Blues Music Magazine #4

JOHNMAYALL

BETH HART

VICTOR WAINWRIGHT

HERITAGE BLUESORCHESTRA

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NUMBER FOURwww.bluesmusicmagazine.com

40 YEARS STRONG

PHOTOGRAPHY ©TONYKUTTER

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COVER PHOTOGRAPHY (GEORGE THOROGOOD)© AARON RAPOPORT courtesy of DESTROYERS, INC.

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY (JOHN MAYALL)© MAUREEN CLARK courtesy of MARK PUCCI MEDIA NUMBER FOUR

BILL’S ARCHIVESReissues and Box Sets

RIFFS & GROOVESFrom The Editor-In-Chief

DELTA JOURNEYS“Raring To Go”

AROUND THE WORLD“2015 Forecast: More MuddyWaters”

Q&Awith Deanna Bogart

BLUES ALIVE!The Nick Moss BandFolk Alliance InternationalTobyWalkerJimmie Vaughan

SAMPLER 4REVIEWSNewReleasesFilm Files

BILL’S ARCHIVESReissues and Box Sets

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AConversationWithGEORGE THOROGOODby Brian M.Owens

JOHN MAYALLA Special Life Indeedby Don Wilcock

BETH HARTWelcome Homeby Art Tipaldi

HERITAGE BLUESORCHESTRAStill Risingby Kay Cordtz

VICTORWAINWRIGHTWild Roots & Southern Hospitalityby Grant Britt

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Blues Music Magazine 5

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Arrive at the show very, very early. Disregard the seat on your ticket. Scan the upperreaches for seats in the emptiest section. The fewer the people around you, the betteryour chances. If the section begins to fill up, move to another section. Watch for apair of t-shirt clad “roadies” walking up the stairs. Avoid eye contact. Never let onyou know about their purpose. Never beg. When you’re offered the swap, don’thesitate, you may never get another chance.

I’ve been a Bruce Springsteen fan since 1975. We both grew up in Jersey,20 miles apart. We graduated high school in the same year. But I’d never seen hisshow live.

When Springsteen came through Hartford in 1993, I made a vow that I wasgoing to see him. Tickets by phone went on sale at 10 a.m. and I came up empty.That night a friend called with EIGHT tickets to split for the show.

“Where are the seats?” I asked.“Last row,” he answered.We all arrived two hours before the show and looked to the ceiling for our seats.

They were so high up, God was in the row behind us. In fact, I almost bumped myhead on the roof of the Civic Center every time I stood up. We put on out rockclimbing gear, hooked up a rope line, and began the ascent. Once safely in our seatsand acclimated to the oxygen at these higher altitudes, we were ready to watch tinyBruce (the stage was so far away he was going to be about a half inch tall). My wifeasked if this was as close as we’d get to the stage. “No. Everybody switches seatsduring intermission.” This was not looking good.

As we sat and talked in out empty section, I saw two longhaired, concertt-shirted guys walking up the stairs. They turned down the row in front of us andwalked right to the seats in front of us.

“This is gonna be a great concert,” they said. “But these really aren’t good seatsto see him from.”

“I don’t care,” I answered, “Seeing him for the first time is too exciting.”“Tell you what,” they said, “we’ll trade you two front row seats for two of your

tickets.”Don’t think, do it. “OK,” I blurted.“There are so many of you, we’ll trade you six front row seats for six of yours.”Who’d ever scam for these seats, so how much worse could it be. Within

minutes, we’d traded six of our eight last row seats for six seats at the foot of the stage.When I got to my upgraded seat, the others in the front row were high fiving eachother. When Bruce took the stage, we all smiled back and forth during the first song.He knew.

My research uncovered a former roadie who admitted that this is somethingSpringsteen had been doing at least since 1981.

If you go to his current shows with last row seats, try this out. Get to the showtwo hours early and sit in the last row of the emptiest section you see. If that sectionfills up, move. Don’t worry about what your ticket says. And wait for the swap.Follow my simple advice, and I may see you in the front row.

“Let the music keep our spirits high.”

Art Tipaldi, Editor-In-Chief

“It’s a town full of losers,we’re pulling out of here to win.”

6 Blues Music Magazine

ack in 1977, a young guitaristreleased a fiery debut record thatsounded very much like an early

Rolling Stones record. Thirty-five yearslater, George Thorogood’s 2120 SouthMichigan Ave. record paid tribute to theChess catalogue that originally inspiredhim. In his liner notes, Thorogood writes,“That was my school, the college, that Ihad to learn my trade in. I had to figureout how these people did these things.”

In between, Thorogood and hisDestroyers of 40 years, Jeff Simon (bass)and Billy Blough (drums) have recorded 16studio albums and five live records. Thoughhe was a barroom fixture on the East coastfrom Boston to D.C., his gig opening forthe Rolling Stones on their 1981 tour tookhis sound to a huge new audience that haskept this band on the road.

George Thorogood’s off stage per-sona looms just as large as his on stageone. Ever the quick talking prankster,Thorogood has endured the music busi-ness for 40 years and continues to thrillaudiences with his trademark brand ofblistering blues-based rock ‘n’ roll fromcoast to coast. One wintry afternoon,I caught up with Thorogood, and he pro-ceeded to poke fun at my Boston accent,played down the rock star status, andtalked about his first record while offeringup a real good look at what has made himtick for four decades.

BluesMusicMagazine:Hi George. Howare you?

GeorgeThorogood:How am I? Bad!Bad to the bone.

BMM:How did you get involved withRounder Records early in your career?

Thorogood: Every record label on theplanet said, “No” to me. Rounder said,“Maybe.” [Laughs.] That was my cue.Maybe was better than no. I thumped onthe door and wouldn’t go away.

BMM:Who was running the label atthe time?

Thorogood: The president was MarianLeighton, the vice president was KenIrwin and there was Bill Nowlin. Theywere the three Rounder people. The firstperson I got in touch with was BillNowlin. He and Ken Irwin. Basically theydecided, just out of pity and to shut meup, to make a record.

BMM:Were you on the road playing allthe time?

Thorogood: I played where I could likeanybody else. I wasn’t on the road. I wasbouncing around between Philadelphiaand New England. I had a handful of songsthat I knew would make a really goodrecord, but I couldn’t get anybody inter-ested in it. I had no representation and Icouldn’t get anybody to pay attention tome. Rounder finally came and saw me playlive a couple of times and said, “Well,maybe.” I said, “This is a record that willsell and if we don’t record, “One Bourbon,One Scotch, One Beer” soon, someone elsewill. We gotta do it because if we don’t,The Allman Brothers will do it or theJ. Geils Band will do it or Tom Waits willdo it and we’ll all be left out in the cold.”

BMM:What year was that?

Thorogood: I met them in 1975 and werecorded in 1976. We didn’t release it

until 1977. That was a long three years letme tell you. A long three years.

BMM: A lot of your songs are about sittingin a barroom drinking, getting drunk, andfighting with the old lady.

Thorogood:No, not all of them.

BMM:Was that formula planned?

Thorogood:No, those are just the songsthat people got attracted to.

BMM: Your rhythm section, drummer JeffSimon & bassist Billy Blough, have beenwith you since the start. How have youmanaged to keep those guys on board withyou all these years?

Thorogood: I respect them.

BMM: I’ve seen you live a number of timesand your live presentation has the sameenergy and sound as your albums. Wasthat a part of your formula when yourecorded?

Thorogood:No, not really. It’s just theway it turned out. I’ve seen some bands,they sound so exactly like the records,that I don’t really care for it. I figure, Imight as well just listen to the record. Wedo songs that are similar to the recording,but we expand upon that.

BMM: Years ago, in the 1980s, the banddid 60 or 65 shows in a row. How did thatcome about?

Thorogood:While we were touring once,somebody mentioned, “The next timeyou play on the road, why don’t you playall of the states. You can do all of them.”I thought the guy was making a challenge,so we set up 50 states in 50 days. Once wegot started, our driver said, “That’s reallyremarkable that you’re going to do all 50states in a row.” I said, “Isn’t that what youmeant?” He said, “No. I just said do all50 of them. I don’t care how long it takes.”I said, “You’re telling me that now!” It wasa great publicity hook. I’m just glad itwasn’t 200 states.

BMM: Did you end up doing the 50 showsin 50 days?

&GEORGE

THOROGOODPHOTOGRAPHY © AARON RAPOPORT

courtesy of DESTROYERS,INC.


Thorogood: Yes, we did. Didn’t your dadgo to work more than 50 days in a row? Ifyou can’t go to work 50 days in a row andyou play in a rock band, you got some-thing wrong with you.

BMM: That’s true, but how was the travel-ing from state to state? Weren’t there somelong stretches of road there?

Thorogood: The East coast was a snap.Our rides were about an hour long. Thelongest ride we did was about ten hoursfrom Minnesota to Omaha. That wasabout the longest one. It wasn’t that gruel-ing like you think. We had the bookingagent do it nine to ten months in advanceso we made sure strategically that eachcity we played wasn’t that far a drive.They’ve taken that thing over the yearsand really blown it out of proportion.

BMM: I remember seeing you play withStevie Ray Vaughan. What was your takeon Stevie? Were you guys friends?

Thorogood:No, we weren’t close, but weweren’t archenemies or anything. We gotalong well. I really didn’t play with thegentleman that many times. Maybe ahalf dozen times.

BMM: You’re a great slide player.What gotyou interested in that?

Thorogood: I can’t really play the otherkind of guitar real good. I’m not much ofa lead guitar player. Rhythm guitar andslide is my thing. I’m a finger picker,thumb picker. I started out as an acousticblues player like Brownie McGhee. I wasnever real good at those flashy leads thatJeff Beck and Jimmy Page do. The slidejust came natural to me.

BMM:When you say acousticblues, were you performing solovoice and guitar?

Thorogood: Yeah. I had asolo act. I was good for aboutfive songs and that was it. I gota lot of admiration from audi-ences and a lot of encourage-ment from the people I workedwith, Sonny & Brownie,Robert Lockwood Jr.,

Hound Dog Taylor, and people like that,but I knew I wasn’t going to take itvery far unless I added some otherinstrumentation.

BMM: Did John Hammond spark thatinitial interest for you?

Thorogood:No, I had the interest before.What John did was drive it home that,I absolutely, positively can dothis. Our styles are very similar.When I saw him, there was nodoubt in my mind at that timethat I was going to be able tomake a living doing this.

BMM: Playing solo?

Thorogood:No, he was in aband at the time. The music hewas playing was driving every-body crazy in this club he wasworking. I just knew I could dothat. It really encouraged me.I learned a lot from watchinghim perform.

BMM: Is this a band setting you’re talkingabout?

Thorogood: I saw him first in a band,yes. I’ve seen him in both off and on.

BMM:What guitar player influenced youmost as a kid?

PHOTOGRAPHY ©JOSEPH A.ROSEN


Thorogood: If I had to pick one idol itwould be Chuck Berry. He is the mainguy. He is the link between blues and rock‘n’ roll. He created it! He took the bluesand revved it up and put some real cleverlyrics to it. He literally brought that soundon television, on American Bandstand.He was the guy that was one step in theblues and one step in rock ‘n’ roll. He wasthe bridge that did it. Once everybodywent off that bridge, nobody ever wentback. The world was never the same afterthat. I started out playing the bluesbecause it was like a necessary educationfor me to build to what it is I am now. Justlike the Allman Brothers or the J. GeilsBand or Elvin Bishop. Any successfulensemble starts by learning the roots of it;the blues stuff. That’s what you do. Youlearn that and then you build on top ofthat and see where it takes you.

BMM: Did you have any mentors inDelaware when you were growing up?

Thorogood:No, not really. I was veryinfluenced by the first three RollingStones albums before they put out “Satis-faction.” They had Brian Jones. They didmostly covers of R&B, Chuck Berry, andHowlin’ Wolf. That was very close to mytaste and they chose really outstandingmaterial and they brought it to a rocklevel. They sustained it by writing songslike “Satisfaction,” “Get Off My Cloud,”and “Paint It Black.” They took it to thatlevel and they never looked back.

BMM: Did you ever get to play withChuck Berry?

Thorogood:No, but I went on stagewith him once. I’ve crossed paths withhim several times, but I’ve never actuallyplayed with him.

BMM: Did you ever play with The Stones?

Thorogood:Mick Jagger came on stagewith us once and sang a few songs withus. That was exciting. That was prettymuch the peak of everything I’ve everbeen about or ever done. That was myman in the ‘60s, let’s face it. That waseverybody’s man. It’s very hard for a guylike that to take a night off and do any-thing. He’s a superstar! He took his timeout to come out on his night off to see us,found out where we were playing (we

never told him really) and he came down.A couple of guys in his band, Bobby Keyesand Ian Stewart, were playing with us atthe time. Mick came down out of curiosityand we asked him to come up and singwith us, and he did. It was really fun.

BMM: You always have an arsenal ofGibson guitars on stage with you?What model are they?

Thorogood: I play a Gibson ES-125.

BMM:What turned you on to that guitar?

Thorogood: It was cheap. [Laughs.] Itwas pretty much the only guitar I couldplay because it’s set up more like anacoustic guitar. The strings are elevatedoff of the body and I’m not a flat picker,so that guitar was the ideal setup. It alsoproduced a sound that is my sound alonebecause I’m the only one that plays thatguitar. When I first started playing itI wanted people to hear that so if theyheard it on a record they would know itwas me immediately. When you hearVan Morrison sing, you know it’s himimmediately. It has an identifiable sound.

BMM: You recently released a greatesthits album on Icon Records. How did youget hooked up with those folks?

Thorogood:My catalog is with Capitol.It was a natural extension.

BMM:How do you feel about the recordbusiness these days?

Thorogood: I wouldn’t know how toeven answer that because it’s just as big amystery to me as it is to you. They leftme in the dust ten or fifteen years ago.

BMM: So the live show is your thing?

Thorogood: Yeah, that’s my statement.

BMM: Are you happier these days thanyou were when you started 40 years ago?

Thorogood:Oh, God yes. We have moresongs and we have better equipment andwe work better venues. That’s what it’s allabout. Twenty years ago I had two songs.Now I have fifteen. [Laughs.]

– Brian M.Owens

PHOTOGRAPHY © AL PEREIRA (1988)


A SPECIAL LIFE INDEEDby Don Wilcock

PHOTOGRAPHY ©DUSTY SCOTT


“A Special Life,” the title cut from John Mayall’s 71st album,the 80-year-old Godfather of British Blues sings, “I haven’t got

the time to waste. I lead a special life. Freedom is my middle name.” Thealbum was cut in three days and includes four originals Mayall wrote inthe studio. By the time you read this, he will have completed 56 stops ona two-month tour of Europe and will be on tour in the states. The lyricsof the song sum up his life: special, with no time to waste, and freedomis his middle name.

“That’s my whole outlook on life,” says the veteran blues man.When I remind him he’s been going through this routine for 50 years, heresponds, “It mounts up, doesn’t it?” Obviously, he loves what he does.

“Yeah, it seems pretty easy for me. It’s summed up in the words,‘I live a special life.’ I have this big tour coming up. I have a number ofgigs all over the world so it’s a refreshing change from being at home.It breaks up the year. You do that tour, and you come back home, enjoyyour home life, and get ready for the next batch. There’s so much varietyin my life that it keeps everything fresh.”

A Special Life is Mayall’s first studio album since Tough, releasedfive years ago. As usual, Mayall showcases material by classic bluesartists including Jimmy Rogers (“That’s All Right”), Albert King (“Floodin’In California”), Sonny Landreth (“Speak Of The Devil”), Jimmy McCracklin(“I Just Got To Know”), and Eddie Taylor (“Big Town Playboy”).

The opening cut features C.J. Chenier on “Why Did You Go” byC.J.’s dad Clifton Chenier, “The King of Zydeco.” Mayall’s voice, whileweathered, sounds amazingly vibrant for a man his age. His playing onkeyboards and harmonica, as always, demonstrates a versatility anddexterity that comes from an almost mythic history of having playedwith everyone from blues giants like John Lee Hooker and Sonny BoyWilliamson to guitarists Eric Clapton, Peter Green, Mick Taylor,Coco Montoya, Harvey Mandell, and Walter Trout, all of whom receivedcareer changing exposure as members of Mayall’s Bluesbreakers.

His current Bluesbreaker band includes Texas guitarist Rocky Athaswho was a childhood friend of Stevie Ray Vaughan; bass player GregRzab who toured with Buddy Guy for 12 years; and Chicago South Sidedrummer Jay Davenport whose credits include Sugar Blue and MelvinTaylor. After a two-day rehearsal, the band cut the album in less thanthree days. As he’s always done, Mayall gives a song 10 to 15 minutesto come alive in the studio. If it doesn’t work right away, he moves on.

“It’s pretty much the same all the way through my career,” he says.“I mean if it doesn’t work, it’s no good flogging a dead horse (as) you veryquickly find out, but everything went very smoothly on this one. We had theguys come into L.A. for a couple of days before, we went through thesongs and made sure we knew what we were doing, and then went to thestudio. We were there for three days and the rest of it was just me mixing itand putting vocals on and bits and pieces. So, it was very smooth indeed.

“Tough was the same thing. That took less than a week, too. If you’vegot the right people, and we’ve been together for five years now, so we’repretty much a mind reading set of guys. So it just falls into place if you’vegot the right material. I wanted to make a straight ahead blues album, nearas straight ahead as I can get anyway, and put as much variety into thetypes of blues and modern to traditional type of things, and then it cametogether very easily really because I had already scoped out songs that

On

JOHNMAYALL


I’d wanted to record by Jimmy Rogersand Eddie Taylor and various people,and this music I love.

“I’ve always looked upon making analbum as making a collection of singlesso that each one would stand on its ownas a statement, and also that it wouldhave a flavor of its own that would differ-entiate it from the others. That’s the wayI always approach it.”

As to the four new originals? “Ineeded that number of songs to fill thealbum. These were ideas, and I puttogether a little demo on my machine, andI played them to the guys, and we just hit.So, it’s like very much a supply anddemand thing. I just think up the subjectmatter, and that kind of takes care of a lotof the mood of the piece, and it all fallsinto place. No problem (writing a song) ifthe stories are there. They are pieces ofmy life and emotions that were connectedwith events. That dictates the mood of thepiece, and then all you’ve got to do is putthe words in to tell the story.

“It all happens rather quickly. Afterall, they’re just 12-bar blues in actualessence, so it’s not too much playingaround with different fancy chord structures. It comes together veryquickly at the same time really, you work on the lyrics just to makesure you’ve got the right words in there to fit the tunes.”

Both “Heartache” and “Just A Memory” find Mayall pining for alost love, but he insists his obsession with music has not made hisprivate life less than he’d like it to be. “No, I don’t think so. I justwanted a real intense, slow blues on there, and so I just conjured upthe memory of a girl and that kind of led me into that piece. I showedthe guys the chords and then wrote the words very easily. When youhave something in real life, a real experience, it becomes very easyto put it down in words and music.”

John Mayall came to international attention in the middle of the1960’s British Invasion, but several things separated him from theother blues-rockers who went on to become million-selling rock stars.First of all, Mayall was about ten years older than others like Clapton,Jagger, Richards, or Eric Burdon.

Secondly, he grew up listening to his father’s collection of78-rpm jazz records. This gave him a more mature approach toblues-rock that included live improvisation, a standard practiceamong African-American post-war electric bluesmen, but not as com-mon among the British rock acts who were slavishly copying bluesriffs off records rather than hearing the artists vamp in live sets.

He was not surprised, for instance, when Sonny Boy Williamsonexpressed open contempt for the Yardbirds when he (Sonny Boy)recorded with them in the mid-60s. “Sonny Boy, a man of the blues,comes over and runs into this bunch of kids that’s racing hell forleather, and of course we were. We all got off on the wrong footwhen we started out. (The Yardbirds) were very amateur by hisstandards. [Chuckle.] He was a very impatient person in any event.He was always drunk, so all these factors come together.”

Nor is Mayall kind to the Grateful Dead who are often creditedwith introducing improvisation to rock. “I think it’s all been the fact

I grew up listening to jazz as much asblues that improvisation is what it’s reallyabout. There’s a certain disciplineattached to things the Grateful Deaddidn’t have. They just rolled on foreverand ever. You have to keep the structurethere, but to play different every night iswhat I’ve always done. Every night is anew adventure. Even if we play the sametune, they’re always different.”

Mayall often has been quoted assaying that he’s never had a hit record,that Rolling Stone never did a piece onhim, and that he’s still an undergroundperformer. “It seems that way. It’s justquite extraordinary,” he says, bemoaningthat blues is still a stepsister to othermore popular genres of music. “I think inmy case it is. Whatever I do is not of themainstream enough to make an inroadinto these more popular outlets.”

Does he think that had he gonetowards writing original material like theStones did starting with “Satisfaction”that history would have been different forhim? “Not really, any musician can onlydo what he believes in and what he cando. I never learned to read or write

music, and I don’t know anything else other than what I do to try andexpress myself through the blues medium. So I don’t really have achoice in it. Some things I do when we record the thing. (I’ll say) ‘Oh,this thing could be good radio play,’ and then it comes out, and it’s thesame as all the others. I don’t know how to explain it, but I can onlydo what I know.”

Perhaps Mayall did not attain the mass stardom of some of hisrock contemporaries, but his role as middleman between the Americanblues icons and as a mentor to the blues disciples cannot be underes-timated. He dismisses that role as just something that came naturally.“You are people living in the same key of life. You know all their history,and they’re happy that you appreciate their music so much.

“They came over for the Lippmann/Rau concerts, and regardlessof whether they were American blues men or American jazz men fromthe ‘20s onward, any time they came over to Europe, they were justknocked out by the fact that there was no color line and the fact thatEuropeans revered their music. Coming over to Europe they were inheaven. They couldn’t miss it. It was just great. There were peoplehanging on their every lick. It was really very evident that they werevery flattered and pleased that people knew so much about them.”

Americans responded to the British Invasion while ignoring theroots of the homegrown sounds in their own back yard. This musthave seemed odd or at the least naïve to Mayall. “Yeah, well, it wasall to do with the color line. It really had everything to do with it. Youhad two separate lives, two separate lifestyles – populations thatweren’t intermingled. They were separate societies, and they nevermixed. That’s the historical backdrop for it all.”

In a 2007 interview, Mayall told me, “If I’m known for anything, it’sexpanding the boundaries of blues, and just making it more varied andinteresting to other people.” Does he still agree with that statement?

“Absolutely. I rather enjoy hearing that from you.” Then hechuckles. “I didn’t know I said that. That sounds pretty cool.”

PHOTOGRAPHY ©RANDY JONES

MAYALL WITH THE BLUESBREAKERS (1989)


is one of the most versatile singers in any genre.She has been blessed with a voice that can ooze

bits of Billie Holiday in one verse, quickly replicate the sensuousdelivery of modern day chanteuse Melody Garot in the next,and, in the very next song, unshackle a Robert Plant blues-rocker that can make the hairs on your neck quiver. Her vocalelasticity can just as quickly do justice to interpreting songs byEtta James, Bonnie Bramlett, Janis Joplin, Tina Turner, evenRay Charles or Al Green all within a night’s performance. Add tothat her highly personal, soul barring release as she sings heroriginals, and Beth Hart continues to be the embodiment ofpouring one’s soul onto a canvas until there is nothing left.

Recently, through her partnership with Joe Bonamassa,Hart has released two CDs, Don’t Explain and See Saw, tonational recognition. The former collected a 2012 Blues MusicAward nomination; the latter was a 2014 Grammy nominee asBest Blues Album. Under her own name, Hart’s Bang BangBoom Boom has brought her solo work to the attention of theBlues Foundation as the nominee for 2014 ContemporaryBlues Female Artist alongside Susan Tedeschi, Candye Kane,Bettye LaVette, and Ana Popovic.

When you consider her earth shattering performancefeting Buddy Guy in front of the nation with “I’d Rather GoBlind” at his 2012 Kennedy Center honor and her 45-minuteopening slot in the fall of 2013 for the Rides which producednight after night standing ovations and it’s been quite a run.

WELCOME HOMEby Art Tipaldi

PHOTOGRAPHY ©ART TIPALDI

She

BETHHART


“I want to say that lifegoes up and then crashesdown. It does that over andover for all of us,” says Hart.“It’s taught me that there arealways crashes, but there willalso be more climbs.”

Few have experiencedmore stumbles and subse-quent career revivals than Hart.Her first dance in the spotlightwas as a winning vocalist in1993 on Ed McMahon’s StarSearch, the 1990s precursorto the American Idol craze.That exposure garnered hera record deal with AtlanticRecords where she releasedher stunning debut record,

Immortal, in 1996 and a critically acclaimed follow-up, Screamin’ ForMy Supper, in 1999. But life, in the form of drug abuse, came crash-ing down on her and she was dropped from the Atlantic roster.

And then her next climb began. Enter sobriety around January2003, a marriage to her tour manager Scott Guetzkow, a stunningcomeback record, Leave The Light On for the KOCH Records in2003, and a focus on touring Europe to build-up her fan base.

