many months of touring abroad. The atmosphere was electric and the fayre served up on this festive occasion was not turkey but Lamb, the best of British blues, albeit in Paul’s unique and compelling style. Blues in the hands of Paul is uplifting music; humorous, entertaining and rarely depressing. Whatever the colour of his skin he would still be playing the blues, the essence of which is injected into soul, gospel, jazz and rock and roll which share the same roots. For many, this was the first opportunity to hear the new Kingsnakes with Paul’s son Ryan ‘Junior’ on lead guitar, Chad Strenz, vocals and guitar, and Mike Thorne, drums; only veteran bassist Rod Demick survives from the previous line-up. The session started with Chicago jump blues and bebop followed by the infectious rhythms of ‘She’s Crazy’, Chad’s song, ‘The Pillow’ and Big Joe Williams’ ‘Baby Please Don’t Go’. On these up tempo numbers Paul sounds like Butterfield and Ryan is metamorphosed into Mike Bloomfield, albeit with Junior’s distinctive subtle guitar tones which build into crescendos when the occasion demands. Ryan is the coolest of cats yet currently underrated, possibly because he is not fronting his own band, but he is earning respect, paying his dues and plying his trade among craftsmen. He has learned to be understated and melodic as on the self-penned ‘Let Me In’ but also has the nimble dexterity to emulate the antics of the fastest guitar slingers in the west such as Bonamassa and Brown. Paul is sharing the vocals these days and his duet with Ryan, ‘Lose Your Money’ which included the line, ‘If You Lose Your Woman Please Don’t Lose Your Mind’, was one of the most poignant versions of McClinton’s classic I have heard. Only a father and son could have the empathy to reach such emotional depths in a song, both vocally and through the harp and guitar winding sinuously around each other. Other highlights included the traditional ‘Telephone Blues’, ‘Ya Ya Blues’, the Johnny Cash epic, ‘Folsom Prison Blues’, and Leadbelly’s ‘Midnight Special.’ These were all vehicles for Paul’s virtuoso, adept, improvising harp blowing which saw the consummate showman joining the audience in a walkabout as well as taking up hunched and prone positions on stage. It was appropriate that the show ended with the theme of shining a light because as Paul explained, ‘you get highs and lows in life as in families but you get better when the light shines on you.’ Certainly, the packed, noisy audience at The Cluny was illuminated by this very special homecoming of a genuine master of the blues.

Dave Scott

PHILIP SAYCE @ Dingwalls, London.

18/10/09

This rescheduled first London appearance was attended by around 150 – a reasonable crowd for a Sunday evening to see someone relatively unknown in the UK. With Ryan MacMillan on drums and a particularly energetic Joel Gottschalk on bass providing a solid foundation for Sayce to showcase his extrovert playing, Sayce has a fine power trio. Opening with ‘One Foot In The Grave’, the first track on “Peace Machine” with its pounding bass line, it was clear Sayce is a high energy performer as the sweat glistened on his forehead. By the end of the second song, ‘Powerful Thing’, a funky number from the same album, one began to wonder how long Sayce could maintain this pace. ‘Over My Head’, a song contemplating suicide, provided an immediate answer and a brief respite from the volume that bludgeoned the ears and masked Sayce’s superb voice. Two numbers from Sayce’s next album, scheduled for release in April 2010, were warmly received: ‘Changes’, a tour de force with its lengthy sustain and the slow ballad ‘It’s Over Now’ with its waltz beat, promise

good things to come. The Hendrix influenced Blues of ‘Dream Away’ gave Sayce a chance to show his superb voice and wide vocal range before the song morphed into the gritty electric Blues of ‘Angels Live Inside’. More Blues with ‘Slip Away’ saw Sayce make an excursion through the enraptured audience with his lengthy solo taking on an ethereal quality as he moved away from the stage and the PA stacks. The set drew to a close with Sayce’s version of Neil Young’s ‘Cinnamon Girl’ featuring the bass line from The Beatles ‘She’s So Heavy’ before the band returned for an encore of the SRV style Blues instrumental ‘Alchemy’ and the controlled chaos of ‘All I Want’. Using the lighting rig on the fretboard and playing chords like his life depended on it, it’s no wonder Sayce’s ’63 Stratocaster looks battered and abused. There’s no doubting, however, that Sayce is a very talented guitarist, singer and entertainer with the “wow factor” by the bucketful.

