Blues Music Magazine #6

Rick Estrin & THE NIGHTCATS

Kenny Wayne Shepherd Back Where He Started

Doug MacLeodDubb’s Got A Right Hand

The King Of

DEITRA FARRChicago To The Core

STEVE EARLE Q&A

KID ANDERSENFrom Norway To Nightcat

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_________________________

__________________________Friday 10/23

Brent JohnsonJoe Moss

Teeny Tucker

Saturday 10/24

Daddy Mack BandRockin’ Jake

The Peterson BrothersBobby Messano

Tas CruLauren MitchellLauren Mitchell

Damon Fowler BandJam To Follow

Sunday 10/25

Bridget Kelly BandSkyla BurrellAnnie Piper

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY © KENT LACIN

• 8 A Conversation With

RICK ESTRIN

• 11 KID ANDERSEN Norway To Nightcat

• 13 KENNY WAYNE SHEPHERD Back Where He Started

• 16 DOUG MacLEOD Singer & Songwriter

• 19 DEITRA FARR Chicago To The Core

• 7 RIFFS & GROOVESFrom The Editor-In-Chief

• 22 DELTA JOURNEYS “Elvis”

• 24 AROUND THE WORLD “A Life In The Music” Part Two

• 26 Q & A with Steve Earle

• 28 GUEST COLUMN Charlie Baty:

Making Of A Drumming Legend

• 30 BLUES ALIVE!Mark Hummel / Charlie Baty

Anson Funderburgh Moreland & Arbuckle

• 32 REVIEWS New Releases / Novel Reads / Film Files

• 48 DOWNLOAD CD SAMPLER SIX

• 64 BILL’S ARCHIVES

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by Thomas J. Cullen III

by Art Tipaldi

by Vincent Abbate

by Pete Sardon

by Michael Cala

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Blues Music Magazine6

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As April comes to life, there are some recent items I need to ponder. First, though the baseball season seemed to kick off a

week later, it still offers every fan a yearly refresher of hope. Whether you worship at the Fenway or Wrigley altars of dirt and green, nothing compares with this rite of spring. We certainly know of baseball’s relationship to the blues. Muddy Waters was a huge White Sox fan; John Lee Hooker loved his Dodgers. Strike up a conversation with modern musicians like Elvin Bishop (Cubs), or Doug MacLeod (Cardinals), and in the summer, it will naturally be about baseball. Here are my baseball loves: a nine inning pitchers’ duel, an opposite field drive into the gap, a perfectly placed bunt, corner infielders who dive to the foul line to make the play, slides that evade a tag, a perfectly executed relay, the exuberance of a rookie’s first game, any episode of Ken Burns’ documentary, a Saturday morning watching 8-10 year olds learning the game. Here are some of my baseball irks: pitchers waving at pitches and wasting most at bats (sorry NL fans), tiny strike zones, earsplitting music between innings, defensive shifts, and when a legend retires. Here are some of my suggestions: make both leagues have the same rules by batting 10 players, a DH and a pitcher, in both leagues, make the strike zone larger then a postage stamp, and in younger leagues, under ten, after a pitcher throws ball four, instead of watching the boredom of one walk after another (look at the outfielders falling into comas), let the batter toss and hit so that the fielders can be more active and thus learn the game. My yearly promise is to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. It’s a promise I make every year, yet somehow have never

honored it. I also live 10 miles from the Basketball Hall of Fame and have never visited it either. The one Hall of Fame I will visit this spring is the ceremonial opening of the Blues Hall of Fame, which opens on May 8, 2015 in Memphis during Blues Music Awards week. The Hall is under the watchful guidance of Nora Tucker. She has spent her days collecting artifacts and designing exhibits that will honor inductees and the musical art form.

This year’s inductees include Eric Clapton, Little Richard, and Tommy Brown. Information about the Hall of Fame can be accessed at the Blues Foundation’s website, blues.org. April is also the time of the year when blues festivals around the world flourish. Whether your thing is to attend the mega-trendy New Orleans Jazz and Heritage or you search out smaller, more intimate music fests, fans like us must continue to support these hard working artists. In fact, this year, treat a twenty something to the joys of the blues. Remember, because a mostly older fan base supports the blues, this could be your mission to share the excitement and grow our fan base. Finally the recent passing of so many beloved friends has saddened us all. My thoughts and prayers go out to the friends and families of Lynnwood Slim, Finis Tasby, Johnny Dyer, Robert Belfour, Samuel Charters, Alberta Adams, and especially my good friends, David Maxwell and Richard Innes. “Let the music keep our spirits high”

Art Tipaldi, Editor -In-Chief

Blues Music Magazine 7

In early 2008, virtuoso guitarist Little Charlie Baty leftthe Nightcats with the intention of going into “semi-

retirement”; thus ending his 32-year run as leader of one of the hardest touring bands in the land, an incredible run that included eight acclaimed Alligator albums (and one compilation). Little Charlie has since toured as a member of Mark Hummel’s Golden State – Lone Star Revue along with fellow guitarist Anson Funderburgh, drummer Wes Starr, and bassist R.W. Grisby. He was also on the award winning Remembering Little Walter tribute album from 2012 on Blind Pig.