“In my early twenties, I was thinking ‘I got a record deal and I’mtouring, so dreams do happen.’ But that was also very disappointingbecause I felt that even though my dreams were coming true, I wasfilled with anxiety and a huge sense of overwhelming insecurity.I didn’t realize that it was the bi-polar illness.

“In my late twenties, everything came to a screeching halt. I wassick, I lost my deal. But when I started back touring only in Denmark,Holland, and Norway, I felt like a superstar. I was sober, I had myhusband, and people were coming to my shows. I felt that it doesn’tget better than this and if nothing else ever happens in my career,I have so much gratitude. That went on for a good eight years.”

Those eight years offered a substantial restart to Hart’s career.During each tour through those countries, Hart regularly packed fes-tivals, concert halls, and smaller venues to overflow with crowds offans ranging in age from tweens to seniors. Every live show followeda similar plan of attack. She would begin alone at her piano anddeliver a trio of singer-songwriter styled originals like “Leave TheLight On,” “Delicious Surprise,” or “Hiding Under Water.”

From there, she might call upon her guitarist Jon Nichols forsome bluesy, acoustic guitar songs or prowl the stage from side toside throwing water down her face and onto the crowd as she leadsthe fury on blues-rockers like “”Lifts You Up,” “Monkey Back,” and“World Without You.”

Finally, as a welcome break from the fierce tension of therockers, Hart, alone on her piano, gives the audience her 90’s hit“L.A. Song.” And the cascading tumult of her finale reminds audi-ences of what seeing Janis Joplin in 1965 must have been like.

Within those years, Hart committed to more frenzied songwrit-ing, which gave her two more impressive records, My California and37 Days, and led to more overseas touring. Though her popularityreached new levels overseas, she was barely able to cobble togetherany meaningful American tour other than working with Jeff Beck ashis featured vocalist in the fall of 2006 or playing some local L.A.or N.Y.C. shows.

PHOTOGRAPHY ©TONY KUTTER


That’s when Hart was hit with another struggle. “Then the nextthing I knew, I was back in the hospital in my mid-thirties for a monthand a half. That’s when they diagnosed my bi-polar disease and pre-scribed the right medicine. As soon as I took the medicine, a wholeother level in my life happened: Jeff Beck at the Kennedy Center,recording with Slash, and then Joe.”

It was a chance meeting that put Bonamassa and Hart together.He was playing her song “Face Forward” from 37 Days on his radioshow every week. Hart was performing in England and Bonamassaattended the show, met her husband, and discussed an idea torecord an album of soul covers with her. “About four months later, Ibumped into him in Amsterdam where we were both staying at thesame hotel, and that’s when he reiterated that he wanted to do thatrecord with me. After that, it fell together real quick.

“We were in the studio in January, and we recorded for fourdays. He’s really easy to work with, a very relaxed, professional guywho comes in focused and ready. That’sfunny because my personality is to come invery prepared, over the top obsessed. I’mhigh energy and he’s not, he’s very relaxed.I think that we compliment each other. Hegets a kick out of my nuttiness, and I getgrounded from his focused and relaxedapproach.”

It’s the frenzied energy she capturesthat makes her music an intense catharticpurge for her and her listeners. If the mostintense blues heals, then Hart’s raw andpersonal wellspring of emotions heals thesoul of both the writer and the audience.

“Out of anything that I do, my biggesthigh has always come from songwriting,especially when I write on my own. It’s away to heal and connect. For me, writing isa very spiritual experience, like going tochurch.

“For the longest time I’d stuck to writing singer-songwriter orheavier rock and roll. That’s what I did for my whole career. Now andthen I’d write a blues or gospel song. But I was getting pretty com-placent as an artist. I started to feel that the wells that I had beenwriting from for so many years had become weak. Especially afterMy California, I felt that I had said everything.

“Then here comes Joe into my life and we make Don’t Explainand See Saw and I became more inspired and started writing moreand more. The writing for me today is flowing like mad. I feel asexcited now as I did when I was a teenager. I’ve been home forabout three weeks and just completed my eighth song, that’s actualcompletions – arrangements, melodies, and lyrics.”

And her responsibility as a songwriter? “The truth. As a writer,the biggest challenge is to get to the truth. I always want to get to theheart of the matter, but for me to get there, I have to get past all myfears and insecurities. When it comes to writing music, that’s reallyeasy. But it’s a real challenge when it comes to writing lyrics. Once Ifind that truth in a song, it’s an indescribable feeling. But unless I geta visit from what I call the spirits, it takes a lot of time.”

The musical coloring to Hart’s lyrics comes from her classicalpiano background. She was only four when she shocked her family.“I remember hearing this commercial playing Beethoven’s “MoonlightSonata” and I thought it was beautiful. I was four years old, I got outof bed one night, sat at the piano, and began playing it.

“I was really serious about classical piano, and I was studyingclassical singing when I was 13 years old. I wanted to go to Julliard tostudy classical singing. But my teacher discouraged me. She saidthat in classical music, it’s important to adhere to exactly what thecomposer demands. And I kept doing my own spin on it. I was play-ing so much Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday and I was hearing alot of Beatles, James Taylor, and Carole King from my sister and thatmusic was turning me on in terms of lyrics. With a much simplerchord structure, I can rely more on the melody and the lyrical content.

Hart is beginning to notice that her early love of classicalpiano’s darker chord melodies are beginning to synthesize with herlove of the blues style of piano. “I was recently playing somethingand thinking that I’m hearing a lot of classical progressions, but yetit’s coming across bluesy. When I recently looked up some of myfavorite pieces from many years ago like “Summertime” and “StormyWeather,” I found that even though the composers had heavy duty

classical backgrounds, they wrote musicthat also had the feel of blues. Maybe this iswhat’s coming through when my classicalbackground is being mixed with my love ofblues.”

You can write the melody and lyrics, butas a vocalist, you still have to inhabit thesong. It’s Hart’s ability to sing her very per-sonal stories in a way that reaches heart toheart. They say that Ruth Brown sings witha teardrop in her voice; that Koko Taylorgrowls from her soul. Hart’s voice alternatesbetween the vulnerability of a butterfly wingquiver and a thundering volley of fervor.

“My best friend from high school saidthat if I really wanted to learn to sing, Ineeded to stop listening to Big Joe Turnerand check out Etta James and ArethaFranklin. At first I found that music hard toget into. It was hard to listen to. They were

so far ahead that it was intimidating. I thought I’ll never do what theydo. So instead, I just enjoyed it.

“And I was raised in a house with Ella and Billie and DinahWashington singing those Gershwin songs. If I wasn’t raised on thatmusic, there is no way I could sing that music. And then over aperiod of time, the riffs started to sink in.

“When I started getting out and doing my own material at 15 inLos Angeles and struggling to get a record deal, people told me thatI sounded like Janis Joplin. I didn’t know who that was. When I wasabout 19 or 20, I bought one of her CDs, and I fell in love with her.One of the things I loved most about her was that she didn’t have alot of technique, but when she sang it was better than most every-body else because there was so much feeling and dynamics.”

One experience from those days was going to a club inCompton on Mondays where one Kevin Moore, today Keb’ Mo’,played guitar behind singers who sang one song to win the monetaryprize of $100.

Being in this good place today has given Hart much to cele-brate, her marriage, her manager, David Wolff, her sobriety, and aserenity that comes slowly with age. “I’m older and been doing thisfor a long time. And now I’m at a place where I want to be chal-lenged. With Joe, the music is so fresh and new. Even though theseare songs from another era, they are filled with universal stories oflove, loss, heartbreak, or joy that connect across all lines.”

Mybiggest

responsibilityis to thetruth

“

.”


the 2013 Grammy Award nominations wereannounced, Bill Sims was asleep on his living

room couch, having returned late from a Sunday night gig with one ofthe many ensembles he plays with. When his wife started screaming,‘You got nominated!’ he had no idea what he had been nominated for.

“My response was ‘Really?’ That was totally a surprise,” he said.The nod was for And Still I Rise, the first effort of the Heritage

Blues Orchestra, a collaboration of American and European bluesenthusiasts that captivated listeners with its old-style treatment ofsome classic songs. While they didn’t win, the American members ofthe group, Sims, his daughter Chaney, and Jr. Mack, dressed up andtraveled to Los Angeles for the festivities.

“It was more than we expected,” Sims said, “but you neverknow what’s going to take hold. I think we were in the right spot atthe right time because there was this whole kind of thing going onwith the Carolina Chocolate Drops and others.”

Sims has been doing that “thing” for nearly 20 years, initiallywith his American Acoustic Roots Orchestra, which had a regularSunday gig first at Terra Blues, then at the Bitter End, two of the fewsurviving blues-friendly clubs in New York City. In addition to theusual blues band personnel, the band also had instruments like tubaand accordion. As much as it was a showcase for the band and aparticular kind of music, it was also a labor of love. Sims himself notonly did not get paid, he sometimes paid the band members out ofhis own pocket. Over time, the exigencies of making a living causedthe band to drift apart.

Then a few years ago, Sims’ grown daughter Chaney decidedshe wanted to try singing professionally. “She always sang,” Simssaid. “She’d come and sit in with the band at six or seven years old.I tried to get her to take music courses when she was in college, butshe was never wanted to do it and I didn’t push her. She workeduntil she was 26 or 27 years old before she decided she wanted totry this.”

To get her some experience, they started performing together,first at the XR Bar, then at Terra Blues, where Sims was already play-ing regularly with Jr. Mack in one of the revolving house blues bands.

“I always told everybody this is the best voice in blues today,”Sims said of Mack. “Once a month we’d play in the Terra Bluesband, and I’d go just to hear him sing. For this band, I especiallyneeded Jr.’s ability to harmonize. We have the same reverence forthe old music, and Jr. is a gospel expert. He knows more aboutgospel than anyone I know. My father was a minister, so I grew up inthe church too.”

At the same time, another of Sims’ musical partners, Chicagomusician Matthew Skollar, told Sims that his brother, producer LarrySkollar, who lives in France, was looking for a roots music group towork with. “In a few days, Chaney, Jr., and I were in Craig Dreyer’sstudio here in New York making a demo,” Sims said. “We sent it toLarry and before we knew it, we were in France doing gigs. That’show quick it was.”

Choosing the songs may have been the easiest part of thewhole process. “It was songs that we liked,” Sims said. “I had just

HERITAGEBLUES ORCHESTRA

When

by Kay CordtzSTILL RISING


lost my father, and ‘Get Right Church’ was one of the songswe used to sing to him when he was dying. So that song was inmy mind and was one of the first songs we recorded. Jr. haddiscovered a song by Son House that none of us had ever heard,‘Clarksdale Moan.’

“All the other songs were familiar, ‘Hard Times,’ ‘GoingUptown,’ and songs that Chaney had heard me sing all my life like‘Go Down Hanna’ and a Nina Simone tune ‘Sea Lion Woman.’So these were all tunes that were part of our lives for a long timeand sort of had this history about them. Call and response,field hollers.

“So we did the record and a couple concerts. Then it just gotthese legs that started crawling along, then it stood up, and then itwas walking,” Sims said. “DJs loved it and club owners loved it.This one guy loved it so much he went out and got AAA radio sta-tions up and down the East coast to play cuts from it. And we seeon the charts that it’s still getting spins.”

Sims attributes some of the record’s success in the U.S. to itsdepth. “People think blues is really simple, but there are differentforms and you’ve got to know them,” he said. “What we’re trying todo is show all the different styles, that it’s not just one thing. Anotherthing DJs liked about our record is that there’s not one shuffle on it.Usually the first song on every blues record is a shuffle.”

Although the horn section on the record – two trumpets,trombone and saxophone – is largely comprised of American playersincluding Kenny Rampton, Clark Gayton, and Steve Wiseman,France’s Bruno Wilhelm wrote the horn charts, which Sims describedas “sort of Leadbelly meets Ornette Coleman.” Another Frenchman,Vincent Bucher, plays harmonica and Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith

plays drums and percussion. Larry Skollar, also co-founder andartistic director of the Aulnay All Blues Festival in Aulnay-sous-Boisnear Paris, arranged some tour dates and festival appearances forBill and Chaney Sims and Jr. Mack in England, France, the Nether-lands, and Poland, where they filled out the roster with Europeanhorn players.

Europeans, notoriously partial to the honestly of Americanblues music, took to the band right away. “I think they respect bluesas an art form, a totally different art form than was ever on theplanet,” Sims said. “There’s never been anything quite like it, and Idon’t know if it can ever be duplicated again because of the circum-stances that brought it here – slavery and its aftermath.

“For a while, we were in this society of our own where wewould create just for us. We had quality control, we decided whothe stars were, we all danced the same dance, and for me that’swhat culture is. The blues really was race music. And I think that’sone reason why it’s so popular in the Europe and also in Africa.Africans will tell you that Africans cannot play blues. They love itand try to play it, but they can’t play blues, they really don’t under-stand it. The scales and the rhythms are all West African, but theother thing is totally American.”

The live performance of the songs has changed over themonths since the record was released. “On the record, I play guitaron ‘In The Morning,’ and now I play piano,” Sims said. “That bringssomething else to the table.”

Sims began his career on piano, playing for 25 years with allkinds of people, including Junior Wells, before learning guitar onthe job. “I don’t want to be a guitar hero,” he said. ”I really don’t liketo take guitar solos, I like to comp.” Then just recently, Sims’ wifeKaren bought him a piano for his birthday.

“I started practicing and I’m probably 25 to 30 percent of what Iwas,” he said. “I get up early in the morning, and I practice piano foran hour. You can really tie in the gospel stuff with the piano and I’dalso like to do some accordion with HBO.”

The Heritage Blues Orchestra toured around a bit last sum-mer, playing Hudson River Park’s Blues BBQ Festival in New YorkCity in August before returning to France for a few more shows.While in Paris, they went into a studio to work on some ideas, andthey have been trying out some new songs at their shows that willbe on their second album.

“We’ve been getting the material together and doing somedemos,” Sims said. “We want to have a good body of work tochoose from. We’re deciding whether to record here or in Chicagoor in Europe, but I think it’s going to be here in New York.”

The New York band members have also been participating inthe Lincoln Center Education Program, performing concerts for stu-dents and answering their questions. “2014 is looking very busy,”Sims said. “We’ll be doing the Greeley Blues Jam in Colorado inJune and will be touring in Europe again. Hopefully, the new recordwill be done and we’ll be pushing that. We’ll perform a few times inFrance and in 2015 we’re going to be working with the FrenchNational Orchestra. We’re going there for a two-week residency towork everything out.” The band will also appear at summer musicfestivals in the UK and Finland.

Sims sees a certain serendipity in the group’s success.“Everything happened at the right time,” he said. “Karen bought methe piano, Chaney decided she wanted to sing – it all just workedout! Now I think we’re going to go a little deeper back. I’m hearingjug band stuff. That’s where we’re going.”

PHOTOGRAPHY ©CATHERINESEBASTIAN

BILL SIMSKENNY SMITHCHANEY SIMS

JR.MACKCLARK GAYTONBRUNO WILHELMVINCENT BUCHERKENNY RAMPTONREGGIE PITTMAN


not covered in tattoos. He’s never managed a pod ofrasslers, exhibiting a mastery of trash talk that rivaled

the ravings of the great Dusty Rhodes. Nor has he run a house ofpolyester worship and throbbing teenage desire, his services pep-pered with original compositions about incest and shopping malls inheaven, a self proclaimed hillbilly love god accompanying himself onpiano in a style he calls warpabilly.

But Wild Roots leader and Southern Hospitality pianist VictorWainwright was nurtured by the man with all those attributes, theflamboyant pianist Rev. Billy C. Wirtz. “What I learned from Billy C.was some piano, but the guy can really entertain a crowd,” Wain-wright said by phone from his Pensacola, Florida home. “Just make‘em laugh, and once you get a taste of that, it’s the most addictivething, get a crowd going both with music and with laughter. It’s huge.”

Impressed by Wainwright’s energetic boogie-woogie style,Wirtz asked him to share a bill, then the two did several tourstogether up and down the East coast and into Canada, recording alive CD, ‘08’s Group Therapy, under the nom de plume Pianist Envybefore Wainwright picked his own band and agent, which Billy C.helped facilitate. “I still love the guy,” Wainwright said. “He’s awe-some and definitely a mentor.” The two still collaborate, writing“Honky-Tonk Heaven” (with producer Stephen Dees) for Lit Up,Wainwright’s last CD with his band the Wild Roots.

Wainwright already had a solid piano upbringing before Wirtzcame along. He started at five years old with lessons from hisgrandfather, whom he calls his greatest piano influence. By thetime he was 15, he was playing with hisgrandfather and other family membersin the Herb River Boys, an outfit hedescribes as a “genuine rock and roll,honky-tonk blues band,” tackling every-thing from Jerry Lee Lewis to JimReeves to Ray Price.

In addition to his family and Wirtz,Wainwright’s sound was shaped by thestylings of Sunnyland Slim and PinetopPerkins. Wirtz toured with SunnylandSlim and passed on some of his skillsto Wainwright, but Wainwright had anup-close and personal relationship withPerkins. “I played and hung out withPinetop quite a bit, (playing with him)in Georgia and in Mississippi when Icould.” says Wainwright, who wasawarded the Pinetop Perkins BluesMusic Award in 2013 for piano.

“Some of the best venues I eversaw him at were little shacks or HopsonPlantation in Mississippi or inGainesville, Georgia, back in the woods.I saw him back in the woods one timeunder a shack at a festival. People were

dancin’ and kickin’ up the dust. Pinetop had his bottle of Jack Danielsand pack of cigarettes on the piano and just did his thing for hours.”

Leading his own band, the Wild Roots, Wainwright’s thing isnot as flamboyant as Wirtz’s show nor as backwoodsy as Perkins’unpolished revelry, but a smooth blend of both, muscular boogie-woogie overlaid with Wainwright’s mellow rasp. There’s a JoeTurner feel to his sound and presentation, a big presence with afeel-good vibe backed by a throbbing rhythm that moves both souland body. His last release with his own band, 2011’s Lit Up, fea-tured greasy, swampy boogie, blues, and soul. He even threw in ataste of Wirtz’s hysterical Pentacostal holy ghost fervor on the Wirtzcollaboration “Honky-Tonk Heaven,” sounding like Frankie Ford’s‘59 hit “Sea Cruise.”

Wainwright’s newest venture is Southern Hospitality, featuringthe blistering twin slide guitar attack of JP Soars and Damon Fowler.As large and in charge as Wainwright is with the Wild Roots, youmight find him in the background on Southern Hospitality.“I don’t find too much of a difference between being the only frontman in my band and sharing the stage with Southern Hospitality,”Wainwright said.

“Even if it’s just me and my guys, I’m still talking to the bassplayer and the drummer and the guitar player with my piano andvocals. We’re all talking the same language, especially in bluesmusic, it’s all musical conversation anyway. And with both bandsI feel like I’m having the same conversation, which is just ‘Let’sentertain this crowd. Let’s make sure everybody’s having a

great time.’”Even though it’s scaled back

somewhat, Wainwright doesn’t holdback on the dynamics or the emotiononstage. “The way I envision it isphysically in the movie scenes whereyou’re behind the wheel of a car andyou’re just racing towards a cliff withyour eyes closed,” the pianist said.“You’re just basically giving it all yougot no matter what, leaving it all onthe stage. I like to just exhaust myselfon the stage, no matter what band I’mplaying with, because I naturally try tolead and carry as much weight as Ican with both bands.”

But even though Wainwright sayshe still likes to lead, in Southern Hos-pitality he finds a lot to follow. “Whenyou watch JP and Damon, you lookat how they approach a crowd, thestage, and the music. You don’t mea-sure it up against anything that you’redoing, but you definitely learn littlethings as far as crowd banter or whento bring it over the top on a solo.

He’s

&WILD ROOTS SOUTHERN HOSPITALITYby Grant Britt

VICTORWAINWRIGHT

PHOTOGRAPHY ©DUSTY SCOTT


“Or how, when they’re playing, Damon’ll take a lead and JP willplay rhythm, and I have to find where the piano falls in. Or does itneed the piano at all? Or organ? Or should I be learning whatrhythm JP is playing?”

Wainwright says he’s honored to playing with the two front men,but gives props to the Southern Hospitality rhythm section, Soars’drummer Chris Peet and Fowler’s bassist Chuck Riley. “Withoutthem, there is no band, “Wainwright said. “They’re so fantastic, it’sjust ridiculous. They make it so easy on us to just do our thing andcreate music. ”

Echoing the Allman Brothers Band and Marshall Tucker fried upwith a side of Little Feat, seasoned with a pinch of Paul Thorn, andlyrics delivered in a drawl thick as molasses, Southern Hospitality isone of the most Southern sounding groups to grace that genre indecades. But Wainwright brings another dimension to the mix withhis gospel influences, including Mighty Clouds of Joy lead singerJoe Ligon, whom Wainwright lists as one of his favorite male singersof all time. Wainwright not only admired his voice, but what he callsthe “level of uninhibitedness” Ligon and gospel peers like Ira Tuckerof The Dixie Hummingbirds or Jimmy Carter and Clarence Fountainof The Blind Boys of Alabama bring to the stage. “The level of beinguninhibited by how they sound, just being complete raw energy andnot being held back by anything and not caring and completely let-ting go and opening up that channel, I’d like to recreate that,” thepianist said. “I’m working on doing that as best as I can.”

He acknowledged that there is an act there on some level, butlosing yourself in the music and being overtaken by the spirit is real.Attendees at a Wainwright show get a gospel song with every per-formance, which he says is good for performer and audience alike.“It feels amazing, just as a singer and an artist to lose yourself tothat level, get to explode, let it all out, and you feel refreshed. That iswhat it’s about. And the crowd eats it up because they love that.Displaying true, raw emotion is going to evoke emotion in others.They love seeing you do that, and it makes them feel something.”

Wainwright’s raw emotion is evident on the songs he contributedto Southern Hospitality including “Shoestring Budget” from his firstalbum Pianah From Savannah, and “Certified Lover,” which he says

he’d had kicking around for awhile. But he’sjust as excited about a Jerry Lee Lewiscover, “Don’t Boogie-Woogie,” which hesays matches his personal struggles I justfelt a connection. When you feel a connec-tion to a song, you can own it. I try not to doany covers or songs that I can’t relate to,”he said.

That connection became real in the fallof 2013 when Wainwright took his struggleshead on. As legions of musicians can testifyto, life on the road can be hazardous to ahealthy lifestyle. In September, Wainwrightposted a notice to his fans on Facebook thatsaid in part that, “the same natural curiositythat has driven me musically has also unfor-tunately led to a few bad habits that havebeen weighing me down.”

In this case, Wainwright’s demonswere smoking and overeating. Smoky barsand bad road food may be a blues tradition,but if you want to survive long enough toleave a legacy in this business, you need to

find a way to avoid these. “When you’re faced with going into asmoky bar where there’s alcohol or having to eat at a gas station, it’sall about using other methods to cope with the stresses,” Wainwrightsaid. “Right now, I’m driving with an ice chest in the van with freshfruit and vegetables and turkey and good for you stuff.”

Wainwright said that his stint in therapy taught him that he can’tbattle these addictions by himself. He needs a team of people tohelp, and in his case that responsibility would fall on his band. “I’mwith them more than a husband is with his spouse: wake up, go tobed, get up, play a gig and travel all day, do it again and again andagain,“ Wainwright said. “It’s a one day at a time thing. I wake upand say, ‘today, I would like to not fuck up.’”

Three hundred days a year on the road is a lot of stress. “Thefun is when we hit the stage,” he said. “The rest is work.” That workcomes with an odd set of values. “We’re in a profession whereunfortunately musicians are, excuse my language, expected to getfucked up.”

Projecting a larger than life persona challenges fans who wantto interact with you. “One way your fans can get on the same levelas you is buying you drinks or handing you a cigarette or whateverto get you on the same level as them so you’re more approachable.”

Wainwright has found a way to deal with that as well. “I can stilldrink, but if I’m looking at my health, it’s just a matter of whether Iwant to do this for another 10 years or if I want to do it for another 30or 40 years,” the pianist said. “Unfortunately we’ve lost a lot of greatmusicians just from my time of being in the genre due to poorhealth. I would really like to be around a bit longer.”

And when his time is up, Wainwright wants to be rememberednot just as a piano player or singer, but also as an entertainer. “If youcome to one of my personal shows, we really care about how youfeel when you leave. Our fans are becoming our friends, and that’s abeautiful thing to see on a large scale for the first time ever.

“And there’s some responsibility there too, where I think, ‘Yeah,let’s keep working really hard on that, treat these people very well,make sure when we put on a show that they’re definitely enter-tained.’ That’s how I’d like to be remembered. Making music,making people happy.”

PHOTOGRAPHY ©AIGARS LAPSA


ississippi blues continues to carry onand so do the stories. Sometimes,

I think that the stories behind the musicmean as much to me as the music itself.Here are a couple memorable ones Irecalled recently with friends.