Philip Woodford

THE BLUES ASSEMBLY @Lemington Assembly

21/11/2009

The Blues Assembly was an ambitious line-up of seven artists performing contemporary Blues in the pleasant town of Leamington Spa for a mere twenty pounds. First on the bill was Joanne Shaw Taylor, who came on to a decent sized crowd at 3.30pm. The band launched into a tight rocking instrumental before ‘Coming Home’. Whilst Taylor’s show is focussed on her powerful guitar playing she can also demonstrate she has the songs, such as the slow blues of ‘Time Has Come’. ‘Kiss the Ground Goodbye’ was performed as a thank you to those who made the last year so successful. Sadly during the powerful solo a broken string meant the song was completed with five strings, yet Taylor was not finished and closed her set with the excellent ‘Blackest Day’. This reviewer has not seen Gwyn Ashton and the Two Man Blues Army before but was not disappointed. With eight guitars at hand we were presented different dimension of Ashton’s repertoire, such as the fiery ‘Bad

Classified’, followed before a funky interpretation of ‘Big Legged Woman’. Whittington is one of the most tasteful guitarists around with an excellent band featuring Roger Cotton and Pete Stroud. From his first song, it was clear that Oli Brown has taken some large steps in his development. The song ‘Evil Soul’, with tight drumming by Simon Dring is somewhat of a departure for Brown in that it is faster paced than usual. Both this and the slow blues of ‘Love’s Gone Cold’ suggest that Brown’s second album will surpass his debut. A notable feature of their set is the vocal harmonies, although not usually from the same microphone, the consequence of a faulty microphone during ‘No Dignity’. During the final number ‘Stone Cold’, Brown chose not to use one at all! There was another notable change in style as Ian Siegal took to the stage. His performance

Dog’ and a North Mississippi style version of ‘Cross Road Blues’ before he switched to acoustic guitar and harmonica for some songs including ‘Guitar Town’. The highlight however was when he picked up his Resonator to play a raw version of ‘When The Levee Breaks’.

Buddy Whittington presented a smoother side of the Blues, commencing with an upbeat version of BB King’s ‘You Upset Me Baby’ and followed this with a heartfelt version of Freddie King’s ‘Help Me Through

commencing with ‘Kingdom Come’, from his new album “Broadside” It was a powerful slide driven song, featuring some clever worded lyrics. Siegal is completely engaging , and to his left bassist Andy Graham could not contain his smile as he led the groove through ‘Groundhog Blues’ and a Bo Diddley medley into ‘Little Paranoid’. The tempo was slowed right down for a passionate interpretation of ‘Take A Walk In The Wilderness’ written by Siegal’s mentor George Watt before a storming ‘You Don’t Love Me’.

The penultimate artist for the evening was Aynsley Lister who opened with one of his best songs, ‘With Me Tonight’. Much of Lister’s set does deviate from a traditional blues format, yet with songs like ‘Early Morning Dew’ and the sublime ‘What’s It All About’ there is no denying the quality of the music , Indeed the consensus was that Lister and his band should regularly be playing venues of this size. Although the band threatened to be swamped by the sheets of dry ice that flooded the stage, the appreciative audience participated with enthusiasm during the closing ‘Hush’. And finally we had the Yardbirds. Few could probably name the current line up. Joining Jim McCarthy and Chris was Andy Mitchell on vocals and harmonica, Ben King on lead guitar and David Smale on bass guitar. King is an impressive guitarist and he and the charismatic Mitchell powerfully led the band through some classics like ‘Train Kept A Rollin’’ and ‘Shape Of Things’ combined with the more recent ‘Crying Out For Love’. Somewhat surprisingly for such a great day of live music at a fantastic price, the venue was half full at best. The only grumble was some erratic stage lighting, so it was perhaps appropriate the final song of the night was ‘Dazed and Confused’.

Duncan Beattie

VIRGIL & THE ACCELERATORS

@Borough

06/02/10

Blues Club, New Inn.