SEARCHING FORA LOST BLUESWEEKEND

A North Mississippi bluesman by thename of Odell Harris showed up at myCat Head blues store in Clarksdale,Mississippi, one day. I had a little bluesfest going that afternoon, and he showedup looking for a mutual friend, Steve“Lightnin’” Malcolm. Odell’s fascinatingblues style and crazy rapport with hisaudience immediately pulled me in – like

a moth to a flame. And I told my buddyJeff Konkel at Broke & Hungry Records,as did Malcolm.

Fortunately, as his record labelname may infer, Jeff is just crazy enoughto set up with a recording session with aguy he’s never heard or met in a placehe’s never visited. And so, a weekendrecording session was planned. Toensure he’d be in good shape for suchan undertaking, Jeff started with a late-night blues and booze show in Memphisthat Friday night, catching what was leftof The Fieldstones.

He arrived in Clarksdale on Saturdaylooking a little rough but raring to go. Fivehours later, we arrived in Ocean Springs,Mississippi, at a little blues and BBQ joint.Odell was booked to play an earlyevening show there with Malcolm, so the

plan was to make a “studio-quality fieldrecording” after the audience left.

Everyone seemed surprised whenOdell actually showed up for the gig.It turns out that he’s a bit of blues char-acter, one who enjoys his own chaosand doesn’t always want to be found.Around 10 p.m., the outdoor, publicshow ended. By 11 or 11:30, the tapeswere rolling inside the restaurant-turned-temporary-recording-studio. The positivevibes and anticipation were palpable.Initially.

By 1 a.m., tempers were flaring,expletives were flying, and fists were onthe verge of being thrown. In my owndefense, the venue owner and his friends’girlfriends were being too loud for arecording session. And then, one of themdropped her keys. Loudly.

Raring To Go

M

by Roger Stolle


Jeff maintains to this day that you canhear me “shush” the young ladies on thefinal album. Regardless, things got realrough, real fast with threats of ***kicking,equipment trashing, etc. Ultimately, after Iagreed to no longer speak a word insidethe building, we were left alone to finish therecording session.

The deep blues rumbled on gloriouslyas night turned to morn. Finally, around7 a.m., the tape ran out. Literally. Thegrueling all-night recording session wascomplete, even though none of us knewfor sure if there was really an actual albumin the can. (Let’s just say that Odell likesto sing in the opposite direction of themic, switch up tunes mid-song, and laugha lot.)

Jeff went to pay him. Odell stared atthe check like he’d never seen anything butcash in his whole life. Then, he honestlysaid, “Oh, you don’t have to pay me.”(Something you will never, I repeat never,hear another bluesman say in your life.)Of course, he took the check, and it clearedthe bank by Monday morning.

We’d booked hotel rooms in town, butelected not to use them since the night hadcompletely slipped away. Instead, we allagreed to pack up, pull ourselves togetherand meet at an area Denny’s in half anhour to celebrate the session. That was thefirst and last time Jeff ever saw Odell.Apparently, Ocean Springs has more thanone Denny’s. Who knew?

Turns out that there was an albumin the can. A hell of an album. Broke &Hungry Records released it in under theappropriate title, Searching For OdellHarris. If you happen to see him, give Jeffa call.

RELATIONSHIP THERAPY— DELTA BLUES STYLE

One of my favorite things about movingMississippi 12 years ago is that I can hangout with my blues musician friends moreregularly. About 10 years ago, I called thehome of blues legend James “T-Model”Ford, thinking I’d pay him a visit. His then-girlfriend Miss Stella answered. We small-talked for a minute before I asked, “How’sT-Model?”

Miss Stella got dramatically quietand responded, “Oh, you didn’t hear? Webroke up.”

I said all the things you say after sucha statement, trying to cheer her up. Finally,

after a couple minutes of contributingfactors from her and sympathies from me,I started my exit from the conversation,saying something like, “Well, hang in there,and I’ll talk to y’all later.”

“Don’t you want to talk to T-Model?”Miss Stella asked

“Huh?”“He’s right here,” she said, matter-

of-factly.Yep, T-Model was sitting across the

room the whole time while Miss Stellapushed his buttons. (To be fair, T-Modelprobably had it coming. He was a trueblue “character,” himself.) A couple hourslater, I walked through the front door ofT-Model’s house.

As T-Model and I sat two feet apart inthe living room, Miss Stella sat across theroom, whispering a laundry list of T-Modelcomplaints to her girlfriend on the other endof the beige, corded phone. Finally, as if tosay he’d had enough, T-Model turnedtowards me and said, “Gimme that thaang!”as he motioned to his faithful Peaveyguitar, “Black Nanny.”

Warm, distorted chords slowlydrowned out the phone call as T-Modelgrinned. Soon, he began singing. “Ishould’a quit you babe, long time ago.”T-Model Ford aka “The Great Communica-tor.” I guess that’s the difference betweenfolks who sing the blues and folks who arethe blues.

(Note: The occasional feud aside,T-Model and Miss Stella were together foryears and did later get married. She tookcare of him on his sickbed till the end.Some of my favorite blues memories in lifeinvolve visits to their various homes. Theyalways made me feel welcome. Even thatday. Thanks for that.)

BLUES FESTIVALSEASON INFULL SWING

Mississippi Tourism has a new print andTV campaign this year with a tag line thatsays, “We’re throwing a party, and you’reall invited!” (Yeah, I know. It probablyshould read: “y’all”.) With that in mind,make this the year you visit Mississippiblues up-close and personal. From Aprilthrough October, we have real-deal bluesfestivals all over the region. Check thewebsites mshomecoming.com,msbluestrail.org, and cathead.biz formusic calendars.


the mid-1970s, I took a cab with myemployer to an airport and found him

a seat while I went to the airline check-incounter. I simply said our last names andwas handed our phone-reserved papertickets. As we went straight to the gate, hecomplained about the long walk.

People kept staring at him.Few recognized him because evena legendary bluesman is like ajumbo shrimp, still not very big com-pared to the fame of movie and popstars. But anyone could look atMuddy Waters and feel regal dignityand power in his face and the wayhe carried himself and be sure hemust be someone special. Muddyepitomized charisma, even uniden-tified. It was not a subtle socialeffect and it happened every day.

You may have Muddy Watersin your face more than ever in2015. His music, influence, andthat charisma make him more thana famous blues star. He is an iconof music, and he will be celebratedcopiously next year, the generallyaccepted centennial of his birth.You’ll see tribute albums, live shows,tours, and media attention.

When Muddy hired me to play guitarin his band in 1973, his drummer Willie“Big Eyes” Smith shook my hand warmlyand said, “Welcome to the club.” In the 41years since, I found it truly is a club, butnow the years have taken most of itsmembers. There’s an easily foundYouTube of Muddy’s appearance on TheMidnight Special concert TV show, fromtwo weeks after I joined the band. Muddywas 58 and sang an energetic, dancing,hollering “Got My Mojo Working.” It chillsme that everyone else in that video –Muddy, Willie, Mojo Buford, Fuzz Jones,Pinetop, and Hollywood Fats – are deadtoday. There are few people still aroundwho actually played music with Muddy,and at 65, I’m one of the youngest.

In 2015, I expect to do some showswith my band or other players that arespecific Muddy tributes, perform onrecordings and concerts with some of the

other “Club” member survivors, and beinterviewed about Muddy. Whether or notthat’s a good career move for me and themusic I make now (I suck at business!),I want to do it simply because I know hewould want me to praise him to you andcarry on his music live. There are things

we can do for people we love, even afterthey are dead. This column is part of that.

Recording in Chicago recently for analbum that celebrates Muddy’s centennialand creatively re-interprets Muddy songs,produced by Larry Skoller of Raisin’ MusicRecords, I was trading stories with JohnPrimer. John is a truly great contemporarybluesman, also valued for his Muddy con-nection, he played guitar in Muddy’s bandafter I did. “Man, Muddy sure casts a longshadow, doesn’t he?” We laughed becausewe’ve had many of the same experiencesseparately during and after our times withMuddy. It was moving for me to share thatfriendship in the “Club” and to play blueswith John, both his and Muddy’s.

The idea of tributes to Muddy is not anew one; they’ve been ongoing since hewas around to participate. There was a1974 PBS all-star show with Dr. John,Koko Taylor, Willie Dixon, Nick Graven-ites, Junior Wells, Mike Bloomfield, andJohnny Winter. There was a 1979 Radio

City Music Hall concert with B.B. King,James Cotton, and Johnny Winter.

Since then, I have played sets thatfocus on Muddy at blues festivals with andwithout other “Club” members. In 1994, theGrammy-nominated Telarc album You’reGoing To Miss Me featured Muddy songs

done by his band with guests JuniorWells, Buddy Guy, Gregg Allman,Koko Taylor, Levon Helm, PeterWolf, and James Cotton. In 2013,I was on a 20-date tour that wasbilled specifically as a tribute toMuddy and Howlin’ Wolf, which fea-tured Kim Wilson and the FabulousThunderbirds, James Cotton, JodyWilliams, and Tinsley Ellis. In 2012,there were tribute sets to Muddy atthe Chicago Blues Festival and theSimi Valley Blues Festival.

As much Mud connection asthe surviving members of the “Club”can bring, two of Muddy’s sons, BigBill Morganfield and Mud Morgan-field (Muddy’s real family name)have been performing both theirown music and tributes to theirfather. Each has inherited talent

and resemblance to Muddy, and theydeliver much of what he was about in theirshows and recordings.

Muddy and his music have alwaysbeen large in my life, but if I step back forperspective, I see the world’s fascinationwith Muddy and his music has continuedto grow, long past 1983 when he left us.Now there is a generation of blues loverswho were born after Muddy passed, someof them are discovering their first grayhairs now. There are teenage blues musi-cians I meet who fall under the spell ofMuddy’s blues and dedicate themselvesto playing it with as much passion as theprevious generations of Muddyphiles.

And of course, Muddy is most visiblefor his influence on world-famous musi-cians who play more widely known musicthan blues. In the 1960s, the RollingStones named their band after a Muddysong and exposed their huge worldwideaudience to Muddy’s music. The AllmanBrothers, Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt,

by Bob Margolin

2015 Forecast: More MuddyWaters

In

ARTW

ORK ©SHERRY MARGOLIN


ZZ Top, and The Band lent their fame andacclaim to Muddy when he opened showsfor them. Muddy’s performance in TheBand’s Last Waltz movie might be the mostvisible Muddy ever. Muddy four albums inthe late 1970s produced by Johnny Winterreignited Muddy’s career then. They allshined a bright light on Muddy.

For the album just recorded inChicago, we re-worked a couple of songsMuddy had performed on the Library ofCongress recordings he made in 1942 inMississippi, before he moved to Chicagoand became a “creator” (Muddy’s word) ofclassic electric Chicago blues. The songswere “Rosalie” and “Why Don’t You Live SoGod Can Use You.” I had bought the vinylLP Down On Stovall’s Plantation, withthese songs on it, as soon as I heard aboutit in the early 1970s. I listened to it backthen until I knew every note and click andscratch on that record. I enjoyed occasion-ally learning a guitar accompaniment partfrom it, and then played the part on thebandstand to mess with Mud. He alwaysrecognized the licks, and it was fun to seeold Muddy turn to young me with surprisewhen I played guitar parts familiar to him

from before I was born. I did it both toamuse him and because the parts weresuch good music.

As I was riding with producer LarrySkoller to one of the recording sessions, Iwished I had a copy of those old songs withme. I took advantage of modern technologyand downloaded the album to my iPhone lit-erally in a minute. But when I looked at whatI had downloaded, I found that the originalvinyl album I bought in the 1970s had beenupdated with more songs and remasteredfor better sound. That night, staying in ahotel in Chicago near where I used to playwith Muddy at the Quiet Knight club, with theghosts of those times around me, I listenedon earbuds and an iPhone to a youngMuddy in Mississippi playing his pre-Chicago Delta blues.

Time rolled and tumbled, andrevealed more of Muddy’s early, deepblues. Some of the songs and his singingand playing were new to me, all theseyears after I thought I knew him and hismusic so well. I have found new inspira-tion. I could have found it decades ago,but I simply didn’t know the original albumhad been augmented.

According to Muddy biographer RobertGordon’s diligent research, Muddy was reallyborn in 1913, his centennial already passed.But Muddy always claimed 1915 and teased1913-born Pinetop Perkins about beingolder. I’ll just go with 1915, correct or not, outof personal respect for Muddy. He was 33 or35 when he recorded “Can’t Be Satisfied,”his breakthrough hit. I heard Muddy say inmany interviews that he wanted to be a“known person,” and this song accomplishedthat for him when he drove around Chicagoand heard his song blasting from openwindows and tavern juke boxes.

I doubt he could have foreseen orhoped for his ultimate, immortal acclaim,but once he achieved it he was very awareof and proud of it. Perhaps that was part ofMuddy’s personal dignity, though ironicallyhe was a musical force of nature, about asdignified as a hurricane.

For me, I’ll go on thanking Muddy andcarrying on his “old school” blues even asI try to make my own music on today’sblues scene. I know what made Muddyscowl or smile on a bandstand, and I’ll usethat experience to play my best for myself,for you, and for Muddy.

www.dickwaterman.comTO ORDER

BETWEEN MIDNIGHT & DAY“This book presents, for the first time,

many of Dick Waterman’s mostsignificant photographs from

his blues archive.” – Chris Murray


eanna Bogart started makingmusic as a toddler, plunkingaway with abandon on the piano.

Her passion for music and its manyshades has taken her around the world.It is hard to imagine anyone being ableto resist falling under the spell of Bog-art’s high-energy live shows. Backed byher crack band, she captivates audienceswith her dynamic keyboard playing,brawny sax tone, and vibrant vocals.Once you add in her striking originalcompositions, there is no doubt thatshe is more than just another “girl inthe band.”

BluesMusicMagazine: You and theband – Dan Leonard on guitar, Eric Scotton bass, and Mike Aubin on drums – didan outstanding set headlining the BonitaBlues Festival. You got a great responsefrom the audience. How did it feel fromthe stage?

Deanna Bogart: I always have a shadeof stage fright – seems to work for me.Bonita is one of the best-run festivalswe’ve been to. We didn’t have to ask anyquestions because they were all handledfrom the get-go. That pretty much tookall of the road managing duties out ofthe equation for me so I could just be amusician. The sound was great, the peo-ple were wonderful, and they even savedfood for after our set, which doesn’talways happen when you’re up last.

BMM: I noticed that you only played thesaxophone on a couple of songs duringthe set. Your latest recording, Pianoland,focused on the piano. Have you madea conscious decision to feature oneinstrument over the other?

Bogart:No, not at all. But as a multi-instrumentalist, it’s crucial to me thateach of my instruments can stand on itsown. Pianoland was scary for mebecause I had to find out if, in fact, thatwas true. It’s a record I was afraid of, butI wanted to make for years. It was cooljust being the piano player, which is avery different mindset from playing thehorn. I look forward to the day when Ican do the same with my tenor.

BMM: Is it difficult to transition betweenthe two instruments?

Bogart: It’s actually a joy. Each instru-ment has a different role in how it servesthe music. It’s a different head for both,but it’s still my musicality. So I thinkdifferently, approach it differently, thespaces are different, even the spacesbetween the notes are different. It is alittle crazy, but music is a lot of splitbrain anyway.

BMM: Do you spend much timepracticing?

Bogart:Not as much as I’d like to, butI play when I can. I like that ‘P’ wordbetter, it takes away the part that makesit sound not fun to me. But you alwaysneed to check-in on your strengths andweaknesses and keep learning. I alsoplay a lot in my head, which truly worksas Oliver Saks validated for me in hisbook Musicophelia. I used to get introuble for saying that. Take thatmom…ha-ha!

Sitting down with a metronome,whether for ten minutes or five hours, isvital. It locks in my own internal clock,which is so freeing. You can go anywhere

musically if you trust yourself and eachother. I find spending time with time isa very important element for me.

BMM: You have had some major changesin your life recently.

Bogart: Sometimes you have to react tochange and sometimes you have to cre-ate it. Both are difficult and you have tobe willing to brave the discomfort to getto where you want. Most of my family isin the west. I moved from Hollywood toBaltimore when I was 21 to join an origi-nal band with a record deal. I thought Iwould be there six months and ended upstaying 38 years, so I missed a lot offamily stuff.

There were many wonderful,perfect reasons why I stayed; mostimportantly it was what was best for mydaughter. Then one day recently the timecame to where I could relocate to whereI wanted to be. I’m a fearaphobic. I’mterrified of not being able to do some-thing I’m afraid of doing. So now I get tospend time with family, and I’m notmissing everything. It was just time. It’shard to be true to yourself and live thattruth. All you can do is handle thingswith as much honesty, kindness, andgrace as you can.

Once I made the move, all kinds ofnew opportunities showed up. Themusic became better and the excitementand joy of playing came back renewed.A new door has opened up, and I’m justgoing to stay on the wave and see whereit takes me. The risk was worth it andnobody seems to hate me. As Spinozasaid, “All things excellent are as difficultas they are rare.”

BMM:What can you tell us about yournext project Just AWish Away...?

Bogart: The title may change. The ideafor this record started when I was inNashville playing on Bobby Messano’sWelcome To Deltaville project. I met JoeMichaels, one of the producers. Joewanted to make several records down inLouisiana at Dockside Studios with NewOrleans musicians. He asked if I wantedto be a part of that and, of course, I did.And it actually happened.

But I did have to think about itbecause it wasn’t with my guys, or the

&DEANNABOGART


studio and engineer I’m used to. Plus,I wouldn’t be at the helm, steering theship to some degree. But Joe, one of thekings of follow-through, had everythingall together. He gathered wonderfulmusicians like Charlie Wooton and theBonerama horns and away we went.It brought fusionistic, blusionistic,

New Orleansistic elements all within mypreferred genre-free zone. It was a bitunsafe and very cool.

BMM: Do you have a release date inmind? Is a record label involved?

Bogart: There is a label, which I’m happyabout it, but I can’t say any more until thebiz is done. It might be out as soon as lateJune, though. Things have been movingpretty quickly with this project. Luckily, Iguess, I write mostly in the studio becauseapparently I need to be painted into the

creative corner of death to give birth tothe songs that I’ve been writing in myhead all along. For me, my favorite songon this record has been inside me fordecades not ready to be born until now.For some things, you just gotta wait for it;and that song literally fell out in the park-ing lot of the studio as I was headinginside to record it.

BMM: The original line-up of theLegendary Rhythm & Blues Revue isgetting back together for the LegendaryRhythm & Blues cruise in October.

Bogart: Yes, and I’m so looking forwardto it! Tommy Castro, Magic Dick, RonnieBaker Brooks, and all the guys are myband brothers. I wouldn’t have missedthose tours for anything. We logged a lotof miles together, and it was really some-thing when we became a band instead ofjust individual components. I rememberthat moment, and it was magic. The wholeexperience reminded me of FestivalExpress on a bus. The four of us comefrom different musical directions, and westill managed to make great music with allof it. It meant we could take chances, befree and it was a special time for me.

– Mark Thompson

PHOTOGRAPHY ©TONY KUTTER



The corner of Lawrence and Broadway in Chicago’s Uptownneighborhood has been an entertainment destination for nearly acentury, even as the surrounding area has gone through variouschanges (it’s currently on a bit of an upswing).

The massive and long-shuttered Uptown Theater, the still-thriving Riviera Theater across the street, the legendary AragonBallroom, and the Green Mill Cocktail Lounge, long a jazz strong-hold, are no more than a minute or two’s stroll apart. Each historicvenue overflows with show biz history, gangster icon Al Caponefrequenting the Mill during the club’s early heyday.

One musical genrethe intersection has neverbeen known for is blues.That changed one recentThursday evening inMarch when the NickMoss Band invaded theUptown Lounge, a vastlymore recent addition tothe corner’s myriad enter-tainment choices. In onesizzling hour-and-a-half-long set, Moss and hiscrew transformed the cozyroom into a legit bluesstronghold.

Moss has boldlyventured into a blues-rockdirection in recent years,sounding just as comfort-able exploring thisidiomatic direction as hedid on more traditional turfbefore that. The band’sopening instrumental, “BigMike’s Sweet Potato Pie,”set the tone for the evening: over Taylor Streiff’s churning organand a funky undertow from bassist Nick Fane and drummerPatrick Seals, Moss tore into the workout with an extended, decid-edly sure-handed Strat solo. The band’s not-so-secret weapon(he’s been with Moss for three years now) is vocalist/guitaristMichael Ledbetter, whose soaring pipes were gloriously displayedon “Light It Up,” a blues-rock-funk amalgam. Like its predecessor,the song hailed from their new Blue Bella CD, Time Ain’t Free.Ledbetter’s incendiary vocal attack was also front and center onthe more deliberate minor-key “Fare Thee Well,” Moss’ taut soloslocating the precise sweet spot midway between rock and blues.

When Moss stepped up to the mic to revisit Jimmy McCrack-lin’s “Think,” which came poured over a driving Magic Slim shufflegroove, his Chicago blues underpinnings were more pronouncedas the two guitarists slashed it out in tandem atop Seals’ sockingbackbeat. Moss also sang a personalized “Serves Me Right ToSuffer” that eventually segued into a one-chord trance-like thingfeaturing wild guitar rides, spacy keyboard washes, and an occa-sional blast of judiciously applied feedback. Ledbetter did the

vocal honors on “Poor Boy,” a shuffling Junior Wells homagesporting clean, crisp axework from the band’s leader.

Moss slipped a glass bottleneck over one finger to unleashsnarling slide licks on “She Wants It,” another Time Ain’t Freehighlight (this time he handled the vocal himself, though Ledbetteradded compelling gospel-tinged harmony). “Something AboutYourself,” a churning funk-rock theme, spotlighted Ledbetter’s micinput, Moss imparting a little taste of wah-wah into his inventivesolos. Streiff and Fane are newcomers to the group, but thatcertainly wasn’t evident from their eminently solid contributions.

The evening’s hands-down highlight came when the banddialed down the volume for a truly devastating revival of LittleMilton’s Sun-era “Homesick For My Baby” delivered by Ledbetter,who needed no microphone as he strolled through the club whilehis impassioned singing grabbed the attention of everyone in theroom (incidental chatter dropped to zero). Moss peeled off a trulystunning B.B. King-influenced solo on his hollow-bodied Gibsonthat started off at a mellow, elegant whisper and built to a jaw-droppingly intense climax, complete with trills and perfectly placedruns, that might have even intimidated King just a tad himself.

Moss paid his early dues during stints with Jimmy Dawkins,Jimmy Rogers, and the Legendary Blues Band prior to steppingout on his own; today he’s a genuine road warrior. Dyed-in-the-wool traditionalists may miss the days when he stuck to pureChicago blues with his then-band, the Flip Tops, but there’s nodenying that Moss is every bit as effective in his current blues-rockmode, which is sure to expand his demographics while continuingto delight his longtime fans.– Bill Dahl

THE NICK MOSS BANDUptown LoungeChicago, Illinois

PHOTOGRAPHY ©MARIUSZ SKIBA

MOSS, LEDBETTER, AND STREIFF


With events like South by Southwest and the New Orleans Jazz andHeritage Festival becoming overrun each year with bigger and biggercrowds, events like the Folk Alliance International (FAI) still offer upclose experiences and workshops for music fans. No matter what yourtaste in folk, blues, pure country, or Americana music, whether you’re abooking agent, coffee house manager, house concert presenter, or justa plain fan, there is something at FAI to sink your teeth into.

Formerly known as the North American Folk Music and DanceAlliance, the organization, which has regional affiliates around the U.S.and Canada, holds its annual gathering every February. Folk Alliancewill meet for the next four years at the Westin Crown Center in KansasCity, Mo., a city with a good music nightclub scene and a rich musicalhistory, not to mention a bevy of excellent barbecue joints.

There were about 2,300 delegates at February’s Folk Alliancegathering in Kansas City with about 300 showcasing artists andgroups. Blues and folk-blues artists who “showcased” at Folk Alliancethis February were as broad-ranging as the scope of folk music itself,and included Austin-based guitar wizards Bill Kirchen and ReddVolkaert, the supremely talented songwriter John Fullbright ofOklahoma; Bronwynne Brent, the younger sister of the piano playinggenius Eden Brent, of Greenwood, Mississippi; electric blues androots chanteuse Anne McCue, an Australian transplant now living inNashville; Guy Forsyth and his band, the Hot Nut Riveters; JimmyLaFave, Chip Taylor and Ray Bonneville, all from Austin; SuzieVinnick from Toronto, Canada; Roy Book Binder from Florida; as wellas Detroit’s Josh White Jr., New York’s Guy Davis, and hometownfavorite, Brody Buster and his band.

All musicians and groups that had official showcases in one ofthe hotel’s many ballrooms also had showcases in hotel rooms andsuites, for a greater level of intimacy. Not surprisingly, with this kind ofset-up, the music spilled out into the hallways on the fifth, sixth, andseventh floors of the hotel.