A packed Saturday night crowd at this monthly Blues club held in the local New Panteg Rugby Club were looking forward to seeing Virgil and the Accelerator once again. Virgil, got the evening off to an electric, spellbinding start with Stevie Ray Vaghaun’s “Scuttle Buttin”; this gig was definitely starting on hi revs.... Virgil and the band were in total control as they moved into two originals from their new EP ‘And so It Begins..’; “What am I To Do” and “No Turning Back” . This young band, comprising of The McMahon brothers Virgil (17); already being dubbed as ‘The Guitar Hurricane’ (lead guitar and vocals); and Gabriel (16) whose style and natural talent is reminiscent of a young Mitch Mitchell; and Tom Sansbury at 19 is the eldest member of the band (Bass and Vocals). They delivered two sets that were both strong, well disciplined and professional. Since their last visit to Borough Blues, Tom has joined the band with his strong bass line complimenting the virtuoso and often ‘jam’ like feel of Virgil’s playing. This band though is not just about Virgil, it is a trio of talented rock blues musicians combining their skills so that the delivery is greater than anyone of them could manage on their own the band is developing into the real deal. This was reflected in the reaction from the audience with people flocking to the dance floor during the second set as they delivered some real classics with their own twist and putting their stamp on to B.B. King’s “Everyday I have the Blues”; Stevie Vaughan’s “Couldn’t Stand the Weather” and ending with an awesome and spine tingling version of Jimi Hendrik’s “Voodoo Chile”.

To sum up Borough Blues was treated to an evening with the young up and coming rock blues band of 2010, they left everyone buzzing afterwards and left the audience like all great artists wanting more and more despite two encores that including a foot stomping, get on the dance floor version of “Johnny Be Goode ”

Liz Aiken

MARCUS BONFANTI @The Inn at Lathones

11/02/2010

The intimate Inn at Lathones is in a countryside setting east of St Andrews. Ideal for such an environment was Marcus Bonfanti, whose confident and engaging communication with the audience made this concert the perfect relaxed environment for a night of Blues. Bonfanti took to the stage by himself to perform the footstomp ‘God Only Knows’ featuring only harmonica besides his powerful voice. He was joined by bass player Scott Wiber and drummer Alex Reeves for the Bluesy midtempo ‘Devil Girl’ which featured some thick Blues guitar lines on his Dean resonator. ‘Messin’ Round No More’ was far more upbeat. The remorseful ‘Now I’m Gone’ followed. The song commencing with some delicately played guitar licks and Bonfanti’s soulful vocals, before developing to a closing crescendo. A playful version of Charlie Daniels’ ‘Leave The Long Haired Country Boy Alone’ was notable with some fiery slide movements over the fretboard. The title track of the new album, ‘What Good Am I To You’, was an easy going tune before the catchy ‘Knock Me Down’ with its strong backbeat. A selection of cover versions followed which demonstrate Bonfanti’s approach to his music. Buddy Guy’s ‘Leave My Girl Alone’ was performed with emotion yet restraint before the bass lead funk of the Wells/Guy classic ‘Messin’ With The Kid’. These were not guitar centric interpretations by long lost blues idols, rather Bonfanti’s versions revert to the feel of the originals, but also with his own personal stamp. We got a version of Muddy’s ‘Mojo Working’ which sounded more down-home than the legend’s own recording. Ann Sexton’s ‘Your Gonna Miss Me’ was channeled through Jimi Hendrix, before an almost acoustic reading of the Vaughans’ ‘Long Way From Home’ and Bonfanti’s equally strong ‘Gimme Your Cash’. This is blues performed with contemporary expression with one foot retained within the roots of the music; and

based on substance rather than flash. It seems certain this approach will pay great dividends for the likeable Bonfanti.