Veteran acoustic bluesman Roy Book Binder, who makes hishome in Tampa, Florida, when not on the road, was attending hissecond Folk Alliance. He first attended a gathering about 20 yearsago in Washington, D.C. “I got on the shuttle van the other day fromthe airport and there was a bunch of kids loading their instruments in.The girl says to me, ‘Oh my God, Roy Book Binder, my father has allof your records!’ So it’s really eye opening to see all the great youngtalent there is out here,” said Book Binder, now 70.

As he sees it, part of the folk and blues – and hell, even rock ‘n’roll tradition – is “to help out others when you can. Dave Van Ronk andRamblin’ Jack Elliott were my heroes, ‘cause they were from NewYork, like me. They weren’t blues copiers; they aspired to their ownsound and their own style, and that was always my thing, too.”

Folk Alliance was chaired the last eight years by Austin-raisedLouis Meyers, a co-founder of the legendary South by SouthwestMusic Festival. Meyers will step down from his Executive Directorjob this summer to pursue special projects for Folk Alliance. In thelast eight years in Memphis, Meyers reached out to all manner ofblues, traditional folk, and bluegrass musicians, seeking theirinvolvement. He appears to have succeeded, as no longer is FolkAlliance a sea of singer-songwriters with guitars. Instead, the genresrun from pure Texas country to blues to bluegrass and Americanamusicians and groups.– Richard Skelly

FOLK ALLIANCEINTERNATIONAL Kansas City, Missouri

When the house starts a-rockin’ at Baldwin’s Station, northwestof Columbia, Maryland, that can mean a couple of things. One,the music’s going great. Or two, there’s a freight train a-comin’down the tracks. This night, it was both.

Toby Walker, who makes his home in New Jersey, ven-tured out and made a too-rare appearance at this evocative,19th-century railroad passenger station cum restaurant andbar (named for Ephraim Francis Baldwin, the Baltimore archi-tect of many a similar station on the old B&O rail lines). Theexposed brick-walled, raftered, and stained glass-windoweddining area doubles as a performance venue which onlyenhances the listening experience.

Walker was out promoting his latest recoding, What YouSee Is What You Get. Cocking an ear toward the tracks thatrun hard by the building, he remarked that he wished he’d hada train song ready. If that could be considered a glitch, it wasthe only one in this approximately two-hour solo tour de force.And one he would rectify with an eye-popping, percussive,combination slide and bottle-neck overhand and around andunder the guitar’s body while finger picking an express train ofan encore. Walker is a guitarist’s guitarist, evident by his statusas a master instructor at Jorma Kaukonen’s acclaimed guitarcamp, Fur Peace Ranch.

This night, the personable and expressive Walker intro-duced his “band” – performing on one of the three guitars hehad with him (he owns 73) all the parts individually one wouldexpect from a full-blown ensemble, “section” by section –horns, rhythm, strings. And then he brought them all togetherfor a dazzling demonstration of his twinkling fingering techniqueand rhythmic sensibility. And that was just the first song of thenight, “Swing Bean,” an original swing-style instrumental fromthe aforementioned CD.

His take on “Hey, Good Lookin’” featured a few Les Paullicks. “She’s Into Something,” a number credited to AlbertCollins, Robert Cray, and Johnny Copeland flowed forth in asly, sophisticated, syncopated mode. If it sounded just like theversion on the CD, that’s because the entire disc was recordedone take per song, straight to the master, which meant no roomfor mistakes, not on disc; not here, in this room.

TOBY WALKERBaldwin’s StationSykesville, Maryland

PHOTOGRAPHY ©M.E.TRAVAGLINI

WALKER


It was clear that Walker enjoys playing a room this size– 50, maybe 60 patrons. “Intimacy, absolutely,” he told thisreviewer. “I can gauge what the people are doing. I can gaugemy set by the way they’re rolling. It’s the energy that comes backand forth” that distinguishes a small venue, even a house con-cert, which Toby does, like a bar. “I can’t tell a story in a bar (and)I love telling stories during my show.”

And he does so well. There’s one story about his landing in alockup with several others, one of whom was distinguished by his

white jump suit and the chains he was wrapped in. Turns out he(the chained guy) was a murderer and Toby was in there forvagrancy. The story is a natural prelude to another of his songs,“Central Lockup Blues.”

What you can expect at a Toby Walker show is rib-tickling,talking blues wrapped around superb acoustic musicianship thatpaid homage to masters like Mississippi John Hurt, Blind Blake,and Sonny Terry. And that’s what he gave us this night.– M.E. Travaglini

Whether it is his signature style of lyrical guitar playing, or his selec-tion of musicians, guitars, and songs, or his carefully slicked-backhair and stylish vintage clothes, there is purpose to everything thatTexas blues legend Jimmie Vaughan does. Yet none of it, seemingly,is part of a calculated career plan for Vaughan, who at age 63 andone year removed from suffering a heart attack, continues to pursuehis lifelong interests with vigor, resolve, gratitude, and respect.

Chief among those pursuits, obviously, is Vaughan’s devotionto the blues, from lowdown to uptown, as witnessed by an apprecia-tive audience in Des Moines, Iowa, on March 26 at the Forte. On aWednesday night in what some people might pejoratively presumeto be flyover country, Vaughan and his skin tight Tilt-A-Whirl Bandfeaturing fellow Lone Star State blues legend Lou Ann Barton per-formed two hours of blues with the kind of raw emotion, authenticity,and power that the music demands and its discerning fans crave.

Vaughan early in the show drew heavily from material on hisbookend set of recent albums, Plays Blues, Ballads & Favoritesand Plays More Blues, Ballads & Favorites. He opened with hisown instrumental “Comin’ & Goin’” and covered Webb Pierce’s“I Ain’t Never,” Billy “The Kid” Emerson’s “The Pleasure’s AllMine,” and Roscoe Gordon’s “Just A Little Bit,” all of which were

punctuated by a toneful horn section and veteran drummerGeorge Rains’ open handed grooves that were perfectly posi-tioned on each song’s backbeat.

The musical pocket deepened when Barton cooly strolledonto the stage midway through the show to deliver a series of clas-sic blues songs that she has made her own over the years, includ-ing spine-tingling renditions of “Shake A Hand” and “Scratch My

Back.” Few singers can match her feel for the blues andher duets with Vaughan on “I’m In The Mood For You,”“Wheel Of Fortune,” “I Miss You So,” “Come Love” (featur-ing Vaughan’s Jimmy Reed-style harmonica playing), and“In The Middle Of The Night” were powerful testaments tothe genre’s sensuality.

The good Texan also played “White Boots” and “DFW”from his Family Style album and songs from his debut solorecord, Strange Pleasure, including the riff-n-roll of “Boom-Papa-Boom” and a solo rendition of “Six Strings Down,” thetouching tribute to his late brother. Later, he delivered arousing performance of “Texas Flood,” a song that mostpeople associate with Vaughan’s younger brother, but waspreviously recorded by Larry Davis and Fenton Robinson.In the elder Vaughan’s deft hands, it found new life with sus-penseful, deep six string bends and impassioned vocals.

“I’ve loved what Jimmie and Lou Ann do for as longas I can remember. I mean, really, what’s not to love?”said Scott Allen, whose Big Red Dog Music Promotionsorganized the show.

For four years, Allen and his business partner, Scott Long,have been promoting between 60 to 80 blues shows annually inDes Moines to help fill a void that was created when the town’slongtime and only dedicated blues club, Blues on Grand, closed in2010. This night marked Vaughan’s third appearance in DesMoines during that timespan.

“To be able to provide gigs to touring bands and to keepDes Moines a viable option to those bands means the world toBig Red Dog,” said Allen. “We do it for the love of live music.”

So, too, does Vaughan, who on this night obliged the audi-ence with two encores.

“Thank you so much,” he said before exiting the stage.“I love you.”– Michael Swanger

JIMMIE VAUGHAN & THE TILT-A-WHIRL BANDFEATURING LOUANN BARTONForte Banquet and Conference CenterDes Moines, Iowa

PHOTOGRAPHY ©MICHAEL SWANGER

BARTON AND VAUGHAN

Kim Simmonds and Savoy Brown –“Laura Lee” from the album Goin’ To The Delta on Ruf Records.Kim Simmonds, one of the most enduring guitarists from the second British wave of the 1960’s, is here with a record that’s a return to the band’s blues roots.Though there are still a few good old-fashioned Savoy Brown boogies on the record, the CD mostly emanates from a position of this iconic band’s maturity.

www.savoybrown.com

Tweed Funk –“Sippin Misery” from the album First Name Lucky on Tweed Tone Records.Formed in 2010, Tweed Funk has garnered national acclaim for their horn-driven, soul blues. Inspired by their trip to Memphis,

Tweed Funk’s goal was to capture the city’s energy and raw power within the originals and covers.www.tweedfunk.com

Dave Specter –“Chicago Style” from the albumMessage In Blue on Delmark Records.Guitarist Dave Specter has been a mainstay at Delmark Records, recording with the likes of Tad Robinson, Ronnie Earl,

Barkin’ Bill Smith, Lynnwood Slim, Jimmy Johnson, and Bob Stroger as guests.Here, Brother John Kattke joins Specter on vocals and keyboards.

www.davespecter.com

Albert Castiglia – “Hard Time” from the album Solid Ground on Ruf Records.Albert Castiglia earned his stripes as the guitarist in Junior Wells’ final band. On his seventh release, Castiglia demonstrates a fiery guitar,

fierce vocals, and intelligent songwriting. This stripped down, slide guitar blues is a Song of the Year candidate.www.albertcastiglia.net

Thorbjorn Risager –“Through The Tears” from the album Too Many Roads on Ruf Records.Since 2003, Denmark’s Thorbjorn Risager and his band have been creating quite a stir in Europe.

This singer, songwriter, and guitarist is now poised to reach an international audience.risager.info

Jim Suhler –“I Declare” from the album Panther Burn on Underworld Records.Texas is famous for producing guitar gods. Jim Suhler is following in that tradition. This hard, Texas shuffle adds Kim Wilson’s harmonica.

When not fronting his band, Monkey Beat, Suhler travels the world in George Thorogood’s band.www.jimsuhler.com

Lisa Mann –“I’ve Been Used” from the albumMove On.Winner of three Muddy Waters awards from the Cascade Blues Society, including Female Vocalist, Bass Player and Contemporary Blues Band,

Lisa Mann continues to record and perform dynamite music.www.lisamannmusic.com

Sugar Brown –“Sad Day” from the album Sugar Brown’s Sad Day.Featuring original songs by Sugar Brown, as well as several blues classics, Sugar Brown’s Sad Day is a live,

full-track mono recording that uncannily reinvents the sounds and tones of the old Chess records of the 1950s.www.sugarbrownmusic.com

Mr. Sipp –“Miss Jones” from the album It’s My Guitar on Baby Boy Records.In 2014, Mr. Sipp, “The Mississippi Blues Child,” was the winner of the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge in Memphis.

His music combines energetic showmanship with a dedication to the Mississippi roots of the blues.www.mrsippthemississippiblueschild.com

Josh Hoyer & the Shadow Boxers –“Make Time For Love” from the album Josh Hoyer&the Shadow Boxers.Josh Hoyer’s current nine-piece soul band plays with deep respect and knowledge of blues, soul, and funk.

www.joshhoyerandtheshadowboxers.com

Mikey Junior –“Traveling South” from the album Traveling South on VizzTone Records.Traveling South reveals a young blues artist at the top of his game, telling stories we can all relate to,

while drawing us deep into the roots of blues music via his mastery of the diatonic and chromatic harmonicas.www.mikeyjunior.com

Mark Nomad –“New Day Dawning” from the album A Real Fine Day on Blue Star Records.Real Fine Day is a record that tells the story of Mark Nomad’s journey.

The result is a new and exciting Nomad recording that satisfies his multi-facetted musical tastes.www.marknomad.com

If you are not already a subscriber,you can join the Blues Music Magazine

community by either going to the websitewww.bluesmusicmagazine.comor calling toll-free 866-702-7778.

Blues Music Magazine is featuring a Digital Sampler for download in every issue.Please go to www.bluesmusicmagazine.com/BMM4 to download this Digital Samplerand visit the artists’ websites. Enjoy!4

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KEB’MO’BLUESAmericanaKind Of Blue Music

Understated excellence anda wide embrace of styles hasbeen part of Kevin Moore’smusical vision since his artis-tic rebirth as Keb’ Mo’ in theearly ‘90s. His twelfth albumcontinues to reflect that in its10 superbly crafted songs, organic mix of electric and acousticsounds, and smart, playful, and poignant lyrics.

The three-time Grammy winner recorded the album in hishome studio just outside of Nashville, crafting a meticulous weaveof acoustic, electric and resonator slide guitars, mandolin, percus-sion, keyboards, reeds and horns, and bass – playing most ofthose instruments himself over Keio Stroud’s graceful drumming.He also imported Los Angeles area outfit the California Feetwarm-ers to supply the New Orleans second line feel of “The Old MeBetter,” a tongue-in-cheek look at marriage’s power struggles.

Marriage, love, and commitment provide the album’s the-matic spine. Those are familiar blues themes, but a rough patch inKeb’ Mo’s own marriage fueled many of these songs. One tune inparticular, the lovely, poetic “So Long Goodbye,” exposes thefrayed strands of heartache and devotion that inspired it. “Everyword of the song is true and honest,” Moore explains. “This song

is so personal that I was emotionally paralyzed by it.” As a resulthe tapped songwriter Rebecca Correia to help by crafting themelody. Ultimately, Moore’s own marriage recovered and, hesays, was strengthened by the experience. His wife RobbieBrooks Moore sings backing vocals on the tune.

That happy resolution resonates in the pledge of commitment“Do It Right” and the thorny, comic “The Worst Is Yet To Come.”Co-written by Gary Nicholson, the latter ticks off a funny laundrylist of pitfalls its protagonist endures as he searches for a silver lin-ing amidst life’s dark clouds. “Somebody Hurt You” takes a differ-ent, dramatic turn, drawing on gospel for its gently swingingfoundation and featuring the bass voice of church singer Rip Pat-ton, a longtime friend of Moore’s family from Compton, who wasalso a Civil Rights era Freedom Rider.

BLUESAmericana’s unforced nature comes from a balanceof qualities. Of course, there’s Moore’s warm honey-and-dustvoice and his exceptional musicianship, as well as his ability as anarranger and his mix of deep roots music with pop song craft andintellect. But the unhurried circumstances of its creation in thecomfort of his own house, his determination to invest himself innearly every note, and the assistance of his friend and guitar techCasey Wasner as co-producer all help generate the warmth in itsgrooves.

Moore reflects on the album this way: “My job is to look forsomething that’s truthful. If a song is truthful, the way the songs onBLUESAmericana are, I have a piece of that song inside of me soI can always deliver it from my heart.”– Ted Drozdowski

Blues singers in the past wrote about traveling, farming, and searching for love. A modern blues singerlike Keb’ Mo’ has found a calling in singing about holding onto love during our modern hard times.Now relocated in Nashville, Keb’ has crafted a record of originals to shelter us from the storms of life.

PAUL RODGERSThe Royal Sessions429 Records

The raspy voiced singer who found famewith two of England’s greatest rockbands, Free and Bad Company, made adream come true by recording these tentunes at the legendary Willie Mitchell’sRoyal Studios in Memphis. Rodgersclaims Otis Redding as a primary influ-ence and Southern soul music, particu-larly Stax-Volt, a major inspiration. Half ofthe tunes come from the Big O.’s song-book: signature ballads “I’ve Got Dreamsto Remember,” “That’s How Strong My

Love Is” (originally recorded by O.V.Wright on Goldwax), and “I’ve BeenLoving You Too Long (To Stop Now),” andtwo lesser known tunes from Redding’sThe Soul Album, “Any Ole Way,” a bitmore upbeat than the original, and theTemptations’ hit “It’s Growing.”

Albert King is covered with the semi-nal soul-blues gems “Born Under A BadSign” and “Down Don’t Bother Me,” Sam& Dave with “I Thank You,” Isaac Hayes(and numerous others) with Dionne War-wick’s “Walk On By,” and Ann Peebles’biggest hit “I Can’t Stand The Rain,” thelone nod to Hi Records.

Rodgers is at his most compelling onthe ballads; their deliberate pace makes

his heartache all the more palpable.However, Rodgers provides joyful coun-terbalance with “I Thank You,” “Any OleWay,” and “It’s Growing,” and a touch ofinsouciance with “Down Don’t Bother Me.”


The basic band consists of organistCharles Hodges, bassist Leroy Hodges,pianist Archie Turner (members of therenowned Hi Rhythm Section), guitaristMicheal Toles, and drummers Steve Pottsand James Robertson. The Royal Horns(trumpeter Marc Franklin and saxophon-ists James Spake, Lannie McMillan, andGary Topper) complement the core bandin the grand manner of the Mar-Keys andthe Memphis Horns. They are featured onevery track but “Walk On By,” which issweetened by the Royal Strings and theRoyal Singers in their absence. Pain,passion, and catharsis abound in thiswell-crafted collection of classicSouthern soul.– Thomas J. Cullen III

WALTER “WOLFMAN”WASHINGTON ANDTHE ROADMASTERSHowlin’ LiveFrenchmen Street

One of Walter “Wolfman” Washington andthe Roadmasters’ iconic songs promisesthat “The Funk is in the House.” That songis not among the 13 tracks on the band’sexcellent new CD, recorded at d.b.a. inNew Orleans, but the funk is certainly allover it. Essential ingredients are hisskintight rhythm section, composed of hislongtime bass player Jack Cruz and drum-mer Wayne Maureau, and a two-man hornsection, Jimmy Carpenter on saxophoneand Antonio Gambrell on trumpet, whosepalette contains every mood and everycolor in the rainbow. Washington’s power-ful voice can shout and purr, and hisspooky, stinging guitar flights can seem tobe coming from another planet, and theRoadmasters’ impeccable presentationleaves plenty of room for his distinctivepersonality to shine through it all.

All the songs should be familiar toWashington’s fans, but he’s always got anew twist up his sleeve. On numbers like“Ain’t That Loving You,” “Tailspin,” and“Girl I Wanna Dance With You,“ the

occasional solos demonstrate not onlythe musicians’ impeccable technique butalso their jazz chops. “Blue Moon Risin’,”a gorgeous ballad penned by Washing-ton and Cruz, slowly builds in emotionalintensity with soft horn lines and minimal-ist bass until Washington’s vocal explo-sion releases it. “Tweakin’” featuressome high-energy poetry from rapperBlac Sol. On “When the Answer is Clear,”as the band grooves behind him, Wash-ington growls out some commentary onhandling breakups (“You don’t have to donothing stupid, talking about I’m gonnashoot somebody…dangerous stuff.”).Hearing his delighted laughter at the endof nearly every song is another benefitof the well-executed live recording. It’sthe next best thing to a night out onFrenchmen Street.– Kay Cordtz

BOBBY RUSH WITHBLINDDOG SMOKIN’DecisionsSilver Talon

I do love me some Bobby Rush. I lovehow his vibe fluctuates from the back alley,sexy groove of his hard-hitting multipleguitars to Rush’s nostalgic, down homeharmonica riffs on his slow blues. Problemis that too often, over the course of ashow or record, their power and impactbecome diluted through overuse. Not sohere. Blinddog Smokin’s Carl Gustafson’sjudicious use of these signature Rush ele-ments, often delivered subliminally in the

background, coupled with five cleverGustafson originals, make this one ofRush’s finest efforts.

The opening cut puts Rush andDr. John at the mic to deliver the film noir,morning tabloid headlined “Another MurderIn New Orleans.” Though it is centered inNew Orleans, this is the daily headline inany city, USA. Yet by centering this in theCrescent City, Rush and Dr. John are ableto illuminate the contrast between the city’sunique charm and gifts with the grittier sideof its unpredictable violence. The title cut,one of five written by Rush, begins withthat classic groove, but it quickly disap-pears into the background so that Rush’sobservations about making the right deci-sions in everyday situations ring out clear.Somehow, making the correct decisions isthe perfect follow-up solution to thetragedies he and Dr. John lamented in theprevious song.

Gustafson’s funky setting of his“Bobby Rush’s Bus” is a humorous odeto his decades of traveling with Rush.Musically there is a gritty call and responsebetween harmonica and tenor until theguests – Billy Branch, Sherman Robertson,Carl Weathersby – board. And it all comeswith Rush and Gustafson winking and smil-ing about them big-legged ladies followin’the bus across the chitlin’ circuit. Most ofthe remaining songs offer sly takes onRush’s successful stage persona, “FunkyOld Man” (hard-hitting ‘70s horn funk),“If That’s The Way You Like It I Like It” (aslinky ode to what’s good for the goose isgood for the gander), “Skinny Little Women”(a warning to skinny ladies to the tune of“Down Home Blues”), and “Too MuchWeekend” (acoustic guitar and harmonica).


For me, the only throwaway is “Dr. Rush”where Rush hosts a love problem radiocall-in show and raps answers. Is this tointroduce Rush to a younger crowd or intro-duce hip-hop to his aging blues fans?

Included in the package is a DVD ofhe and Dr. John performing “Another Mur-der In New Orleans.” Rush’s Down InLouisiana garnered him a 2014 Grammynomination; this release should follow suit.– Art Tipaldi

NICK MOSSTimeAin’t FreeBlue Bella

Although his home territory is Chicago, onhis latest, Time Ain’t Free, Nick Moss takesa Southern detour before arriving backhome. From Southern rock to Delta blues,Moss covers a lot of territory with his sting-ing slide and raucous vocals. Moss startedout as a bassist, first with Buddy Scott’sRib Tips, then with Jimmy Dawkins beforejoining the Legendary Blues Band in ‘93.Drummer and front man Willie “Big Eyes”Smith convinced Moss to switch to guitar,and he played lead with the band for twoyears before taking the lead guitar slot withJimmy Rogers’ band for three years beforegoing solo.

Moss starts out Little Feat style with“She Wants It,” featuring a slide solo wor-thy of Lowell George. He slides on downto the Delta, resurrecting Son House’schilling “Death Letter Blues.” House’s ver-sion delivers the dire lyrics in a mournfulwail: “Got a letter this morning/how do youreckon it read/ said hurry hurry the gal youlove is dead....when I got there she waslayin’ on the coolin’ board.” Moss’ versionis more Clapton than House, smoothedout vocally and instrumentally, syncopatedas opposed to House’s frailing, chunkydelivery. “Was I Ever Heard” sounds like

Dobie Gray’s ‘73 hit “Slip Away,” smooth,wistful, seventies blues/rock.

Moss tackles the Faces’ “Bad ‘N’Ruin,” with multi-talented vocalist MichaelLedbetter (featured vocalist on six cuts)sounding more like Stevie Winwood thanRod Stewart. It’s a perfect copy of the orig-inal shambling train wreck that sounds likeit’s about to jump the tracks at any second,a runaway soul train hurtling down thetracks wide open and dangerously out ofcontrol, so mesmerizing that it beckons toyou to jump on and ride it till it crashes.Moss crosses over into pure old schoolsoul territory for “I Want The World ToKnow.” It starts off with soft, shimmery gui-tar backing Ledbetter’s vocals like a blendof former Wet Willie front man Jimmy Halland Winwood. But it quickly heats up, cli-maxing with a rowdy gospel celebrationlike Duane Allman wailing over top of backup singers Tina J. Crawley and Lara Jenk-ins worthy of Rita Coolidge’s Mad Dogsand Englishmen work and Merry Clayton’ssoul chilling howls on the Stones “GimmeShelter” chorus.

Big bold and bodacious, this stuff isgood for what ails ya. And the best part is,you don’t need a prescription-just pick it upand start throwin’ it down to feel better.– Grant Britt

KIM SIMMONDSAND SAVOY BROWNGoing To The DeltaRuf

At the Ventura Blues Festival last year,Welsh-born guitarist Kim Simmondsexplained the genesis of the band’s name:“Well, you Americans had James Brown,Charles Brown, Nappy Brown, etc, so wethought we’d call our British band SavoyBrown.” In Going To The Delta, Simmondstakes over on guitar and vocals and hisbacking band includes Pat DeSalvo onbass and Garnet Grimm on drums. SavoyBrown cut their first recordings in 1966and DeSalvo and Grimm have been withSimmonds since 2009.

The 12 cuts on the CD, all penned bySimmonds, feature combinations of boo-gies, shuffles, and powerful slow blues.“Laura Lee” opens the record with Sim-monds’ Stratocaster front and center witha shuffle drum beat and bass that lets youknow that you’re listening to the blues.

“Sad News” follows with a slower, 12-barblues feel allowing Simmonds to givemore feeling to his vocals. The cut on theCD is “Nuthin’ Like The Blues” as it namechecks many common blues expressionslike “roll and tumble” and “dust mybroom.” The title cut features the classicblues shuffle that makes one appreciatethe blues simplicity of a power trio. Sim-monds’ “Sleeping Rough” offers anotherblues shuffle that supports the lyricaladvice about the consequences of beingthrown out by your girlfriend. “BackstreetWoman” punctuates stinging guitar withthe singer’s lament for a lady of the night.For slow blues, check out “Just A Dream”and “I Miss Your Love,” which opens withsome timeless bottleneck guitar.

“When You’ve Got A Good Thing”opens with very adroit guitar playing andthen admonishes an old flame for believ-ing that “the grass is greener on the otherside.” “Cobra” is one of boogies promisedby Simmonds in the liner notes and itcertainly delivers in its all-instrumentalvein. “Turn Your Lamp” on plays like it hasjust been switched on and illuminatesthe listener so that it will “shine on me!”“Going Back” speeds the tempo up andcloses out a CD that’s a welcome additionto any blues library.– Pete Sardon

BUDDY FLETTRough EdgesHoneybee Entertainment

That Buddy Flett is recording at all, afteran encephalitis-induced coma, is its ownkind of miracle. That Flett, whose songshave been recorded by John Mayall,Percy Sledge, and Tab Benoit, is soundingperhaps better than ever – deeper in thegroove, deeper in the lyric – is yet anothermiracle.


A new album makes the case.Boasting five originals, two collaborationswith long-time writing partner DavidEgan, and a trio of well-placed coversongs, Rough Edges is testament toFlett’s steely resolve to return. He doesso with a striking intensity accompaniedby nothing more than his own guitar andstomping foot.

The effect on songs like the opening“Train” is one of unforgettably stark emo-tion. It’s a moment of scary portent, asFlett unleashes a watery riff, but not thelast: “Honky Tonk” weeps with a lonelyslide, even as Flett recalls the simmeringmajesty of his first experience with theblues. He squeezes every ounce of hurtfeeling out of a new take on “First YouCry,” the Egan co-write memorably cov-ered by Sledge. He explores Duane All-man’s “Lil Martha” with a stoic delicacy.

Elsewhere, the spirit of HubertSumlin, a key influence and old runningpartner of Flett’s, is something of arecurring theme, and not just in a touch-ing tribute with drummer Brian Blade andupright bassist Chris Michaels, called“Born In Mississippi.” The second Eganco-write “Good To Ya Baby” connectsFlett’s sound even more completely withSumlin, as Flett catches a scalding littlegroove all by himself. Later, Flett refer-ences the former Howlin’ Wolf sidemanwhen introducing a determinedly sadtake on the blues standard “Bad LuckAnd Trouble.”

Still, I kept going back to the earlier“Nothin Easy,” with its matter-of-fact takeon getting through the tough times. AsFlett growls every hard-eyed line, thesong just keeps gaining topical reso-nance. Flett’s blues aren’t the made upkind; he didn’t achieve this vista by study-ing old records. He’s lived these things.And while it assuredly wasn’t easy gettingto this place, Flett has arrived with a new-found intensity, and a damned fine record.– Nick DeRiso

ANTHONY GOMESBefore The BeginningUp 2 Zero

The distinctive field holler cadence isn’tsomething I look forward to hearing onrecords anymore, mainly because it’sabout as overdone as a stormy Monday.But the one-minute intro here (outro aswell) reveals that Before The Beginning isnot a typical Anthony Gomes album. Itallows listeners insight into what will hap-pen next, in both a musical sense and ahistorical sense. Before the beginning,one might say. Regarding a movementthat had transpired in musical form duringan era of oppression and slave labor, thefield holler sounds herein are a precursorto the diverse blues songs that follow.

Gomes substitutes his Strat guitarand Marshall amp setup for an unpluggedacoustic session. But that doesn’t meanthe Gomes’ passion and fire aren’t pre-sent in the music, it’s just devoid of theelectric intensity for which he’s known.Following the intro are ten traditional yetdiverse blues songs, straight from themind and fingers of Canadian-bornguitarist/vocalist Gomes.

The musicians and backgroundvocalists working alongside him in this col-lection are renowned industry profession-als. And although they come from differentwalks of life and music genres, it’s theblues that’s the concentrated effort here,and they all standout in these cheerfulblues, slow blues, soul, and gospelsteeped songs.

The opener, “Blues Is Good,” is asbubbly and positive as the title states.Immediately, any true fan can discern thatthis twelve-bar blues could just have eas-ily been performed in typical Gomes’rocked up fashion. The vocal, backgroundvocals, and piano are standout. Gomes’lead guitar work is just as fluid on acousticguitar. Next is a poignant tribute, entitled,“Lady Soul.” “The song was written aboutAretha Franklin,” Gomes had said, “andhow her music helped me get throughsome tough times. She really has been alight when the world can sometimes getdark.” “Golden Wings” is one of very fewin the set that’s contemporary in melody,outside of traditional blues lines.

Blues-rockers and longtime Gomes’fans may feel a bit disenchanted with the

path taken on Before The Beginning;however, it should be viewed as a boldmove by anyone who understands theimportance of musical roots. Fans ofstraight up blues will be amazed by thetraditional air in the songs, all of whichare Gomes originals. They’re performedso nicely that one might think it’s Gomes’true calling. Anyway, the end of some-thing often brings about a new beginning.File this under ‘Blues.’– Brian D Holland

BETH HART &JOE BONAMASSALive In AmsterdamJ&R Adventures

As high-energy soul shows go, Beth Hartand Joe Bonamassa’s Live in Amsterdamkicks quite a bit of extra ass, showcasingtotal authenticity cut with razor-sharp rock.The lion’s share of the 21 songs acrossthe two CD’s or DVD comes from theirsurprising and excellent studio collabora-tions, 2011’s Don’t Explain and 2013’sSeesaw. The idea behind each was tocharge through inspirational cover songsfreely – like it was done back in the day.On-stage with the same world-class band,drummer Anton Fig, bassist CarmineRojas, guitarist Blondie Chaplin, and keysplayer Arlan Schierbaum, plus a brass


section made up of greats Lee Thorn-burg, Ron Dziubla, and Carlos PerezAlfonso, they succeed well beyond thatinitial plan. Forget the lack of net; thesepeople just play so well together thatconfidence is a given.

Perfectly paced, this June 2013concert at the historic Koninklijk TheaterCarre crackles with raw talent and realfeeling. From the showgirl bounce of“Them There Eyes” through TinaTurner’s blistering “Nutbush City Limits,”it’s striking how timeless this music thatspans decades is. But the unique edgethis group affords it makes each andevery song a true artistic statement.“Close To My Fire” slow burns in anexchange of hot voice, hotter leg, andspark-spitting guitar. For the swelteringtake on the classic “Your Heart Is AsBlack As Night,” Hart sits cross-leggedat the edge of the stage, dangling sassand serious sex in her distinctivelyacerbic voice. It’s tough to take youreyes off her.

Tom Waits’ “Chocolate Jesus”skitters and bounces with piano, as ifplayed in a saloon in a previous century,and then next – full of drama andmajesty but still fitting into the wholescheme of things – comes Hart’s “Bad-dest Blues” from her 2012 solo album,Bang Bang Boom Boom. Bonamassathen takes his solo spot, singing FreddieKing’s “Someday After Awhile (You’ll BeSorry)” and paying champion respect.Bonamassa plays guitar so unassum-ingly classy, but so directly and explo-sively too, that he orders notice. As theyeach continue to rocket their individualbrands, these two stars should continueto do this regularly, and forever.– Tom Clarke

THE CLAUDETTESInfernal Piano Plot...HatchedYellow Dog

It sounds like the setup to a bad joke.A Korean bar owner in Illinois hires acouple of world renowned bluesmen asher house band to sell drink specials inother people’s bars. But that’s the truestory of how Junior Wells alumni JohnnyIguana (piano) and Michael Caskey(drums) came to be The Claudettes,

named after the bar owner’s joint inOglesby, Illinois. When Claudette losther lease in 2011, she began leasingout the duo, still billed as her houseband, to other bars, setting up her ownportable bar inside theirs. Out of suchconvoluted circumstances theClaudettes were able to launch theirInfernal Piano Plot...Hatched, spreadingtheir reach to gig in such usually non-musical joints as Staples and Block-buster Video.

It’s all-instrumental, and eventhough the only two instruments arepiano and drums, there’s plenty goingon. It’s by no means your standard12-bar presentation. Caskey thumpsand crashes all over the place chasingIguana’s erratic meanderings like KeithMoon chasing a crazed, punked-up LittleRichard. But then the confusementcomes in as Iguana mixes in classicaland jazz licks and Caskey tumblesheadfirst down the stairs just trying toget along.

Iguana changes up styles andtempo mid-song, wandering off in pursuitof some boogie-woogie one minute thenbacktracking for some stride licks, maybeslipping in a little ‘Fess mambo on theside as he does on Little Brother Mont-gomery’s “Tremblin’ Blues.” “Stumblin’Home Satisfied” is Pinetop Perkins styledboogie-woogie, greasy rhythm and bluesthat makes the dance floor so slipperyyou need to sprinkle sawdust on the floorto keep from falling down.

Iguana takes on Longhair on “NewOrleans Yard Sale (New 11 Bar Blues)”corrupting Fess’ mambo carnivalrhythms with some jazzy, staccato lickswhile the left hand keeps on rolling outthat second line.

It’s a great ride, one that’ll leave youshaking and laughing and wanting morethe next time this rowdy carnival comesto town.– Grant Britt

DANA FUCHSBliss AvenueRuf

Dana Fuchs must rue the day shebecame known as the Second Coming ofJanis Joplin. The off-Broadway produc-tion of Love, Janis only didn’t help – nordoes the title track – a cloned page takenfrom the Janis/Big Brother catalogue ifever there was one. Yet, taken againstthe backdrop of her growing body ofwork, it’s immediately obvious that this38-year old powerhouse is no one-trick-pony. Consider the bluster of “How DidThings Get This Way,” more unapolo-getic rock posturing than blues, provingFuchs is a feral tigress on the loose. Orthe red-hot bluster of the B-3-soaked“Livin’ On Sunday” with its complemen-tary chorus of Tabitha Fair and NickiRichards and its far from church-likeinsatiability.

Her sultry performance across “SoHard To Move” joins with her honky-tonkin’, country treatment of “Nothin’ OnMy Mind” and you start to get the picture.The James Gang guitar kick across thebrassy “Keep On Walkin’, buttressed bysaucy backup voices and Fuch’savalanche of attitude, proves a perfectvehicle for her stop-on-a-dime band.“Vagabond Wind” rides on a bed of B-3while demonstrating Fuch’s strengths ina slower blues register, while crack gui-tarist Jon Diamond scores another onefor the team.

To have pigeonholed Fuchs is nother fault. With Joplin’s untimely depar-ture, rock was left with serious void in theballs-to-the-walls, female vocalist cate-gory. Fuchs proves she’s got this takencare of – and then some. Armed withan equally adept and flexible band(Diamond, guitars; Shawn Pelton, drums;


Jack Daley, bass; Glenn Petscha, keys)she proves she’s got the serious, soulfulstuff to surpass the limits of any limitedlabeling while these dozen tracks – mostof them Fuchs-Diamond originals –under-line yet another level of potential. Whethershe dips into the country-edged pop of“Daddy’s Little Girl,” one of the album’sbest tracks (a track revealing another sideof her voice entirely) or pours her full per-sonality, with equal parts grit’n’guts, into“Baby Loves The Life,” further accented byDiamond’s lethal guitar lines, Fuchs is oneto watch. She’s going to take things wher-ever she wants to, and I, for one, amhappy to follow.– Eric Thom

BERNIE PEARLTake Your TimeBee Bump

Bernie Pearl has been the residentacoustic bluesman for four decades inSouthern California. He learned his craft inhis family’s club, the Ash Grove, whereevery major blues player who came westperformed, including Lightnin’ Hopkins,Mance Lipscomb, Fred McDowell, andeven a young Taj Mahal who seemed toplay there almost every month back inthe day.

Later Pearl introduced two decadesof public radio listeners to the blues with along-running radio show and co-foundedan annual festival that drew thousandseach Labor Day weekend. Over the yearshe’s cut albums, sometimes as a band-leader, sometimes solo, and several withthe late Harmonica Fats. All have beenestimable releases. His latest disc, TakeYour Time, is another good offering, with13 tracks – several featuring BarbaraMorrison – of bedrock-solid material.

It’s not hypercritical to note that Pearlis not a peerless vocalist, but his voice isalways serviceable and, most important,believable, that most essential quality for ablues singer. He sounds right on Arthur“Big Boy” Crudup’s “Rock Me Mama,”Lipscomb’s “Mama Don’t Dog Me,” andRobert Johnson’s much-abused-by-other-singers “Travelin’ Riverside Blues.” Hisduets with Morrison on two Fred McDow-ell-associated tunes, “Worried Life Blues”and “Jesus On The Main Line,” sounddownright joyful.

He also breaks out his lap steel for acouple of tunes, John Brim’s “ToughTimes” and Eddie Boyd’s “Third Degree,”and throws in a lovely Fred McDowell-influenced instrumental called “MississippiRaga.” Bernie Pearl’s old radio show wascalled Nothin’ But The Blues, and that’swhat he’s delivers here.– Bill Wasserzieher

THE ALLMANBROTHERS BANDLiveAtTheBeaconTheater 1992– PlayAll NightLegacy Recordings

Nineteen ninety-two was a banner year forthe Allman Brothers Band. In a conversa-tion just days before effectively announc-ing their dissolution, Warren Haynes wasexcited about the release of this album,which he produced. “We knew in Januaryof ‘89 when we went into rehearsal for thefirst time that there was a power and inten-sity there,” he said. “Chemistry is some-thing you can’t force, or predict. The fouroriginal members were psyched to beback together playing that music again.Dickey (founding guitarist Betts) and Ispent the previous three years playing inhis band, honing our guitar tandem, andAllen Woody’s approach was so strongand similar to (original, deceased bassist)

Berry Oakley’s. Combining those thingswith the revelation that the world wasready for the Allman Brothers to reappearjust kind of made it all magical.”

The Allman Brothers Band playedtheir first stand – four nights – at New YorkCity’s Beacon Theater that September.Three years later, with hundreds of sea-soning performances and two highly cre-ative studio albums under their belt, theywere ready for their first ten-night run ofwhat became a tradition.

Play All Night captures two CD’s-worth of that ‘92 magic. Blind WillieMcTell’s “Statesboro Blues” kicks it off inmagnificent high-rumblin’ Allman fashion,with guest harmonica player Thom “Ace”Doucette tooting away just as he did at theband’s infamous Fillmore East shows in1971. Haynes immediately strikes an iden-tity of his own on slide guitar, while he cer-tainly echoes the one-of-a-kind DuaneAllman, creating a beautiful dichotomy.They play the blues lowdown and jazzy on“Get On With Your Life,” Allman at his bestlike a wounded wolf yowling. Most classicAllman Brothers songs are at once intri-cate and steamrolling, with a definedbeginning, middle, and end.

The sprawling “Nobody Knows,”authored by Betts, but rightfully sung by All-man, epitomizes the style, but its dramaticcomplexity takes the blues to even newerplaces. Dickey Betts’ immortal instrumen-tals “In Memory Of Elizabeth Reed” and“Jessica” each enthrall by the layers ofmusical conversation, Haynes right athome coiling around and accenting Betts’truly unique melodic lines. An acoustic setincludes a defining version of Gregg All-man’s “Midnight Rider” and an imaginativetake on Robert Johnson’s “Come On In MyKitchen.” Haynes couldn’t have done a bet-ter job assembling this set list of staplesand surprises. Listen intently. You’ll shakeyour head – and ass for sure – at the All-man Brothers Band’s singular amalgama-tion of blues, rock, jazz, and country.– Tom Clarke

MARK T. SMALLSmokin’ BluesLead Foot

A live performance by Mark T. Small iscaptivating, but one wonders if the excite-ment of his small-room live performances


can be captured on a recording.A striking figure – tall, with a curtainof blond hair – he contorts his face tothe music, throws his head around andtaps his foot loudly. A master of manyinstruments, Small, a Massachusettsnative, is known mainly for his slide,finger and flat-picking guitar.

Smokin’ Blues, a collection ofSmall’s favorite guitar grooves using hisperfected techniques, is pretty much asuccessful endeavor that recreates hislive act. The 12-track CD features justSmall and his guitars with just a touch ofreverb on songs made famous by well-known blues artists. Small’s flat-picking isat its very best toward the end of the 37-minute CD, with Sam McGee’s “RailroadBlues,” which leans toward bluegrass,Small’s early musical genre. At the otherend of the spectrum is a super version ofJohn Lee Hooker’s “My Daddy Was AJockey” (first called “Jockey Blues”),which has Hooker’s driving sound with aninfusion of Small’s own style. “Sell MyMonkey” by Hudson Whitaker is influ-enced by Tampa Red, but here, Smallhas adapted the piano part instead ofTampa’s slide guitar. “Buck Rag” a toe-tapping instrumental by Rev. Gary Davis,has that old-timey feel with the bass,melody, and harmony all picked bySmall’s thumb, index, and middle finger.There are tunes by Howlin’ Wolf(“Moanin’ At Midnight”), Rufus Thomas(“Walkin’ The Dog”), and St. Louis JimmyOden (“Going Down Slow”) that don’ttranslate well with just one musician, butSmall more than makes up for that withCharley Patton’s “Stone Pony Blues.”There’s some fierce finger picking, andvocals done in Patton’s aggressive style.

Small, who has been on the musicscene for more than 40 years, describesthe record as a sampler of his various gui-tar grooves that make up his solo shows,and that goal is achieved.– Karen Nugent

HARMONICA SHAHHavin’ Nothin’ Don’t BotherMeElectro-Fi

Born Thaddeus Hall, his name has beenlegally changed to Seward Shah and thesobriquet of “Harmonica Shah” fits himwell. His vocal timbre would fit nicely inthe stable of the early blues recordingsfrom Chess Records. His harmonica toneis quite versatile and Harmonica Shahpunctuates his lines with feeling. Thebrushes on the drums harken back to asound from the ‘50s and the piano, whichsounds like it’s coming right out in themiddle of the mix, is reminiscent of somethe blues piano greats.

This fifth recording by HarmonicaShah on Electo-Fi Records opens byhaving the mailman plead the fifth as thefacial similarities between the letter carrierand the songwriter’s (D. Robertson) chil-dren opens this CD singing “All My Kids IsUgly” with the unique blues line: “All of mykids is ugly and woman, it’s all on accountof you!” Name checking his town ofDetroit in several songs including “BlindMan Crying In The Middle Of Detroit,” heechoes the sparseness of that city with apure distillation of blues sounds that com-bine his harp and vocals, easy acousticand electric guitar playing by Jack DeKeyzer, well mixed piano by Julian Fauth,and drums and percussion by BuckyBerger and Alec Frazer. This strippeddown sound is a pleasure to listen to andthe lyrics sneak up on you.

Havin’ Nothin’ Don’t Bother Meoffers the wise purchaser of this CD anarray of appealing blues songs includinga boogie-woogie instrumental, “Under-cover Millionaire.” Harmonica Shahwisely places his title song smack in themiddle of the CD. Songs that clock in atover five minutes each include “All My

Kids Is Ugly,” Shake It Mama,” “ShortHaired Woman,” and “Her Eyes TurnGreen as Grass.”

The ten-minute CD closer “DeathBell Tollin’” has a both mournful and soul-ful sound that validates HarmonicaShah’s vocal and harp versatility. This is aperfect blues CD to enjoy in your car, inyour home, and blasting out in the backyard to the enjoyment of your friends.– Pete Sardon

JOHNNY RAWLSWITH OTIS CLAYRemembering O.V.WrightCatfood

Whenever you talk to Johnny Rawls,there will be loving references to hismentor, O.V. Wright. Back in the 1970s,Rawls learned his soul chops touring inWright’s band. After Wright died in 1980,it was Rawls who kept the band on theroad. And when Rawls embarked on hissolo career, job one was to keep themusic of his mentor alive. Thus at everyshow or on record, Rawls will alwaysshowcase the beauty of Wright’sSouthern soul.

But it was the suggestion of formerSiriusXm Bluesville host Bill Wax torecord a tribute to Wright that was theimpetus for Rawls and Catfood Records’owner Bob Trenchard to reexamine thisproject. With the addition of The Rays,Catfood’s house band, along with its vig-orous horns, Rawls has found the idealvehicle to modernize Wright’s cataloguewith grace and style.

To further Rawls intentions, he callson Chicago’s soul royalty, Otis Clay, toshare the spotlight on three of the tentunes. Clay’s preacher-like openingproclamations on “Into Something (I Can’tShake Loose)” set the stage for Rawlsand the Rays to show-off the soul groovecentral to the record. Later, Clay’s aged,scratchy vocals take the lead on Wright’sseminal “Nickel And A Nail.” Add in Rawls’pleadin’ vocals, the Rays’ massive hornarrangement, and the background voicesof the Iveys and it is a cover unlike most.Clay’s final appearance comes on “BlazeOf Glory,” the one song written especiallyfor the record. Rawls handles the openingverses, which recount Wright’s last daysand Rawls’ commitment to his mentor.


Mid-song, Clay tells of his own days on thechitlin’ circuit. The resolution here is thatthese two men of soul must keep thismusic and it’s trailblazers relevant.

In between, Rawls revisits Wrightstandards like “”Eight Men, Four Women,”“Precious, Precious,” “Don’t Let My BabyRide,” Poor Boy,” “Ace Of Spades,” and“Blind, Crippled, And Crazy” with deeplyspirited convictions of the heart and a sea-soned voice that drips emotion. Through-out the outing, Rawls’ soul style recalls thebygone days of singers holdin’ the hand ofa front row female and singin’ hisanguished laments only to her ears.– Art Tipaldi

MARK KNOPFLERPrivateeringMercury

Mark Knopfler’s seventh solo album arrivedwith little fanfare in the United States lastfall, a year after its release in Europe andthe rest of the world. Thus, this double-disccollection of 20 originals – nearly half ofthem fully rooted in the blues – came andwent quickly here.

As fans of Knopfler who have fol-lowed him since his mega-platinum dayswith Dire Straits know, his work has onlygotten stronger and richer over the years.Since the worldwide success of 1985’sBrothers In Arms, Knopfler has mostlyditched any semblance of pop conces-sions to follow his muse. That’s one of thebenefits of superstardom: the freedom todo what you want.

Knopfler seems like he’s having agrand time on freewheeling blues scorcherslike “Don’t Forget Your Hat,” his slide guitarsparring with Kim Wilson’s harmonica.

Wilson also plays Knopfler’s foil on “Hot OrWhat,” in which Knopfler personifies acocky gambler. That character is theantithesis of the humble and grateful narra-tor of “Red Bud Tree,” the haunting tale ofescape that opens the album.

Knopfler is joined on the album bylongtime keyboard player Guy Fletcher,who takes a backseat on some of the num-bers to piano and organ player Jim Cox.The rhythm section of Ian Thomas ondrums and Glenn Whorf on upright andelectric bass anchors sessions that fea-tures numerous guest players. The songsare nearly split between blues and rock-based numbers like “Gator Blood” and


“Corned Beef City” (which comes closest toemulating the Dire Straits hit-making era)and Celtic-laced folk, such as the heart-breaking seafarer’s lament “Haul Away”and the battle ballad “Kingdom Of Gold.”

On the title track, Knopfler marries thetwo, setting a lusty tale about adventure-seeking mercenaries to acoustic countryblues and Celtic folk. It’s proof plenty thatthe two musical threads Knopfler followson this album are interconnected. It alsonegates any suggestion that the bluessongs should have been collected on onedisc and the folk songs on another.– Michael Cote

VARIOUS ARTISTSAll My FriendsRounder

Simultaneously celebrating Gregg Allman’ssongs and singing voice only makessense. One aspect can’t be feted withoutfocusing on the other. Allman’s writtendefinitive classics like “Melissa” and

“Midnight Rider,” but he’s also madethe songs of others definitively his own.Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” isa prime example. Nine singers have paidhim tribute by the time Allman emergesfor a duet on the pre-war blues standardwith Taj Mahal. None can hold a candleon these songs. Taj sounds terrificsinging “Wake up mama!” at the outset of“Statesboro,” but his voice just doesn’tmake the same impact as the ingrainedrumble and roar of Mr. Allman. Allmanremains, at a weather-beaten 66, one ofthe best white blues singers ever. So,when he chimes in mid-song, all seemsright with the world.

The definitive classics begin whenhis Allman Brothers Band mate WarrenHaynes kicks the show off with the anx-ious “Come And Go Blues.” Of all thosepresent, Haynes has a voice mostinflected with Gregg Allman inspiration,and he’s as fine a singer as he is aguitarist. The huge brass-imbued bandincludes former Allman Brother and long-time Rolling Stone Chuck Leavell oninimitable, stately piano, and each fea-tured guitarist enjoys an assist by yetanother former Brother, the smooth andsuperb Jack Pearson. Pearson alsosolos – and soars – often.

The wonderful McCrary Sisters singgloriously in the background on severalnumbers, such as the funky “Let This BeA Lesson To Ya,” as prescribed from thehoodoo pulpit of Louisiana 88s by noneother than Dr. John. Seventy-eight year-old soul legend Sam Moore performsAllman’s plaintive ballad “Please CallHome” with amazing clarity and strength,and the grand “Queen Of Hearts” gets theroyal treatment by Train’s Pat Monahan.The Allman Brothers’ “Stand Back” standsout by the at once classy and gritty


presence of Allman Brother and spouseDerek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, and forthe sweet “Melissa,” Allman teams wonder-fully with his old friend Jackson Browne,who sounds like he hasn’t aged a day.