Duncan Beattie

ERIC McFADDEN & TASTE

@ The Plan, Ris Orangis, near Paris

13/11/2009

The Eric McFadden Trio was first up to open hostilities on this dark winter night outside Paris. Supporting a band such as Taste was no easy task and the American guitar virtuoso that is Eric McFadden showed us what steel he was made of. Like a lion in a cage, bouncing from one side of the stage to the other and assisted by the very talented and beautiful

to the sky and a public always eager to see the class act McFadden Fadden ‘live’, switching from the acoustic guitar played the Hispanic way to the electric six-string, is always an experience which leaves an indelible mark, such is his presence, his charisma, his talent and the voice which charms and bewitches. A hard act to follow this Eric McFaddenTrio but the three Irish men from Taste soon showed us who was in charge. From the first track, ‘What’s Going On’, you knew they meant business and you couldn’t help remembering this long-haired Irish man who had upset the world of Fender. Suddenly there you were back in time on the Isle of Wight with Taste and the genius that was Rory Gallagher. And on this Friday night at the Plan, there were no speed limits, everything going so fast as if time didn’t matter any more. Even, Sam Davidson, the band’s new singer-guitar player reminded us by his talent the original Taste guitarist. Iconic tracks such as ‘Same Old Story’ alternated with tracks from their latest album, “Wall To Wall” taking us to a new Taste universe which lit up everything on its way with its touching generosity. John Wilson, the band’s drummer and original member of the legendary trio, was simply stupendous. The unassuming Albert Mills was imposing both on bass and vocals. The last set was a fireworks display, a typhoon and a tsunami all at once, there was such energy you could drink it. Eric McFadden came back on stage to join the last of the festivities with an unbelievable duel fought with Sam, a duel worthy of the greatest ‘guitaristic’ anthologies. After many ‘encores’, we were left still singing the last of ‘Gloria’ happy in the knowledge that we would soon see Taste and Eric McFadden again.

Frankie Pfeiffer/Nat Harrap Photos: Frankie Pfeiffer

BM54 (June-July issue)–Interviews including:

CANDYE KANE

“I also want the song, ‘SuperHero’ to speak to all women who go through each busy day being mothers, wives and workers, and getting it all done. We are all ‘SuperHeroes’!”

GLEN PATRIK BLUES POWER BAND (France) GUITAR SHORTY PETER GREEN SCOTT McKEON TOMMY CASTRO……and so much more in our action packed pages………..

Footnote:

Well you have nearly come to the end of the first issue going out to new outlets and under the new ‘team’ and we do hope you have enjoyed it. We know the layout is a little different and the logo has been re-done to be bolder to more suit being on new shelves in new outlets and attract new readers to pick us up and take a peek at what is inside.

We are sorry that we seem to be late coming out, we thank you all for your patience and comments in support of our reorganising and getting things right for the new distribution. At least in one go we have now brought ourselves up to date. Someone said “Blues Matters is like the Tardis of the Blues world, it looks so small yet there’s just so much inside and it is magical to cover so much in the Blues world and do it so well!” our thanks to all the great ‘team’ at Blues Matters – you know who you are!!

NOW BEFORE WE FORGET

Before We Forget Willie Dixon

Willie Dixon was one of the most prolific Blues songwriters ever with more than 500 compositions to his credit. Dixon often provided young British musicians with original compositions, and as a result, his reputation as a songwriter grew among the new generation of rock musicians and exposing his music to new audiences. A true Bluesman, he rode the rails to Chicago during the Great Depression and became the number one Blues songwriter and producer for the legendary Chess Records. Fellow Bluesman Johnny Shines described him as ‘… the man who changed the style of the blues in Chicago’. Praise indeed for a legend.

Willie James Dixon was born in 1915 to parents Anderson Bell and Daisy Dixon, in Vicksburg, Mississippi, a lively town between New Orleans and Memphis. Vicksburg was important musically and young Dixon heard a variety of Blues, Dixieland, and Ragtime on the streets. The Dixon family lived next to Curley’s Barrelhouse and listening from the street, Dixon, then about eight years old, heard bluesmen such as Charley Patton perform there. Typically, Dixon ran away from home when he was eleven, but only eleven miles away to a place called Bovine. In his autobiography, ‘I Am the Blues’, he revealed ‘It was nothing like I expected… I thought our house was raggedy but ... the house had great big holes in the floor. You could see the hogs and chickens running around under the house.’ Dixon landed in jail when only twelve and was sent to a country farm for stealing from a derelict house. He recalled ‘That’s when I really learned about the Blues. I had heard ‘em with the music and took ‘em to be an enjoyable thing but after I heard these guys down there moaning and groaning these really down-to-earth blues…I really began to find out what the Blues meant to black people’

Dixon’s teen years were filled with travels and trouble. During the late 1920s he was arrested for hoboing near Clarksdale, Mississippi and given thirty days at the Harvey Allen County Farm, near the infamous Parchman Farm prison. Many prisoners were mistreated there and Dixon himself received a blow to his head that made him deaf for four years. He soon managed to escape though, and walked to Memphis, where he hopped a freight train into Chicago. He then returned to Vicksburg and sang bass with the Union Jubilee Singers gospel quartet before moving to Chicago in 1936. Throughout the late 1930s, Dixon sang with various gospel groups, often on the radio. Around the same time, Leonard Baby Doo Caston gave Dixon his first musical instrument, a bass made out of an oil can and one string. Dixon, Caston, and some other musicians formed the Five Breezes.

Willie Dixon was a big, fit man and when he first arrived in Chicago he started training as a boxer and won the Illinois Golden Gloves in 1937 in the novice heavyweight category. However, after brawling in the commissioner’s office over the money he was owed, Dixon was suspended for six months, and his handlers were expelled permanently.

In 1946 Dixon and Caston formed the Big Three Trio, named after the wartime leaders Roosevelt, Churchill, and Stalin. Dixon by this time was singing and playing upright bass and the Trio played big clubs with capacities of three to five thousand. After several years of successful touring and recording, the Big Three Trio disbanded in 1951. The Chess brothers started in the late 1940s, and over the next decade, became the most important Blues label in the world, recording giants such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Chuck Berry. Willie Dixon was first used on recording sessions by Chess in the late 1940s, and after the Big Three Trio disbanded, Dixon became a full-time employee. He did a range of things, including producing, arranging, playing bass and in fact many of the Blues songs recorded at Chess were written, arranged, and produced by Willie Dixon. His first big break as a songwriter came when Muddy Waters recorded his ‘Hoochie Coochie Man’ in 1954. When this became Muddy’s biggest hit, reaching number three in the R’n’B charts, Dixon became the label’s top songwriter. Chess also released Muddy’s recordings of Dixon’s ‘I Just Wanna Make Love to You’ and ‘I’m Ready’ in 1954, and they both became hits. In 1955 Dixon had his first number one hit when Little Walter recorded the Blues classic ‘My Babe’. This went on to be performed and recorded by people such as the Everly Brothers, Elvis Presley, the Righteous Brothers, Ike and Tina Turner, John Lee Hooker and Lightnin’ Hopkins. Dixon wrote for Chess from 1954 and at the end of 1956 he left the label over disputes regarding money. He continued to play on recording sessions, though, most notably providing bass on all of Chuck Berry’s sessions.

In 1957 Dixon joined the independent Cobra Records, where he recorded Buddy Guy, Otis Rush, and Magic Sam, creating what became known as the ‘West Side Sound’, a style that ‘fused the Delta influence of classic Chicago blues with single-string lead guitar lines la B. B. King’. The West Side started an emphasis on the guitar as a lead instrument. This proved to be a hugely influential force on the Blues.

n 1957 Dixon formed his own publishing company, Ghana Music to protect his copyright interest in his own songs. Although ‘I Can’t Quit You Baby’ was a hit for Otis Rush, Cobra Records was not sustainable and by 1959 Dixon was back at Chess. In 1959 Dixon teamed up with pianist Memphis Slim, to perform at the Newport Folk Festival and they continued to play throughout the US and became key players in the 1960s Blues revival. Dixon went to England with Memphis Slim in 1960 and performed with the American Folk Blues Festival that toured Europe in 1962. Dixon often provided young British musicians with original compositions, and his reputation as a songwriter grew among the new generation of rock musicians. Toward the end of the 1960s Blues record sales slumped and Chess’s last major hit was Koko Taylor ’s 1966

recording of Willie Dixon’s “Wang Dang Doodle.”