Widespread Panic eases into “JustAin’t Easy” playing the blues with barelyperceptible jam band undertones as onlythey can, and then makes the most of therollicking “Wasted Words” by putting theirnotable guitarist Jimmy Herring togetherwith his best friend Derek Trucks. For“Midnight Rider,” Zac Brown and Vince Gillteam with Allman for a ride that just skirtsthe edges of country. That there’s anexplicit overabundant Music City presencehere within the band and the premierassembly of artists that otherwise includesTrace Adkins, Martina McBride, and EricChurch, I think is no coincidence. Greggand his long-gone brother Duane Allmanwere born in Nashville. The Allman Broth-ers Band drives the show to a mighty closewith “Dreams” and “Whipping Post,” two ofGregg Allman’s most gut-wrenching blues.One bellyache: A song should have beenleft off each CD to achieve the seamlessflow of the DVD. Regardless, as jammedas it is, this festive ballyhoo to, and with,Gregg Allman, is jammed with fantasticmusic full of soul, and for the soul.– Tom Clarke

SHAWNHOLTAND THE TEARDROPSDaddy Told MeBlind Pig

Although Magic Slim’s passing early in2013 marked the end of an era, hisTeardrops delivered a powerful and accom-plished album just six months later. If theshuffles, boogies, and blues on Daddy ToldMe sound familiar, it is only natural. ShawnHolt is not only the Magic Man’s son, but a

longtime Teardrop irregular who took overthe second guitar slot at the beginning of2013. The rhythm section worked with theold man for a number of years, and so, withthe addition of a new guitarist, Levi William,these are authentic Teardrops.

Daddy’s song list is weighted withsongs associated with Slim, from his slowblues “Please Don’t Dog Me” to a host ofnumbers he routinely performed, and thegreat ex-Teardrop John Primer is on handto help with “Get Your Business Straight”and “Buddy Buddy Friends.” Holt’s writingshows maturity, awareness of traditionbeyond the Magic Slim canon, and signifi-cant promise. The ominous “Daddy ToldMe” ushers Howlin’ Wolf into the new mil-lennium. “Mean Little Woman” is vintageB.B. King, filtered through the Holt sensi-bility; the nasty “Love Got Me Walkin’” rollson a Hound Dog Taylor rhythm. While theband rocks like Elmore James’s Broom-dusters on “You Done Me Wrong,” a deepsoulfulness glimmers through the bleak“Hold You Again.”

Holt can’t yet match his father for dra-matic range, but his hearty, emphaticsinging is fine. On guitar, the tones aremore strident and Holt makes a few rock-leaning moves, but Slim’s emphasis ongroove and awareness of time, many ofhis pet licks, his creativity and his attitudeare all present. I have heard son sit in withfather throughout the years and been hardpressed to identify which man was play-ing. Shawn Holt has come a long way inthe 15 years since he recorded the aptlynamed “Young Man Blues” on MagicSlim’s acclaimed record Black Tornado.Daddy Told Me, its pedigree notwithstand-ing, garnered its 2014 Blues Music Awardnomination for Best New Artist Debut theold fashioned way: It earned it.– Tom Hyslop

MIGHTY MOJO PROPHETSFlying Home From MemphisDelta Groove

There’s a bit of geographical confusiongoing on here. These Californians soundmore like they came from Texas. To add tothe confusion, the record’s called FlyingHome From Memphis, but the baggageoffloaded here sounds like it was broughtback from Chicago as well as Texas. Butwherever they picked up their luggage, The

Mighty Mojo Prophets pack a mean bag.The title refers to their return trip from theBlues Music Awards in Memphis last yearwhere they were nominated for Best NewArtist Debut. The band sounds like the orig-inal lineup of the Fabulous Thunderbirdswith Kim Wilson and Jimmie Vaughan.Vocalist Tom “Big Son” Eliff has Wilson’sbig as Texas vocal swagger with co-founderMitch Dow taking on the Vaughan guitarduties. On the Texas shuffle “Sweetness,”guest harpist Alex Woodson does someserious reed bending, Wilson-style.

These guys have that Texas road-house bar band groove down pat. Thisstuff goes down smooth and easy, butpacks a wallop. “Lucky Man” sounds like‘30s hokum set to a honky-tonk beat, withguest harmonicat San Pedro Slim pullingoff some James Cotton style harp riffs withDow’s guitar Vaughan-ing around him.Dow reaches in his bag and unpackssome boiling Elmore James for “The .45.”Woodson checks back in to turn in someharp work worthy of a Wilson clone. “OneFor Me” is the kind of rocking roadhouse,bottle-bustin’ leg shaker that made theT-Birds famous. This one is amped up bysome Little Richard style piano courtesy ofMike Malone. Bo Diddley’s shave and ahaircut beat runs underneath Eliff’sswampy tale of being hooodoed by hiswoman’s love on “Strong Medicine,” withDow contributing some backwater bayouslide, Sonny Landreth-style.

The Prophets give a shout out toMemphis on “Street Corner Preacher,” setto the tune of Otis Redding/ CarlaThomas’s ‘67 Stax smash, “Tramp,” with aBooker T sound-a-like organ burblingalong behind. “Whatchulookinfor” has aloose-limbed, Dr. John feel, a rattly ode tothe damage female pulchritude can do to aman. No matter what the destination, withThe Mighty Mojo Prophets as your bag-gage handlers, you’ll always arrive witheverything you need for a satisfying trip.– Grant Britt


DAVE KELLERSoul ChangesRed River

With a theme of lost love and memories,Soul Changes by Dave Keller is an inter-esting split of original and older material.Recorded in Memphis and Brooklyn, thecreative twist has Keller’s originals backedby Royal Studio’s Hi Rhythm Section (theHodges brothers) and The Royal Horns,along with Stax aces Bobby Manuel andLester Snell. At the Brooklyn session, theolder cover material features The Revela-tions and The Brooklyn Horns.

“Searching For A Sign” kicks off witha driving horn arrangement anchored byKirk Smothers’ baritone sax. “17 Years,”Keller’s deeply personal song about theend of his marriage is the standout. Co-written with Darryl Carter, it tells of lovethat “Starts up in heaven and winds up inhell”. The deeply experienced feelings heputs behind every word are powerful andKeller’s lead guitar chokes out even moreemotion.

“Old Man’s Lullabye” could be a fol-low-up to “17 Years” with the old manlamenting the loss of his lover. CharlesHodges adds soulful, shimmering organ.More moody memories are in “I WishWe’d Kissed” with the chorus, “I wish we’dkissed more often, I wish our hearts could’a softened”. Throughout this session, therhythm guitars of Teenie Hodges andBobby Manuel support every song with slyrestraint and a whole lot of soul. In “OneMore Time,” Teenie Hodges plays a back-ing riff that takes a page from FloydCramer’s 1960 hit “Last Date.”

The Brooklyn session is all old soulgems. Here the production has Kellersounding like the front man of a soul vocalgroup. With “It’s Too Strong,” he channelsthe songwriters Levert & Williams’s group,

The O’Jays. The George Jackson penned“Heart On A String” is a highlight withKeller turning in his best lead guitar work.Another Jackson tune, “Back In LoveAgain,” is also a standout.

Keller shows again and again that,like the blues, soul has to come from theheart. In this confessional of lost love, heunflinchingly bares his heart and his soul.– Mark Caron

RIC LEE’SNATURAL BORN SWINGERSPut A Record OnFast Western

There is something very British aboutPut A Record On, the debut release fromRic Lee’s Natural Born Swingers. Thereare tracks that wouldn’t sound out of placeon a ‘60’s pop album, and tracks thatsound like they were recorded at the timeof the British Blues Invasion. This is abrand of blues that The Blues Band andBill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings take to appre-ciative audiences throughout the U.K. andwhich hits a sweet spot for a large numberof gig goers.

The Natural Born Swingers boast twostalwarts of the ‘60’s British blues scene.Band leader Ric Lee is best known for histime as drummer with blues-rockers TenYears After while Bob Hall has a list ofcredits that could double up as a who’swho of blues. Hall has been a member ofBritish institutions Savoy Brown and TheGroundhogs as well performing withgreats such as John Lee Hooker, Howlin’Wolf, and Lightnin’ Slim. Joining Lee andHall are guitarist Danny Handley, who hastoured with a recent incarnation of TheAnimals, and bassist Scott Whitely.

The band first formed to play a partyand this album, dominated by good timeshuffles and boogie-woogie, may wellhave been the set list. While it’s all greatfun and enjoyable to listen to, it’s the moreserious songs that are the standouts andwhich give Handley the chance to show-case his more than decent voice. The titletrack shows the band’s soulful side, “BadFeeling Blues” is a smoky slow burner,and “It Don’t Mean A Thing To You” seesthe band getting a little funky. Alvin Lee’s“Rock Your Mama” is a treat for Ten YearsAfter fans. The jury is most definitely outthough on “The Hills Of Afghanistan”

which, whatever the merits of the song,doesn’t quite fit.

Put A Record On isn’t an essentialpurchase, but is well worth hunting outand giving a listen. And much as we alllove a party Ric, next time round it wouldbe great to hear a little more of the bluesand soul.– Chris Kerslake

CHRIS BERGSON BANDLiveAt Jazz Standard2 Shirts

If it’s possible, guitar ace Chris Bergsonjust keeps getting better. He had someopportunities to play with and observeHubert Sumlin before he passed two yearsago, and his emulation of the legend’sminimalist style has never been moreapparent than on his latest record.Recorded live over a two-night stand lastwinter at a NYC club, the record containsmore than one guitar tour de force, eachone demonstrating that it’s quality of toneand an instinct for the perfect choice ofnotes that distinguishes a great perfor-mance from one that’s merely flashy.

The CD also showcases Bergson’svocal power, songwriting skills, and hisability to assemble a world-class band.Bergson is without question the star of hisown live shows, but it’s the other players’


FESTIVALCONSULTANT

FOUNDER OF THENORTH ATLANTIC BLUES FESTIVALPaul E. BenjaminRockland, [email protected]

© www.dustyblues.com© www.dustyblues.com

eagerness to collaborate that really allowhim to shine. His longtime rhythm section– Tony Leone on drums and Matt Clohesyon bass – provide not just a solid founda-tion, but one with the imagination to createinteresting spaces in the music to highlightBergson’s prodigious talents. Multi-instru-mentalist Craig Dreyer not only playsorgan and Wurlitzer, he also co-wrote thedelightful “Sometimes It’s You,” an ode tothe black sheep in everyone’s family.Bergson’s saxophone player, Jay Collins,was on tour with another band when theCD was recorded, but he wrote nearly allof the brilliant horn charts, ably executedby Ian Hendrickson-Smith, Freddie Hen-drix, and David Luther.

Perhaps Bergson’s most fascinatingcollaboration is with soul singer EllisHooks, who duets with Bergson on thestandard “Corinna” and also on “The OnlyOne,” a tasty R&B composition he andBergson cooked up. Additional highlightsinclude “Heavenly Grass,” Bergson’smusic set to the lyrics of the TennesseeWilliams, the lovely “Chloe’s Song,” writ-ten for and about Bergson’s five-year-olddaughter, and the words-and-music por-traits of Bergson’s neighborhoods, past(“Gowanus Heights”) and present (61stand 1st”). If you don’t know Bergson’smusic, you should.– Kay Cordtz

JOE CASTELLANOSUPER BLUES & SOUL BANDSoul LandBlues Promotion Association

Pianist/songwriter/bandleader JoeCastellano, Sicily’s premier blues andsoul music crusader, led a large cast ofSicilian and American musicians acrossSicily during tours in 2010 and 2011 andpreserved their spirited performances onthis double CD. The most notablestatesider is Tower of Power guitaristBruce Conte who appears on six tracksincluding TOP’s funk strutter “KnockYourself Out.” The band can be as manyas 18 members with its two keyboards,six piece horn section, Latin percussion,and backing vocalists; there are six leadvocalists, Daria Biancardi (“Italy’s Queenof Soul”), Gavin Christopher, Cedric Ford,Gordon Metz, Karina Nuvo, andEd Wynne.

Castellano cast his net far and widefor the covers, which mainly consist ofwell known tunes by Stevie Wonder,Marvin Gaye, Four Tops, Temptations,Etta James, Bobby Bland, TinaTurner/John Fogarty, Donna Summer,Bob Marley, Solomon Burke/WilsonPickett, Whitney Houston, Labelle, EddieFloyd, and Dave Mason/Joe Cocker.The most interesting surprises: “KnockYourself Out” and Barbara Acklin’s “Am IThe Same Girl,” ebullient Sixties Chicagosoul in the same vein as her biggest hit“Love Makes A Woman”; least interest-ing: Donna Summer’s “Bad Girls” andWhitney Houston’s “Saving All My LoveFor You.” Castellano contributed six orig-inals including two versions of the rous-ing homage to his friend Solomon Burke,“The King Is Alive,” sung by gospel lumi-nary Cedric Ford. Overall, Soul Land isan entertaining live souvenir of timelesssoul music.– Thomas J. Cullen III

BOB CORRITORETabooDelta Groove

Instead of providing a voice to tell thestory of the song, Bob Corritore lets hisexpressive harmonica tell the stories onthis refreshing, twelve song program.Corritore began his love of the blues byplaying with many Chicago blues legendsback in the 1970s.When he moved toPhoenix in the early ‘80s, he brought theblues to the Southwest through his club,the Rhythm Room, and his weekly radioshow on KJZZ. His nine recordingsinclude harmonica guitar duos with DaveRiley, traditional Chicago blues backingTaildragger, explosive ensemble blueswith John Primer, and collections ofintimate recordings he collected when


legends like Robert Lockwood, Jr., NappyBrown, Pinetop Perkins, Jimmy Rogers,and many other stopped by his station forin studio performances.

Here it’s an instrumental buffet offer-ing more then just a dozen harp tunes.Many of the Chess harmonica traditionswere birthed by the robust partnership ofLittle Walter and various guitarists likeJimmy Rogers, Luther Tucker, and theMyers brothers, Louis and Dave. Thatessential weave of harmonica and guitaris not lost on Corritore. By adding JuniorWatson (ten songs) and Jimmie Vaughan(two songs), Corritore has calledupon guitarists who can add to this con-versation. Fred Kaplan’s keyboards(10 songs), Kedar Roy’s thumping bass,and the rock solid Chicago time kept byRichard Innes, today’s premier bluesdrummer, provide 45 minutes of thefinest traditional blues interspersed withsome creative off roading.

The CD opens with Willie Egan’s“Potato Stomp” which pairs Corritore withDoug James’ guttural sax honks. “RuckusRhythm” enlists Watson to handle theLockwood guitar parts backed by the flattire shuffle time (heavy accents o the twoand four) kept by Innes. Just when youthink it’s all meat and potatoes, Watsonand Kaplan lead off “Harmonica Watusi,” aSoCal beach tune. There’s also Corritore’sdelicate slow blues, “5th Position,” wherehis chromatic, Watson’s string textures,and Kaplan’s trebly piano accents recreatethe magic of this music.

When Corritore adds Vaughan, on“Mr. Tate’s Advice,” Kaplan switches toorgan for the three-man swing. Vaughan,James, and Kaplan later contribute to theearthy Texas shuffle, “Shuff Stuff.” The CDends just as you might imagine, Corritorecalling on the album’s core band for alonely, late night elixir shared betweenfriends. This is comfort food for any bluelover’s soul.– Art Tipaldi

JANIVA MAGNESSOriginalFathead

Janiva Magness’ journey has broughther to this masterpiece, a stunning set of11 originals, seven co-written by Magness,that effortlessly combine her life’s musicalinfluences into a truly original achieve-ment. Her lifelong affinity with blues andsoul music, now combined with a rootsy,songwriter rock provides Magness thepalette to tell these stirring stories.

Most women singers in the blues areclassified as shouters or belters. Magnesscan belt with the best, but she also has avery unique ability to rise above thatcommon style with a tone that delicatelyexpresses nuance and warmth. Anyonewho has listened to Magness’ vocal growthover her decades of toiling can immedi-ately hear the culmination of years oflearning what her voice can do. Just listento her teardrop phrasing of the line “Stand-ing here, I feel the air just leave the room”in the opening song, “Let Me Breathe.” It’sguaranteed to send a momentary chilldown necks. And that’s just one line in abeautifully crafted song that humanizes thepunch in the gut loneliness anyone whohas lost love has experienced. The bestsongs can offer uncomplicated personalgrief that immediately reaches a publicaudience. This song succeeds.

The rest of the songs showcaseMagness’ sultry voice in a variety of stylesand messages. “When You Were MyKing” deepens that emotional loss until“Everything Is Alright” is the emotionalwake up call to action. Her soul struts on“Twice As Strong” with its message ofempowerment, sister to sister. ProducerDave Darling’s sparse guitar tones are theslinky underpinning to Magness and DanNavarro’s duet on “With Love.” Follow thatwith Darling and Zach Zunis’ twin guitarssupporting her aching vocals on “Moun-tain” somewhat reminiscent of her 2008 “IWon’t Be Around.” “Who Am I” stands tallwith a vehement affirmation of self after aloss of love might have most questioning,“was it my fault?”

The album ends with Magnessstretching her voice with powerful resolveon “Standing.” Taken as a whole, thesongs are a comprehensive record ofpersonal heartbreaks and hopeful

assertions. They build from the ache ofloss to the strength and insights gainedfrom experience. The choice of material,arrangements, and range of Magness’vocals puts this record light years aheadof anything Magness has previouslyrecorded. This is a voice to be reckonedwith.– Art Tipaldi

JOE KROWN,WALTER“WOLFMAN”WASHINGTON, ANDRUSSELL BATISTE, JR.Soul SerenadingJK

When he’s not off scalding the asphaltwith his Roadmasters, Walter “Wolfman”Washington holes up with Joe Krown andRussell Batiste, Jr. for some organic,funky jazz. On their latest, Soul Under-standing, there’s plenty of funk and ahealthy dose of soul as well in theopener, “Trio’s Anthem.” Krown’s B-3 bur-bles like Jimmy McGriff over a funkscapethe Funky Meters would be proud toclaim, and rightfully so, as Batiste is theirdrummer when not engaged with Krownand Washington.

Washington smooths out Johnny“Guitar” Watson’s choppy, scat-littered‘80’s hit “Lone Ranger,” turning it onto asmooth ballad, laying down a GeorgeBenson guitar groove and harmonizing onvocals with Batiste. The Krown-pennedtitle cut is right out of ‘60’s era Booker Tand the MGs down to Washington’s SteveCropper-like picking as he sidesteps nim-bly around the organist. The Washingtonoriginal “Just Us” features smooth WesMontgomery style jazz punctuated byBatiste’s gunshots and Krown skatingaround tossing klanking clumps of B-3underfoot.


Washington oozes crooner juice on“Nothing Left To Be Desired,” soundingmore like Johnny Adams’ jazzy soul vocaliz-ing than author Watson’s funky original.Fans of the Roadmasters will recognize thatmost of the material here sounds like whatWashington does on his second sets withthe Roadmasters, more laid back and jazzythan his balls to the wall, funky classics likeWatson’s “You Can Stay But That Noise’sGot To Go.” And since the name of thisaggregation is the Joe Krown Trio, Krown’sorgan is the lead instrument more oftenthan not. And while it’s a nice change, stillyou miss the horn section, especially JimmyCarpenter’s distinctive funky sax that backsWashington’s Roadmasters gigs. ButWashington still gets his signature soundout front on his composition, “Lovely Day,” alaid-back soul ballad featuring Washingtonat his mellowest on guitar and vocals.

With Washington’s gift for soulfulrearranging, as he demonstrated on theWatson tunes, and his mellow crooningand immaculate phrasing on guitar,Soul Understanding is an apt tile for this

collection. Even if he doesn’t get topbilling, it’s still a Wolfman vehicle, and asalways, a funky and interesting road trip.– Grant Britt

DOUG DEMING& THE JEWEL TONESWhat’s It Gonna TakeMighty Tiger

Doug Deming, an experienced Detroit areaguitarist and bandleader, seemed to bebetter known by Kim Wilson, who oftenhired him for his blues shows in the Mid-west, than by the general public, despitetwo noteworthy albums to his credit. Thathas changed significantly. Since relocatingto Florida a few years ago, Deming hasreconstituted the lineup of his excellentJewel Tones to feature Devin Neel (drums)and Andew Gohman (bass), taking fulladvantage of a partnership with the stellarharmonica player Dennis Gruenling, andhit the road with determination in supportof What’s It Gonna Take, a record thatdoes not permit itself to be ignored.

Untraditional in that it is neither deepnor especially gritty, Deming’s singing voiceis expressive, friendly, and effective. Hisguitar work is exemplary. Deming has donehis homework, and plays a range of styleswith understated sophistication, dynamics,and attention to detail. Whether originatingfrom a big box guitar or a Stratocaster, histone comes out of a dream. How about the

spacey Leslie sound on the indescribableBo Diddley-Buddy Holly mash-up “StayAway”?

Versatility has long been amongDeming’s strengths. Like Duke Robillard,he quickly puts paid to the notion thatblues-based music all sounds alike. Thisprogram features just a few covers, amongthem a storming, bop-inflected reading ofLouis Armstrong’s “I Want You To Be MyBaby” and a quietly swinging, completelyreimagined take on Buddy Johnson’s jump-ing “A Pretty Girl (A Cadillac And SomeMoney).” But this is no exercise in jazz.Deming’s originals encompass doomystomps à la Howlin’ Wolf, the swampy “NoBig Thrill,” and echo-laden, Muddy Waters-inspired slow blues. “Lucky Charm” soundslike nothing else this side of Eddie C.Campbell. The title track, a relaxed GulfCoast rocker, chugs along with Gruenling’sharp sometimes sounding uncannily like asqueezebox. Few artists move as easily oras often between the uptown and the low-down, or achieve such memorable results.– Tom Hyslop

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DENNIS GRUENLINGRockin’All DayBackbender

The New Jersey-based Dennis Gruenling is known (like manyothers) for a reverence for Little Walter that culminated in a 2008tribute project, and recognized (like few others) as a true innovatorof the little horn, a youthful master who puts harps to uses previ-ously unimagined, or at least unexplored. Setting aside the techni-cal aspects of his playing, his fully expressed tonality, his colorfulapproach to accompaniment, and his imagination and versatility insoloing are equally remarkable. Gruenling’s current partnership withDoug Deming & The Jewel Tones has resulted in relentless touringand albums under both artists’ names.

Rockin’ All Day, Gruenling’s inspired offering, is strong fromstart to finish, moving with ease from the jumping title track and

Shakey Jake/Magic Sam’s“Roll Your Moneymaker”through rockabilly (CarlPerkins) and R&B (WynonieHarris), with a Louisiana sidetrip (Gruenling’s “What’sWrong With Me?”). The bandfollows a lightly swinging,Amos Milburn-inspired “OneScotch, One Bourbon, OneBeer” with a hard-hitting ver-sion of the choice MuddyWaters number “She’s So

Pretty,” and uncorks Melvin Smith’s mellow alcoholic obscurity“It Went Down Easy” with high-test results.

Gruenling contributes three harp instrumentals. “Hotso” riffs onLittle Walter’s playful side, “2:22 A.M.” the darker shades of “BlueMidnight.” “The Rev” careens insanely, but never jumps the trackas it modulates through solos, keys, and moods. Gruenling altersthe sound of his harp with each section. Dramatic intensity peakswhen the wild ride returns to the harp, handclap, and kick drumbreakdown that opened it. I believe this is called a tour-de-force.

Rockin’ All Day is in many ways the flip side of Deming’sWhat’s It Gonna Take. Both sets feature primarily the superbrhythm section of Devin Neel (drums) and Andrew Gohman (bass),with Gruenling and Deming balancing the solo action, and Demingsinging; both offer an enviable spread of blues, jump, and rootsrock (and both cover Louis Jordan, with “Saturday Night Fish Fry”here); and both are treasure chests of cool tones and classy,catchy production. The excellent Rockin’ All Day is surely a keeper.– Tom Hyslop

JOHN FOHLteeth and bonesSelf-released

Former guitarist with Dr. John’s Lower 911 band, John Fohl hasreleased teeth and bones, his third solo outing since 1998’s I Got

News For You and 2004’s Time Ain’t Waitin’. Here, Fohl continuesthe intimate feel of those albums which were mostly solo vocalsand guitar. But the music is expanded on many songs with theaddition of other veteran New Orleans musicians.

It kicks off with the rollicking “Ice Water” where Fohl’s lowerregister fretwork pairs perfectly with Johnny Sansone’s bayou-blues harp. “Show Me Your Ugly Side” continues the mood withFohl’s swamp-rock guitar backed by Sansone’s steamy, slitheryplaying and Uganda Roberts’s congas. “Do Or Die” takes a less

electric approach with thebayou mood helped along byRod Hodges accordion, whileFohl displays just the rightamount of light guitar feel tothe melody and a subtle lead.

On the instrumental “Cap110 (Martinique),” Fohl’saccented fingerpicking isaccompanied only byRoberts’s congas giving thesong a lazy Caribbean feel.Fohl’s vocal on the Philip

Colombatto penned “Angel In Disguise” has hints of Dr. John’svocal phrasing. Fohl’s rollicking acoustic, Joe Cabral’s bass andRoberts’s congas enhance the back porch feel with Susan Cowsilladding tasty harmonies to the chorus.

The chugging, upbeat rhythm driving “That Whip Don’t WorkOn Me” lets bassist Cabral and drummer Doug Belote drive thesong the way only New Orleans rhythm sections can. The weavinginterplay between Sansone, Fohl and Dave Stocker’s organ worksperfectly under Fohl’s strong vocal. “Accustomed To The Dark,”written in part by Theresa Andersson, showcases Fohl’s acousticwizardry and smooth vocal. The strong lyrics and interestingmelody changes make the song a highlight.

It’s good to know that even with Fohl’s hectic schedule back-ing so many others that he’s finally taken the time to put out somegreat New Orleans based music of his own.– Mark Caron

CATHY LEMONSBlack CrowVizzTone

Although she now makes her home in San Francisco, CathyLemons’ soul is still in her native Texas. Lemons belongs on theroster of great Lone Star state singers like Lou Ann Barton andAngela Strehli. She doesn’t have Barton’s twangy drawl or thebodacious brass of Strehli, but packs a formidable punch of Texassoul and down and dirty blues. Her latest, Black Crow, recorded atKid Andersen’s Greaseland Studios in San Jose, sounds like itcame out of some sawdust-floored Texas juke joint as the sun wascoming up.

Lemons serves up some great, greasy Texas barbeque blueswith “I’m A Good Woman,” based on the melody from Slim Harpo’s“Tee Ni Nee Ni Nu,” backing her sexy soulful vocals with funky,clankin’ lead guitar. She takes on a John Lee Hooker-style boogieon “Hip Check Man,” offering her boogie doctorial services to fix up


the man of her desires ifhe’ll just come by and seeabout her.

By far the most inter-esting thing on the record isher take on James Brown’s“The Big Payback.” It takesa lot of nerve to attempt tocover such an iconic Brownfunk classic, but Lemonspulls off a funky takeover.Soaring above the wah-wah

propelled Shaft industrial clang with Doug James’ bari sax burp-ing soulfully underneath, Lemons bastes the funk with spicyTexas soul.

The girls in Texas are used to sliding around on greasyhonky tonk floors, she reveals on “Texas Shuffle.” But there’s noboot heel drag going on here; you need to move your feet prettyfast to keep up with her boogie infused shuffle on fast-forward.“The Devil Has Blue Eyes” is a low-down moan about a devilishlover who has captured her soul, a stark rendering with Lemons’sparse, lonesome guitar tolling mournfully as she howls herblues away.

There’s no lemons on here, but you’ll want to keepsqueezin’ the juice outta this one for a pitcher of Lemons-aideevery time you want to quench a powerful thirst for Lone Starblues, boogie, and soul.– Grant Britt

JIMMY WOLFTribute To Little JohnnyTaylorSelf-released

Guitarist/vocalist Jimmy Wolf honors the memory of his formeremployer on this self-produced collection of Little Johnny Taylornuggets culled from the soul-blues progenitor’s Galaxy and Ronncatalogs. Although he had major R&B hits dating back to 1963with the oft-covered “Part Time Love” (Galaxy), and in the early

Seventies (on Ronn) with“Everybody Knows AboutMy Good Thing” and “OpenHouse At My House,” LJTwas sometimes mistakenfor Johnnie Taylor, andnever got the greater recog-nition he deserved.Nonetheless, he performeduntil his passing in 2002and his legacy is his scintil-lating oeuvre of blues andsoul. Kudos to Wolf and his

cohorts (bassist Thomas Carter, keyboardist Joe Cummings, anddrummer Stephen Bender) for shining a light on LJT with thissimple and direct tribute that also showcases Wolf’s searingsolos and boisterous wah-wah. Wolf sings without affectation,but is no substitute (nor does he try to be) for LJT’s fervidly idiosyncratic blend of blues grit and gospel wailing.

In addition to slow blues classics “Part Time Love” and“Everybody Knows About My Good Thing,” Wolf mixes in funk(“Zig Zag Lightning,” “Hard Head Makes A Sore Behind,” and“Junkie For Your Love”), shuffles (“Walking The Floor,” “Some-timey Woman,” “On My Way Back Home,” and “You’ll NeedAnother Favor”), and one more slow blues (“Somebody’s Got ToPay”). However, a mere ten tunes are not enough; I was sur-prised that the aforementioned “Open House...” as well as thestrident “If You Love Me (Like You Say),” which was popularizedby Albert Collins among others, weren’t in the mix. Hopefully,Wolf’s heartfelt homage will lead fans to the Galaxy and Ronnrecordings that inspired him.– Thomas J. Cullen III

ANDRA FAYEAND SCOTT BALLANTINELaying Down Our BluesSelf-released

Distill down one part of Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women and mixwith one part of the Indianapolis-based Strugglers and you get atasteful blend of blues music crafted by Andra Faye and Scott Bal-lantine. A two time Blues Music Award nominee for mandolin andfiddle, Faye deftly plays her mandolin but jettisons the fiddle foradditional string playing on acoustic and resonator guitar and bothupright and electric bass. She also provides all the vocals andwrote or co-wrote five of the 12 songs. Ballantine is content to

accompany with bothacoustic and resonator gui-tar. For our musician read-ers, these sounds will bothcaptivate your listening andmake you a tad jealous overhis craft in guitar technique.

“Sweet Melody,” thesecond cut and one of themost beautiful songs on theCD, was dedicated to thelate Ann Rabson, one ofFaye’s fellow Saffire musi-

cians. In emphasis of this homage, when the CD is removedfrom the case, the lyrics for “Sweet Melody” are imprinted behindit. Faye’s singing ranges in emotion from the salacious “SlowBurning Love,” which is reminiscent of Bonnie Raitt’s classic“Blender Blues,” to one of abject scorn in “Less Of You.”

Blues mandolin master Yank Rachell penned “My Baby’sGone” and Faye’s mandolin chops demonstrate why she was aBlues Music Award nominee for her mandolin expertise. Otherstandouts on this recording include the cuts “Lonely Nights” and“Blue Lullaby” and Ballantine’s short but oh-so-sweet “HipsterRag” in which his clean instrumental prowess is a real joy. Hissecond solo, “Song For My Babies,” is simply beautiful. MemphisMinnie is credited with two songs, “In My Girlish Days” and “BlackRat Swing” with its timeless lyrics. With its mellifluous vocals andvirtuosic accompaniment, this first collaboration between Fayeand Ballantine is a welcome addition to your blues library.– Pete Sardon


MIKEY JUNIORTraveling SouthVizzTone

Although his roots are in New Jersey and Bucks County, Pa, for-mer waiter/realtor Michael Hudak’s sound comes from low down,back alley Chicago blues and swampy Delta stomping grounds.Renaming himself Mikey Junior in his mid-twenties, Hudakdecided to take up his father’s profession. But while Senior playedold time rock and roll, hamming it up by wrapping his 6’3’’ framearound a child’s tricycle and riding it up and down the bar while

performing “Leader Of ThePack” or donning a trenchcoat for “Secret Agent Man,”Junior plays it straight, layingout serious 12-bar blues andhard-rockin’ R&B.

On the harpist’s latest forVizzTone, ten of the twelvecuts are originals. Little Wal-ter’s sound looms large, butthe title cut gets a bit farthersouth than Chicago. Aswampy, low-down, hoodoo

moaner, “Travelin’ South” sounds like some primordial swamp thangclawing its way up the muddy Mississippi river bank to grow legsand hunt humans. “Morning On My Way” is another swamper, a BoDiddley beat thumping muddily on the banks of the mighty Missis-sippi while Junior splashes Walter all over the place.

Walter’s influence comes to light in “Nobody Does It Like Me,”Junior chewing on the reeds, wailing like a back alley demon. Heshifts gears for “Katie Lynn,” a raucous, rattly ‘50s style rocker, amashup of Little Richard and Screamin’ Jay Hawkins looselybased on the melody from Richard’s “Lucille” until Mikey cuts loosewith a mournful harp solo sounding like some cutthroat, back alleyafter hours Chicago blues joint. “The Cheat” sounds like the frame-work for the Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” overlaid with Junior’shoodoo harp and a swaggering, strutting vocal replacing Jagger’sfaux country skronk.

Junior switches gears for “Trying To Do The Best I Can,” aswamp pop offering along the lines of Toussaint McCall’s “NothingTakes The Place Of You.” Junior dips a toe into rockabilly on “Try-ing To Do The Best I Can,” chugging along through a shimmeryfog of reverb. Don’t be misled by the harpist’s use of the diminutiveMikey or the Junior tag. There’s nothing small or juvenile aboutanything this guy does. Put him on and prepare to be blown away.– Grant Britt

STEVE DuPREE & THE DELTA FLYERSDr.DuPree’s Love ShopSoulbilly

Recorded in Austin and produced by Kaz Kazanoff (who con-tributes sax, harmonica, and keyboards as well as leading the

Texas Horns), veteran Texasvocalist/songwriter SteveDuPree serves up a mélangeof original blues, R&B, rocka-billy, and soul on his thirdalbum. The Delta Flyers (gui-tarist Travis Stephenson,bassist Quentin “Q” Calva,and drummer Steve Bun-drick) are a tight and versa-tile unit as befitting therequisites of this eclectic set.

The opener “Broke Up” (featuring guest guitarist DerekO’Brien) is reminiscent of the harder roots rock of CreedenceClearwater Revival and throughout the album DuPree’s vocalsoften reminded me of John Fogarty. The second track, “FirstDance,” a finger snappin’ dance floor summons features anotherLone Star stalwart, Marcia Ball, who provides the rollicking boogie-woogie piano. (Nick Connolly is the keyboardist on the othertracks.) The funky title track, a bright and brassy Southern soulstroller, has guest vocalists Alice Stewart and Lisa Tingle sala-ciously trading verses as they extol the efficacy of the notions,potions, and sound advice to be found in Dupree’s “love shop.”Best known as one of the premier saxophonists of the last 30years, Kazanoff is also an excellent harmonica player as hedemonstrates on “St. Paul’s Bottoms,” a raucous mash-up ofHowlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters, and the serpentine encomium“That Ol’ Mule,” replete with nimble Sonny Boy II-like warbling.“Soulbilly Blues,” an apt description of DuPree’s musical vision,has the singer reaffirming the healing power of the blues to thedespondent characters he encounters in the song. Fans of well-played original roots music will find much to enjoy in this particularlove shop.– Thomas J. Cullen III

MARK NOMADReal Fine DayBlue Star

Here’s the skinny on Mark Nomad as a musician. He can pick up aresonator, slide, and harmonica and dazzle you with a dead-ontake on a Blind Willie Johnson spiritual. He can plug in his Strat,and add a lusty sax to augment his love of the West Side blues ofMagic Sam, then he can write arrangements with wailing Chicagoharmonica to recreate the blues of his influences, Muddy Waters

and Howlin’ Wolf. Or he cantake a left turn and head intothumping wah-wah funk orDuane Allman Southern-friedslide territory (He’ll tell youwith a smile about seeingDuane five times before hedied in 1971.).

At this point in his career– this is his eighth CD –Nomad needn’t make recordsthat introduce his music to


the world; rather he can assemble sounds and arrangementsand influences and share them. Real Fine Day is a record thattells the story of Nomad’s journey – what he’s lived and wherehe is centered today. The CD opener, “New Day Dawning” withit’s heavy accents and slide vocal harmonies, states Nomad’smaturing outlook, “I spent far too long wishin’ I was some-where else.” The result is a new and exciting Nomad recordingwhere Nomad has recorded a record that satisfies his multi-facetted musical tastes. His love of mellow acoustic slide sur-faces on “My Mind Gets To Wandering,” his funk meets ‘60ssoul flourishes on the danceable “Squeeze Me In.” There aretwo instrumentals. “The Friz” is a surf guitar styled Strat explo-ration that would make Jimmy Thackery proud. While “SunWorlds, Moon Worlds” is reminiscent of a Hendrix melodicimprovisation. Nomad plays “Mellow Down Easy” with heavythumb plucks on an acoustic guitar and his harmonica takingthe place of the lead guitar solo. While “No Place To Go” hasWolf’s swagger in Nomad’s harmonica and Hubert Sumlin’sexpressive tones in Nomad’s guitar. The title cut ends therecord by wrapping up the musical journey, “Sunshine, music,food, and love. These are things I’m always thinking of.” Add ina listen to this record, and it surely is a real fine day.– Art Tipaldi

LISA BIALESBelle Of The BluesBig Song

Lisa Biales says that she has a secret wish to be “the mostdesired back-up singer on the planet.” But with her vocal skills,it’s more likely she’ll be the main attraction. On this offeringBiales is, as advertised, the Belle of the Blues. Biales’ harmony

vocals with EG Kighton Memphis Minnie’s“My Girlish Days” areimpressive, but hersolo turn really makesthis one a standout.

As she did on herprevious release, ‘12’sJust Like Honey, Bialesuses Tommy Talton’sstring skills on Dobro,acoustic, and slideguitars to great effect.

Duane Allman recruited Talton for Capricorn Records andTalton toured with brother Greg before forming Cowboy in ‘69with former Allman tour band partner and future Rolling Stonekeyboardist Chuck Leavell. Talton’s mellow Southern soul stylemeshes perfectly with Biales’ laid back vocal vibe here.

On her cover of Bessie Smith’s 1923 classic, “BabyWon’t You Please Come Home,” Biales’ vocals are softer,more velvety than Smith’s original, but Biales captures thesoulful essence of Smith. Biales rocks out with a Texas twangon the Ann Rabson/EG Kight/Tom Horner composition“Bad Girl,” Talton’s slide keeping them hopping, dodging hisstinging licks.


Kight and Paul Hornsby (Charlie Daniels Band, MarshallTucker, Wet Willie) were the producers for this one as they were forBiales’ previous release. The result is bluesy Southern rock withplenty of soul. The title cut has plenty of bounce with a honky-tonkfeel and a taste of Piedmont blues style harp courtesy of PatBergeson. “Graveyard Dead Blues,” is a deadly love song. With thehelp of some mighty fine Dobro work from Talton, Biales belts it outBonnie Raitt style. It’s a declaration of her intention of making herman happy if he can remember only two things: she’s got a bigbroom in the kitchen and a big ol’ fryin’ pan, and “if you don’t wantme to use ‘em, honey, behave yourself and be my lovin’ man.”Consider yourself warned. Lisa Biales is out there wielding a big olefryin’ pan fulla knockout blues. Take the hit, lie back, and enjoy.– Grant Britt

GRACIE CURRAN &THE HIGH FALUTIN’ BANDProof Of LoveVizzTone

Anytime a Boston-based band uses a prominent baritone sax,you can’t help being reminded of the late, great Morphine, butthat’s another story. With baritone sax and her High Falutin’ bandin tow, Gracie Curran’s Proof Of Love is certainly proof of herblossoming talent. And it all started not very long ago at age 21.

Curran and the High Falutin’ boys are certainly a talentedbunch. Proof Of Love definitely has some high points with its ‘60svibe, horns, fuzzed electric guitar leads, a stomping rhythm section

and Curran’s Janis-esquevocal fire. “Even With TheRain” opens with baritonesax and some fine trumpetlines. “Take You With Me”showcases Curran’s vocalrange from light phrasing toheavier forceful registers.The horn section and BruceBears’ Hammond stand out.“Jack & Mary Jane” will likelybecome Curran’s signaturesong. It’s an ode to two of

rock’s better-known self-medications. Tom Carroll’s funky, wah-wah fueled guitar riffs drive the song. The gospel-ish “Rock & AHard Place” suffers just a bit from repetitive lyrics and slightlyslurred vocals. But talent that Curran is, she still carries the songwith her emotive, fiery attack. Carroll plays one of his better guitarleads and Mark Earley follows with a killer, wailing sax lead. “Can’tGetta” is a lyrical and musical highlight with the great chorus, “It’sa battle, it’s a war, I don’t know what I’m fighting for. It’s a struggle,it’s a fight, it’s the story of my life.” “Been All Over” is the one realblues cut on the album and Richard Rosenblatt’s heated harpmakes certain it stays that way.

Curran always brings the passion, the band certainly has thechops and their songwriting can at times be very strong. Proof OfLove is evidence of that. What happens between it and their nextalbum will be interesting to watch.– Mark Caron


ANNIKA CHAMBERS& THE HOUSTON ALL-STARSMaking My MarkMontrose

Houston-based Annika Chambers’ debut album is a finecollaboration with Grammy winner bassist Larry Fulcher andRichard Cagle, owner-engineer of Montrose Records. Coupledwith a long A-list of accompanying Houston musicians, the recordgives the talented Chambers a means to showcase her powerful,engaging and full-range vocals.

The 12-track CD is a combination of blues, R&B, and soul– and one modern-feeling rapper, “That Feel Good” featuring anenergetic performance by Dominique Fulcher. More soul thanclassic blues, there are three originals by Chambers, includingthe opener “Move,” a funky blues song co-written by the Fulcherswith some wah-wah guitar work by Corey Stoot (fromFunkadelic.). “Barnyard Blues” is one of the best songs on therecord. It’s bouncy and danceable with Chambers’ husky vocalssinging about “chickens and cocks,” horses “who can run fast butcan’t run all day,” “goats rolling around in the hay,” and otherfarm-related double entendres – well, maybe not so double.The song is made even better by the snappy guitar of DavidCarter, horns by Anthony Terry, and organ by Barry Seelen,a Hammond specialist.

“Lick ‘Er” is anothergem, with its fair share ofdouble meanings – or per-haps a metaphor – or odeto a 12-stepper. (“When youfeel the need to have a sipof hooch/I want to be yourlick ‘er.) The song has feel-ing, moodiness, and pep,and shows off Chambers’soulful vocal range. “Put ItWhere You Want It” is a

sassy and sexy upbeat bluesy number, with Chambers puttingout some hot nasty-girl vocals, alternating growling with sweethigh notes. The disk ends with a B.B. King song, “Let’s Get DownTo Business,” although it has a much different flavor in Cham-bers’ hands. There’s a big brass and horn arrangement byDarrell Leonard who has worked with Taj Mahal and Elton John.Samantha Banks from the Ruthie Foster Band aptly handlesdrums on most of the songs.

As stated earlier, Chambers has a stellar cast of greatmusicians and sound engineers on the disc – too many tomention. Many have worked with biggies such as Otis Rush, EricClapton, Keb’ Mo’, and Luther Vandross. Making My Mark has itsfair share of ballads and dance tunes, but gives enough blendingand variety to make it worth a listen. Chambers is sure to make amark on the music world.– Karen Nugent


EARLE POOLE BALLPianographyTin Tube Tunes

For twenty years, pianist Earle Poole Ballbacked Johnny Cash on tour and in thestudio, producing Cash’s ‘80 release,Rockabilly Blues. On his solo debut, Ballshows off his familiarity with old schoolcountry, blues, and honky-tonk. Like DaleWatson, Ball’s voice has traces of Willieand Merle. On the title cut, you’d swear itwas Willie sitting in on vocals as Ballunrolls his biographical travelogue.

Ball stars out mellow on this outing,but starts to kick up his heels on the fourthcut, “Say You Love Me,” co-written with“King of Cajun” accordionist Jo-El Sonnier,whom Ball wrote and recorded with from‘76-‘86. But despite the cross-cultural col-laboration, this song, shot through withcountry style scatting duets featuring Balland Cindy Cashdollar, resembles a RayStevens novelty song rather than anythingremotely Cajun.

But Ball is at his gritty best whenworking in the Cash mode. “It’s the nextbest thing to seeing the Man in Black,” theannouncer says, bringing Ball to the stagefor Austin’s annual Johnny Cash Bash. Ballkicks it of with a twangy rendition of “BigRiver,” then offers up a honky tonk/gospeltake on “Will The Circle Be Unbroken” withLisa Mills doing a spot on June CarterCash impersonation. For the set’s finish,Ball conjures up Jerry Lee Lewis, careen-ing along dangerously fast on a rattly,speedball honky-tonk version of “MeanWoman Blues.” The last two cuts are vin-tage Ball tracks. The first, ‘67’s “SecondAnd San Antone” is a rollicking travelogue,Jerry Lee Lewis-style, boasting of the fine-ness of the women who make the goodtimes roll in Austin at that particular inter-section. For reasons only Europeans could

fathom and to Ball’s surprise as well, thesong became a disco hit in Europe. Thecloser, the ‘77 country gospel weeper“Flowers On Papa’s Grave” demonstrateswhy the The Flying Burrito Brothers wantedto include him on their country rock excur-sions, contributing all the piano on theireponymous ‘71 release.

Although Ball’s musical biography issplattered with big name associations fromBuck Owens to Merle Haggard to Cash, ashe proves here, he’s at his best just beinghis honky tonkin’ self.– Grant Britt

MICHAEL JEROME BROWNEThe Road Is DarkBorealis

With each new release, Canadianblues/roots musician Michael JeromeBrowne grows increasingly unpredictable.He won’t be pigeonholed easily. From theartful design of the outside package of hisfifth album, the musical contents on theinside are equally imaginative and reward-ing. An understated songwriter, he and lyri-cal partner B.A. Markus, have showcasedeight sturdy originals against covers byJ.B. Lenoir, Frankie Lee Sims, and JimmySkinner. Yet, in Browne’s talented hands,each is painted entirely by his own brush,originals fitting seamlessly against the rest.

A supremely talented musician,Browne makes anything his own and, inthe process, rejuvenates traditional tuneswith smart arrangements, reinventing themthrough his choice of instrument. Old-tymebecomes new-tyme – and vice versa – asBrowne targets multiple genres, confidentin his uncanny ability to strip it all downto its bare-bones roots. Take the openingtrack, originally a Flatt & Scruggs tune,all boiled down into the blues, armed withonly the rasp of his vocals and a deft useof slide on his electric, arch-top guitar.

The title track is notable for its rollingpace, its just-right vocals and Browne’sprowess on acoustic 12-string, for fully-orchestrated effect. Likewise, the original“Graveyard Blues” achieves prominencethrough his effective vocals and the sunnypluck of his fretless gourd banjo. He evenworks magic with a child’s toy guitar onthe sprightly “At It Again.” Both originals“One More Empty Bottle” and “Sinner’sPlea” are served up as deep, dark blues


with convincing bite. So completelycomfortable and familiar with the genre,Browne has such powerful purchase,such an authentic grasp of the music andon his ability to render it, musically, on hispick of instrument, he distinguishes him-self with each step forward. New songslike “Sing Low,” here joined on guitar byMighty Popo, champion causes like theplight of Afghan women enlisted into amodern day slavery, while “G20 Rag” wasinspired by recent acts of police brutality atpeaceful protest in Toronto. His vocal onLenoir’s “The Whale Has Swallowed Me”must take a back seat to his own playfulguitar lines and John McColgan’s perkywashboard percussion, which entirelyenergizes this piece.

Two additional highlights includeBrowne’s heartfelt treatment of Davis’“Death Don’t Have No Mercy” and his own“If Memphis Don’t Kill Me,” wherein a fullband (Steve Marriner, harmonica; JodyBenjamin, guitar; Michael Ball, stand-upbass) helps create a jovial, jug bandgroove. All in all, a master stroke whichshines brightly despite the din of its darkcontent.– Eric G. Thom

DAVID EGANDavid EganRhonda Sue

New Orleans blues and roots fans knowDavid Egan as the keyboardist withLil’ Band of Gold, but last spring inNew Orleans at JazzFest, I sat focusedon the music as this Shreveport-basedkeyboardist, songwriter, and singer led hisband through a compelling set of mostlyall-original tunes. No wonder Egan’ssongs have been recorded by everyonefrom Johnny Adams to Percy Sledge toJohn Mayall and Irma Thomas.


On this self-titled album, Egan demon-strates his ability to take standard blues innew directions, which is what all good bluesartists should be doing these days, to allowthe form to continue to evolve. He remindsme of Mose Allison on tracks like “BluesHow They Linger,” makes use of a nicecomplement of horns on “Out Of Missis-sippi,” and we’re not surprised to discoverthere’s only one co-write on this all-originalalbum of very strong songs, “Dance To TheBlues With Me,” with Chris Belleau. Anotherstandout track is “One Foot In The Bayou,One Foot In New York City,” about a young,single girl who makes her home in bothMorgan City and New York City.