The many cover versions of his songs by 1960s rock bands enhanced Dixon’s reputation as a Blues legend. He revived his career as a performer by forming the Chicago Blues All-Stars in 1969. The original lineup included Johnny Shines, Sunnyland Slim, Walter ‘Shakey’ Horton and Clifton James. Throughout the 1970s Dixon continued to write, record other artists, and release his own recordings on his own Yambo label. His was on the road in the US and abroad for six months out of the year until 1977, when his diabetes worsened and he lost a foot. He reformed the Chicago Blues All-Stars in the early 1980s and received another Grammy nomination in 1983. That same year, he moved to California, and began working on movie scores.

Dixon’s songs created the ‘Chicago Blues sound’ and were recorded by luminaries such as Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and Bo Diddley. His well known, ‘Back Door Man,’ was recorded by the Doors. Some of Dixon’s songs reached a new international audience in the 1960s, when they were popularized by The Rolling Stones, Cream, the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck, and

In the 1980s, Dixon established the Blues Heaven Foundation, a non profit organisation providing assistance to schools and to indigent Blues musicians to help them secure the rights to their songs. Dixon’s final two albums were well received, with the 1988 album Hidden Charms winning a Grammy Award for best traditional blues recording. In 1989 he recorded the soundtrack for the film Ginger Ale Afternoon, which also was nominated for a Grammy.

Dixon died in January 1992, in Burbank, California after creating a massive body of work. To learn of Dixon’s contribution to our genre get a copy of ‘The Chess Box’, released in 1989 on MCA/Chess. Not only is there a wealth of Dixon’s own recordings, there are reminders of his skill as songwriter and producer with sides from the likes of Muddy Waters, Little Walter and Koko Taylor. The quality of this collection is superb.

Ashburton Blues Festival appearing on Saturday 29 May.

Peter Green - the supreme British blues-rock guitarist who inspired B. B. King to say, “He has the sweetest tone I ever heard; he was the only one who gave me the cold sweats.” Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page are both huge fans. Now, playing the deepest blues he’s ever done, with a voice that’s never been better, Peter is back with a new band and thilling his fans.

No Peter Green appearance would be complete without his classic compositions, but now the focus is on fresh renditions of Peter’s personal blues, R&B and soul favourites. The repertoire is an exciting, unpredictable mix and you can’t help but notice him smiling and laughing in a way not seen for a very long time. The Peter Green story is well documented. Raised in the poorest circumstances in London’s East End he taught himself guitar, and at the age of twenty replaced Eric Clapton in John Mayall & the Bluesbreakers. In 1967 he left to form Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, hitting the top of the charts with “Black Magic Woman”, “Albatross”, “Oh Well” ,”Man of the World”, and “The Green Manalishi”. Deeply uncomfortable with success, and damaged by drugs, he left Fleetwood Mac and for years struggled with his demons. He rarely picked up a guitar until the late 90’s when he started appearing again with The Splinter Group. He made various albums including the acclaimed Robert Johnson Songbook, which revealed an astonishing new Green voice conjuring swamps and midnight crossroads. But his illness required medication which at that time sapped his concentration and motivation to play. There were flashes of brilliance during live gigs, but he dropped out of a planned tour in 2004 and quit the band.

Last year he began touring again with Peter Green and Friends; trusted, supportive musicians who understood and loved him. Suddenly a new ‘Greeny’ emerged, at home in front of his fans playing his hits, but also delving deep into the roots of the music he loves. His concerts are sell-outs, and the man, the voice, and the guitar are reborn. This is a true Blues Master at the height of his powers. To have someone of Peter’s stature and importance appearing at the Ashburton Blues Festival, is a major coup, and reinforces the Festival as ‘The Uniquest Little Blues Festival in the World’ Other headliners are MIKE SANCHEZ AND HIS BAND, and BIG MAC’S WHOLLY SOUL BAND. Support acts include: Thomas Ford and the Dirty Harmonys, John Whitehill, Chicago Red, Tom Ball & Kenny Sultan, Stompin’ Dave’s Band, Denny Ilett & Andy Williamson, SmokeStack, Mike Markey & Nick Jones,and The King Roosters.

Tickets: Michael Cranmer Ashburton Blues Festival “The Uniquest Little Blues Festival in the World” 07855 307 556 Help connect the world through music Playingforchange.com.

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