At times he’s like Mose Allison withhis literary ballads, but at other points onthis recording, he transports us right tothe heart of the some French Quarter clubwith songs that are decidedly funkier andreminiscent of the great Crescent Citypianist-singer-songwriter Allen Toussaint.Egan recorded in the Dockside Studios inMaurice, Louisiana, and has expertaccompaniment throughout this disc.Every tune is a winner on this album. I’dlove to see Egan and his crack backingband making the rounds of some of theEast coast blues festivals this springand summer.– Richard J. Skelly

DAVID KEYESRight Here, Right NowDKR

Like David Egan in Louisiana, keyboardist-singer-songwriter Dave Keyes hasblessed us with an all-original album ofsongs that takes contemporary blues and

blues-rock in new lyrical and composi-tional directions. If the five minute instru-mental “Shadow Boogie” doesn’t blowyou away, perhaps a visit to your cardiol-ogist is in order. Like Egan’s self-titledalbum, there’s hardly a weak track onRight Here, Right Now. Keyes, based inRockland County, N.Y., just about anhour north of Manhattan, has done somestellar session work through the years,accompanying people like Odetta, RuthBrown, and Marie Knight, so if anyonedeserves a wider audience leading bandsunder his own name, Keyes is one ofthem. This album was nominated in2014 by the Blues Foundation for Best


Self-Produced album, and Keyes is a2014 Blues Music Award nominee asPinetop Perkins Piano Player of theYear Award. It’s easy to see why: greatsongs, great, soul-filled vocals, andbrilliant piano playing chops aredemonstrated throughout.

Keyes is accompanied by a smallwho’s-who of New York session musi-cians, including the omnipresent PopaChubby as well as fellow guitaristsWoody Mann and George Naha, bassistSue Williams, and drummer FrankPagano. There is one co-write “WhoStole The Baby Jesus” with vocalistDiane Cricchio, but Keyes and his varyinggroups shine on the opener “Here SheComes Again,” “Never Say Goodbye”“Delta Queen,” and the humor-filledcloser, “Wronged Man Blues.”

This album is worth picking up juston the genius you can hear going on with“Shadow Boogie.” Yet Keyes shows ushis ability as singer-songwriter, andpianist to handle a variety of sub-styleswithin the realm of boogie-woogie, bluesand blues-rock.– Richard J. Skelly

VINTAGE TROUBLEThe Bomb Shelter SessionsVintage Trouble Records

Like James Brown fronting Led Zeppelin,on their aptly named debut VintageTrouble literally explodes in your face.Frontman vocalist Ty Taylor screams,slides and spins like a young Godfatherof Soul as the band blasts away behindhim with Bonham-worthy percussivethunder booming behind and Page lickslittering the stage beside him. Theband’s riveting appearance on The LateShow with David Letterman, with Taylorgoing out into the crowd for a seat-straddling, in-your-face soul scream-a-thon fired up interest in the young band,and a 10-week nationwide touring slotas openers for the Who nearly knockedthose icons to the sidelines.

In a brilliant marketing move theL.A.-based band took their fledglinggroup to Europe to break it in, creating abuzz there first with audiences more

accepting of blues than stateside crowds.“Blues Hand Me Down” is the opener, theone they blew out the Letterman crowdwith. The mix of hardcore, screamin’ soulbacked with electrified blues hasn’t beentouched on even remotely since thedemise of Living Color.

Taylor has a husky rasp in the lowerregisters but as he starts to climb thescale on “You Better Believe It,” itsmoothes out to a honeyed pantheryowl. Nalle Colt’s phrasing is a big partof the band’s appeal. He never over-plays, staying well out of the way ofTaylor’s soulful, pain-wracked wailsbefore making his own statements,


succinct bursts of notes that add to theconversation without overpowering it.

The closer, “Run Outta You,” is wellplaced as it would be impossible for anysong to follow this. Like a Little Richard/James Brown clone, you can visualizeTaylor down on his bloody knees scream-ing his heart out over his lost love. Onceagain Colt’s guitar is a key player, floatedin blurred and dreamy, staccato Hendrixmixed with Stevie Ray licks stabbingjagged holes in the melody. Get yourhands on a copy now. Everything elsewill take care of itself.– Grant Britt

FRANK BANGDouble DareBlue Hoss

Frank Blinkal learned his craft while work-ing as a doorman at Buddy Guy’s Legendsin Chicago. After a few years soaking upthe sounds of the nationally touring actswho passed through the club, then jam-ming after hours on-stage with LonnieBaker Brooks’ son Wayne, the guitaristfiled a name change to Frank Bang, aband, The Buzz, and an offer to record aWarren Haynes-produced record on theCapricorn label. He also was invited byGuy to join his band and took that optioninstead, touring with Guy, cutting hisdebut album in ‘04.

For the first part of the release,Bang’s sound is hardcore Chicago,leaning heavily on lap steel and slide.Although Bang says sacred steel gui-tarists Aubrey Ghent and RobertRandolph influenced his playing, ashe demonstrates on the title cut, theguitarist’s playing is much harder, secularand more psychedelic than the House of

God guitarists. Even though “I’m A GodFearin’ Man” uses some stinging sacredsteel licks, Bang’s attack is so aggressivethat anybody meaning him harm best beprepared to meet the God that Bang fearsbut would have no trouble delivering up amiscreant to with little provocation. “ThisIs What’s It’s All About” is about as soft asBang gets, a Paul Thorn-esque composi-tion bringing out Bang’s country boy side,concerning squishing mud between yourtoes, kissing your girl under the moonlightand always remembering to help eachother out. “Wonder Woman” starts softly,but it doesn’t say that way for long.A Mississippi Hill Country intro soon turnsinto a blistering Southern rock flavoredslide show fit for Luther Dickinson. Bangseems to get more countrified as thealbum goes along. By the time he gets to“All I Need,” he’s chewing on the South-ern accent pretty hard, talkin’ ‘bout goin’down to Gaw-jah- and drinkin’ moonshinein Caroline. By the time he gets to thefinal cut, “Mattie’s Girl,” Bang’s gone backup into the Mississippi hills, his Dobroringing like a dinner bell calling all thegood ol’ boys and girls to gather ‘roundfor a tasty slide feast.

Serving from a menu that featuresblues, rock, and country delivered withheaping helpings of slide, Bang sets atable fit for virtually any palate.– Grant Britt

In the mid-1960’s, Taj Mahalcame to a high school in Compton.

In the audience sat one Kevin Moore, today known as Keb’Mo’. In the next issue,Blues Music Magazine features talks with each. Keb’ talks about his new record,BLUESAmericana, which debuted on May 1, 2014 at Number1 on the Billboard Bluescharts and Number 2 on its Folk charts. Taj tells about his life in the blues. We willalso profile up and comer Nikki Hill. In addition, Tim Parsons sat with Dave andPhil Alvin to talk about their new project to honor Big Bill Broonzy.

DOWN THE ROAD


A bit of history will help establish the unlikelycircumstances surrounding this one-off concert,recorded January 21, 1989 that brought togethera luminous collection of legends – and soon to belegends – on one stage for one glorious evening.

Lee Atwater was the architect behind thevicious George H.W. Bush presidential campaign.He was also one of the more knowledgeable peo-ple in government at the time about the history ofblues and soul music. When Bush won the elec-tion against Michael Dukakis, one fraught withunderlying racism, Atwater gave himself the gift ofaccumulating some of the most important artistsin the genre to participate in a one-time only Pres-idential Inaugural concert. He insisted that all theparticipants be treated to first class accommoda-tions and their travel expenses be covered.

Despite obvious reservations from many ofthose invited, all decided to put aside politics foran evening and use the occasion to their bestadvantage. It was thankfully recorded by a top-notch camera crew complete with 24-track audioand edited down for a one hour 1989 PBS broad-cast. Oddly, the tapes were misplaced for

decades, but then recovered in 2008 when they were meticulouslyrestored to current standards in video and surround sound. There’smore to the story, much of which is detailed by two fascinatingessays in the accompanying 28 page book, but suffice it to say thatafter six years the expanded (now two hour) show is ready to beenjoyed in the comfort of your living room.

A cursory name check of the performers is enough to makeany classic blues and/or soul fan salivate. From the incomparableWillie Dixon and Koko Taylor, to Sam Moore, Eddie Floyd, ChuckJackson, William Bell, Percy Sledge, Albert Collins, Carla Thomas,Bo Diddley, Joe Louis Walker, Dr. John, Delbert McClinton, and a25-minute closing set by then up-and-coming guitarist Stevie RayVaughan, this was a serious assemblage of icons, many no longerwith us, who never shared the same stage again. The backingband led by musical director Billy Preston was comprised of, amongothers, Chess pianist Lafayette Leake, Rolling Stone Ron Wood,Jimmie Vaughan, Steve Cropper, Duck Dunn, and a seven-piecehorn section that alone would have created an event worth seeing.

Not surprisingly, considering the well-heeled Republicanaudience at this invite only gala, many acts stuck to their mostrecognizable material. So we get Dr. John running through “RightPlace, Wrong Time,” Percy Sledge crooning “When A Man LovesA Woman,” and Eddie Floyd knocking out “Knock On Wood,” allwith appropriate if not rampant enthusiasm despite the tuxedoedsurroundings.

But any time you can watch Koko Taylor blowing out “WangDang Doodle” with the song’s writer Willie Dixon beside her, wellthat’s a trip to some sort of blues heaven most of us have neverexperienced. And how about Collins and the Vaughan brothers trad-ing licks on “Frosty”? Or Diddley practically stealing the show in fine

fettle on three of his hitsplayed as if he was 30 yearsyounger? For some, just theclosing 25-minute, four songStevie Ray tour-de-forcecaptured when he was youngand hungry will be worth theprice of the DVD.

While the set list vergeson predictable, as do some ofthe performances, this is an invaluable historical document of anevent that finds many of these names at the peak, or near peak,of their talents. They are working with a crack band in a tonysetting that must have seemed surreal to these folks moreaccustomed to banging away at three sets a night in dingy, noisy,smoke filled clubs.

Happily all the black ties and tiaras in the world couldn’t stopthese veterans from slinging out the raw intensity of their collabora-tive talents on a night many of us would have done almost anythingto have attended. Now, through the magic of tape and some inten-sive restoration work, we can. And you don’t need to lean towardsany party affiliation to appreciate that.– Hal Horowitz

Eric Clapton convened his fourth guitar festival since the debut in2004, a two-night stand at New York City’s Madison Square Gardenin April 2013. The results are again available on a double DVD and,oddly for the first time, as a two CD set. As usual, it’s an impressivecast of some young, but predominantly older, established maleguitar heroes in a variety of roots genres including jazz (Earl Klugh,Kurt Rosenwinkel), rock (Gary Clark Jr., The Allman BrothersBand), country (Keith Urban, Vince Gill), and of course lots ofblues (everyone else).

The two gigs provide the compilers plenty of material to choosehighlights from, and, since everyone brings their “A” game for thishigh profile gig, there are few if any lackluster performances. Thisyear emphasized acoustic music more than in the past as Claptonopened the concert unplugged; later the Allmans along with Keb’ Mo’with Taj Mahal also offered invigorating sets that dialed down thevolume while keeping the energy fired up.

It’s impossible to ignore that the same names keep appearingon these concerts; Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, B.B. King, Robert Cray,Jimmie Vaughan, Doyle Bramhall ll, Los Lobos, Robert Randolph,Sonny Landreth, Gill, John Mayer, and Clark Jr. have all participatedin previous Crossroads events, begging the question of whydoesn’t Clapton try to mix in different musicians. Additionally, the

VARIOUS ARTISTSA Celebration of Blues and Soul:The 1989 Presidential Inaugural ConcertShout! Factory

ERIC CLAPTONCrossroads: Eric Clapton Guitar Festival 2013Rhino


testosterone heavy, all-boys-club leaves a glaring gap that couldeasily be filled by female talents such as Bonnie Raitt, Kaki King,Debbie Davies, Rory Block, etc. who would add a more inclusiveslant to the proceedings.

Still, what’s here is pretty great with a special nod to the pairingof Keith Richards and Clapton slinging out an inspired “Key To TheHighway,” leaving you begging for more than this one track to con-tinue their collaboration. Cray, Clapton, and Vaughan remain seated(but plugged in) as a sign of respect to King who now performs thatway, as they tumble through a vibrant “Everyday I Have the Blues.”

Occasionally the stage is overcrowded with guitarists as whenSteve Cropper, Keb’ Mo’, Blake Mills, Matt “Guitar” Murphy, andAlbert Lee all take solos on Booker T.’s “Green Onions.” Also on the

down side, neither the audioor video versions offer aprinted list of sidemen. Thatleaves many key supportingplayers – many who turn inwonderful work such as theamazing Greg Leitz and vet-eran Grease Band pianistChris Stainton – uncredited.For a project like this, that’sa huge miss especially sinceit wouldn’t have taken muchwork to compile. Also, in thebuyer beware department,the DVD has grainy blackreproduction filled with videonoise. Early production ofthe discs was plagued with

menu and audio synch issues, all of which are specified by dissatis-fied buyers on the DVD’s Amazon site. That’s inexcusable for arecent project of this caliber and visibility. Camera shots that areblurry, then go into focus try to be arty, but are ultimately annoyingrepeated over five hours of video.

Taking everything into account though, this remains, especiallyin its five hour DVD incarnation, terrific music played by legends,veterans, and classic guitarists seldom seen on the same bill. Bluesand roots music lovers can easily ignore some of the negativeaspects and dig into the always invigorating, often inspirational andconsistently enthusiastic music.– Hal Horowitz

It’s that time of year again. As the Blues Foundation honors the2014 Blues Music Award winners at its 35th Award show inMemphis on May 8, 2014, the Foundation has its DVD andaccompanying CD of last year’s show available.

For the 1,500 attendees, it is the blues party of the year.With many nominees given a 10-minute performance, the show,which starts with a pre-party for all at 5:30 p.m. and ends wellafter 1 a.m., offers every blues fan’s musical fantasy, unlimitedmusic. For those who have never attended this marathon night ofblues awards and performances, this DVD and accompanying

CD are the next best way to experience these unprecedentedshowstoppers.

The DVD features 18 full song productions filmed in stunningquality. Fourteen of these are available on the accompanying CD.Each performance either begins or ends with multiple award pre-sentations and speeches. In addition, each offering identifies whichawards the band or musician was nominated for. And because theBlues Foundation’s Blues Music Awards calls together the finestmusician and then assembles all-star bands from that talent pool.

Highlights of the night include Soul Blues nominee DorothyMoore performing her stately hit “Misty Blue,” Acoustic Artist of theYear winner Eric Bibb breathing fresh life into the blues staple“Goin’ Down Slow,” and Contemporary Female Artist Janiva Mag-ness delivering her Song of the Year, “I Won’t Cry.”

The Heritage Blues Orchestra’s “Get Right Church” starts theDVD performances with a spiritual. The Mannish Boys’ spectacleshowed off its newest vocal find, Sugaray Rayford, who immedi-ately left the stage to sing to sing and dance at as many tablesas possible.

Triple winner Curtis Salgado (Soul Blues Male Artist, SoulBlues Album, and B.B. King entertainer of the Year) sings his “SheDidn’t Cut Me Loose” interspersed with his heartfelt acceptancespeeches. Salgado is not listed in the Main Menu. His showis located as part of the Jewel Brown & Milton Hopkins selection.

Joe Louis Walker’s all-star band included Murali Coryall,Tom Hambridge, Scot Sutherland, and Scotty Miller, while DiunnaGreenleaf and Mud Morganfield shared a stellar band of BobMargolin, Billy Flynn, Bob Corritore, Bob Stroger, Jimi Bott, and

Barrelhouse Chuck.Nick Moss introduced

his vocal partner MichaelLeadbetter on their blues-rock flavored “I’ll TurnAround,” and The RoyalSouthern Brotherhood’s“Moonlight Over The Missis-sippi” was the perfect end-ing to the night’s show andthe performance section ofthis DVD.

The hardest workingguitarist of the night wasNorwegian-born KidAndersen who played withanyone he could, from hissteady gig with Rick Estrinand the Nightcats (“Calling

All Fools”), to John Nemeth (Said Too Much”), to Brown & Hop-kins (“Have You Heard About Jerry”). And there are also twoCanadian performances on the Other Performance section of theDVD. Contemporary Female Artist Shakura S’Aida performed“Geeche Woman,” with the Janiva Magness band, and AcousticArtist Harrison Kennedy treated the crowd to his mandolin fla-vored “Tragedy.” These international nominees only prove thatthe blues continues to thrive and inspire all over the world.

If you are not able to make the trip to Memphis each year,owning a DVD of the event offers every fan the chance to beholdthe magic of this night. Blues Music Awards DVDs from 2008 to2013 can be ordered from the Blues Foundation.– Art Tipaldi

34TH BLUES MUSIC AWARDSThe Blues Foundation


all the bands spearheading theBritish Invasion’s first wave, the

Animals likely came closest to capturingthe true blues spirit. Their ensemblework was flawless, and lead singer EricBurdon’s gritty pipes were tailor-madefor belting blues classics.

Abkco’s The Mickie Most YearsAnd More gathers four of the Animals’seminal albums on four CDs, a fifth discreplicating the Animals’ first four-songBritish EP, all Chess and Vee-Jay bluescovers. The band’s eponymous 1964MGM debut album is led by their immortalrendering of the ancient blues “House OfThe Rising Sun” (built around Alan Price’shypnotic piano) and also featuring the wildRay Charles-originated raveup “Talkin’‘Bout You” and a relentless “Baby Let MeTake You Home.” 1965’s The Animals OnTour was actually another studio outingsporting wall-to-wall blues revivals (JohnLee Hooker’s “Boom Boom” and “Dim-ples,” Jimmy Reed’s “Bright Lights BigCity,” Billy Boy Arnold’s “I Ain’t Got You”).

1965’s Animal Tracks saw the bandsidling closer to the mainstream via theirhits “We Gotta Get Out Of This Place” and“Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood” (“It’s MyLife” is one of five bonus tracks), but “TheStory Of Bo Diddley,” “Road Runner,” anda pounding “Club A-Go-Go” were blues-drenched (Hilton Valentine’s guitar workalways complemented Burdon’s vocals).The next year’s Animalization saw per-sonnel changes begin to impact the group,yet “I Put A Spell On You,” “Gin HouseBlues,” “Maudie,” and “See See Rider”made it clear where the feisty Burdon’sheart remained. The package comescomplete with an XL Animals T-shirt.

Chicago deejay Richard Stamzdiversified in 1960, launching his ownPaso and then Foxy labels. They’ve beenbeautifully anthologized on Ace’s FoxyR&B – Richard Stamz Chicago Blues,which gathers 25 extremely rare andmostly up-tempo early ‘60s sides by big-voiced Harold Burrage, splendidly raw-edged Mary Johnson and Flora D, Lee“Shot” Williams (both sides of his jumpingdebut single), rocking doo-woppers theIdeals, Ze-Majestics, and Robert & theRockin’ Robins, and Detroit Junior, whosestorming Yuletide theme “Christmas Day”

is anything but stuffy. Stamz recruitedfleet-fingered guitar dazzler Freddy Robin-son for his studio band, and he takesmany a stunning solo (his popular WestSide-style instrumental “The Buzzard” ishere too). Three unissued instrumentalsby drummer Willie Williams sport spectac-ular Hubert Sumlin guitar, especially“Going Back Home.”

Piano geniuses don’t grow on trees,even in New Orleans. But there’s no deny-ing that James Booker fit the bill. Saddledwith serious drug problems and failinghealth, the one-eyed “Bayou Maharajah”possessed amazing chops and a reper-toire that encompassed everything from“Lawdy Miss Clawdy” and a ProfessorLonghair medley to “Warsaw Concerto”and “King Of The Road.” RounderRecords producer Scott Billington broughtBooker into New Orleans’ Ultrasonic Stu-dio in October of 1982 for three days ofsessions; the first two were nightmarish,but the last was a brilliant musical feastthat constituted the lion’s share ofRounder’s Classified. The label’s 22-songRemixed And Expanded adds nine newlyunearthed tracks and shows just howspectacular Booker’s piano excursionsand gospel-infused vocals were.

The Bihari brothers founded their Flairlogo as a country music subsidiary for their

Modern label, but it soon reverted to R&B,blues, and doo-wop – the same hearty dietas its parent imprint. Ace’s two-CD DustMy Rhythm & Blues – The Flair RecordsR&B Story 1953-55 surveys the relativelyshort-lived label’s sparkling talent roster,Elmore James, Little Johnny Jones, theFlairs, Ike Turner, Richard Berry, ClarenceGarlow, Shirley Gunter, Mercy Dee, BigDuke, Johnny Fuller, with an emphasis onup-tempo items and unissued alternatetakes.

Judging from the consistent excel-lence of the 28 mostly unissued tracks onboard Ace’s Rhythm ‘n’ Bluesin’ By TheBayou – Rompin’ & Stompin’, there wasa whole lot of killer R&B left in the vaultsdown in South Louisiana during the late‘50s and early ‘60s. With J.D. Miller andEddie Shuler doing a lot but by no meansall of the producing, the set offers blister-ing rockers by Tabby Thomas, guitar won-der Leroy Washington, Big Walter, LesterRobinson (with the Upsetters), TV Slim,James “Sugar Boy” Crawford, King Karl,Lonesome Sundown, Jay Nelson, IvoryJackson, and Wonder Boy Travis (analternate “She’s Got Eyes Like A Cat”).

Abe Epstein operated DynamicRecords out of San Antonio on the prover-bial shoestring, in avid search of a soul hitlike so many of his mid-‘60s contempo-raries. He came close in 1966 with theCommands’ surging “No Time For You,”

Ofby Bill Dahl


one of 21 tracks on the Numero Group’sEccentric Soul: The Dynamic Label,which boasts a half dozen Commandssides, another six gems by Willie Cooperand the Webs, and more splendid LoneStar soul by Doc & Sal, the Tonettes, LittleJr. Jesse and the Tear-Drops, and BobbyBlackmon & the Soul Express.

The brassy ABC-Paramount albumsof Lloyd Price have long been ignored byU.S. reissue programmers, so Jasmine’stwofers containing four of those LPs arevery welcome. Price was long gone fromNew Orleans, recording albums in NewYork with a large, horn-heavy band. Yet heretained his earthy delivery on 1960’sMr. Personality Sings The Blues, withreadings of Eddie Vinson’s “Kidney StewBlues,” Percy Mayfield’s “Please Send MeSomeone To Love,” and his own rollicking“I’ve Got The Blues And The Blues GotMe.” It’s paired with the Tin Pan Alley-dominated The Fantastic Lloyd Price,also from ’60. The disc is rounded out bysix bonus sides from The Exciting LloydPrice, out the year before.

The other CD pairs two 1961long-players. Lloyd Price Sings The

Million Sellers was a concept set thatclicked, Price rolling through a dozen then-recent hits including the Miracles’ “ShopAround,” Hank Ballard & the Midnighters’“The Hoochie Coochie Coo,” and best ofall, “Ain’t That Just Like A Woman,” thenrecently revived by Fats Domino. Cookin’was jazzier, Lloyd serving up some ‘40spop standards and Nat King Cole’s swing-ing “Straighten Up And Fly Right.” Thosetwo sets are in stereo, but nine bonussides from the ’59 LP Mr. Personality,including the driving original “I Want YouTo Know,” are disappointingly in mono.

Only 14 years old when he debutedin 1965 with the irresistible Windy Citydancer “The Pain Gets A Little Deeper”on the Groovy label (he co-penned it withproducer Ted Daniel), Darrow Fletcher’ssoulful high tenor sounded a bit likeSmokey Robinson at the dawn of his careerand more like Stevie Wonder as time wenton. Kent’s The Pain Gets A Little Deeper– The Complete Early Years 1965-1971gathers 23 horn-leavened soul workoutsmostly waxed in Chicago from Fletcher’sdays on the Groovy, Jacklyn, Revue, Uni,Congress, and Genna labels.

Essential Media Group’s SoulClassics All Night! A Collection OfRare And Hard To Find Soul Gems is allover the map stylistically, its 18 trackshailing from a variety of small labels mostlyfrom New York (Atlas, Alto, Chase,Genuine, Unity). Its largely obscure artistroster encompasses Soul Lee’s deep soultestifier “I Still Have A Feeling For You,”L.J. Waiters’ churning “Baby Who’s BeenFoolin’ You,” Nat Phillips’ hypnotic “I’mSorry I Hurt You,” and Charles Hodges’impassioned “There Is Love.” SonnyKnight’s dramatic L.A.-cut 1956 ballad“Confidential” originally on the Vita imprint,closes the set on an entirely different note.

So loaded were Rick Hall’s archivesin Muscle Shoals that a lot of spectacularsongs got left behind. Kent rescues twodozen of them on Hall Of Fame – RareAnd Unissued Gems From The FAMEVaults, unearthing unreleased ‘60s knock-outs by Jimmy Hughes, James Barnett,Ben & Spence, Big Ben Atkins, Ralph“Soul” Jackson, June Conquest, Otis Clay,and Joe Simon, whose lighthearted“When It Comes To Dancing” is anunexpected 1964 delight.

Blues Music Magazine #4

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Transcript of Blues Music Magazine #4