I’ve known Little Charlie since 1988 when the band first performed for the Bucks County Blues Society; it was their first Philadelphia area appearance. I was captivated by Little Charlie’s brilliant blend of Charlie Christian, Django Reinhardt, and T-Bone Walker and by Rick Estrin’s soulful Sonny Boy II warbling, by his sardonic cool cat persona, and especially by his clever originals that were part Willie Dixon, part Leiber-Stoller. They went on to play for BCBS seven more times; the post Little Charlie Nightcats have appeared twice for BCBS.

In a recent Facebook post Little Charlie commented, “The blues is changing. I grew up listening to the blues from the thirties to the fifties and believed that sixties blues was too modern. Although I have absorbed many influences as I have gotten older, I’ve always believed blues should sound like it did in its heyday without any frills.”

His comment echoed the consensus of the band as to the major creative difference between the Little Charlie years and the post Little Charlie years: a much wider array of influences in their music as evidenced by their 2012 Alligator album One Wrong Turn with Estrin originals like “Desperation Perspiration,” a wry assessment of a would-be lady’s man, “D.O.G,” an excoriation of a betrayer infused with fulminating vitriol, and “I Met Her On The Blues Cruise,” uproarious horn-propelled Nawlins R&B about romantic liaisons, and also by Andersen’s instrumental tour de force “The Legend Of Taco Cobbler,” a dazzling mash-up of Link Wray, Dick Dale, Mariachi bands, and Spaghetti Western soundtracks, Farrell’s fleet-fingered jazz organ instrumental “Zonin’,” and Hansen’s rocker “You Ain’t The Boss Of Me,” a rambunctious assertion of recalcitrance.

This interview took place in June 2014 at Rick Estrin’s hotel room in Reading, PA after their scintillating performance at the Building 24 Live (in nearby Wyomissing), a fantastic venue for live music, where they headlined a double bill with Curtis Salgado. They were touring in support of their third Alligator album You Asked for It...Live!

Norwegian émigré Chris “Kid” Andersen (formerly with Charlie Musselwhite and Terry Hanck) replaced Little Charlie later in 2008; Andersen is also the proprietor of Greaseland Studios in San Jose where he mixed and produced all three Rick Estrin & the Nightcats albums. Drummer J. Hansen and bassist/organist Lorenzo Farrell have been the Nightcats rhythm section for over 10 years and as Andersen had sat in with the band a number of times and had worked on some recording projects with Estrin, the transition was, according to all, “seamless.” When Estrin is involved with other projects, Andersen, Farrell, and Hansen perform as the Nightcats Trio at clubs in northern California. There has also been discussion of Farrell recording a jazz organ instrumental album.Blues Music Magazine: What was it like being mistaken for Little Charlie all those years?Rick Estrin: I got pretty accustomed to it. It was okay with Charlie. Sometimes when I was feeling energetic I would tell people, “I’m not Little Charlie. See that guy on guitar that I’ve been introducing all night, that’s Little Charlie.” And they would say, “Okay, thanks Charlie.”BMM: What was your reaction when Charlie finally left the band?RE: Every year around October, Charlie told us he’d be leaving by the end of the year. This went on for 20 years. So, I didn’t take it that seriously and never really wondered what I was going to do. One night at Biscuit & Blues (in San Francisco) Charlie announced he was leaving for good this time. My initial reaction was I needed a game plan. I needed to do something with my name that wasn’t ssociated with Little Charlie. So I scrambled around and recorded a CD On The Harp Side (no label) with mostly traditional blues and older tunes like “Harlem Nocturne.” I recorded it with Kid, J., Lorenzo, Rusty Zinn, and Bob Welch. Kid is the best producer and engineer I’ve ever worked with. He is the best and the fastest.Kid Andersen: ...and the biggest! (Laughter)BMM: What did you do next?RE: A tour of South America with the Igor Prado Band. It was an eye opener. Igor Prado knew all my stuff. He learned them from our records. I thought that there might be other guys around the world like Igor Prado and I could be a low budget version of Chuck Berry: just pack up my harps and get on the plane. However, J. and Lorenzo wanted to keep the Nightcats going. I love these guys. We have a harmonious interpersonal relationship. We’re close friends. We’re family.

& The Nightcats

An Interview With:Rick Estrin


by Thomas J. Cullen III

“I’m Not Charlie”


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BMM: How did you recruit Kid?RE: We didn’t know who to get at first. We didn’t want a diminished version of Little Charlie. I always knew what Kid was doing and he sat in a couple of times. One time Kid was in the audience and during “Eyes Like A Cat,” a real up-tempo tune, one of Charlie’s showcase tunes, Charlie hit the sustain, handed the guitar to Kid, and Kid seamlessly grabbed the guitar. I always knew Kid was a fearless nut. Not long after Kid called me. It was serendipitous: Kid had no job as he had just left Charlie (Musselwhite). So I asked him if he wanted to join the band. KA: I knew Rick was bummed that Little Charlie quit, but him handing the guitar over to me that night was a nice vote of confidence. RE: When we started this thing we made it a group where everyone contributes and we share common ground. There’s more freedom although I never felt that restricted before. There are more textures and greater freedom to grow within. The main difference between Charlie and Kid was that Charlie was more interested in swing and older styles of music. For me, it’s mainly blues. I always wrote songs that Charlie wanted to play and we just added a drummer and a bass player. BMM (to Kid): Replacing Little Charlie was a daunting task but by all accounts you’ve risen to it with aplomb. KA: I was never intimidated by it. I don’t mean I’m a cocky asshole, but I am (group laughter). I saw the band in Norway when I was 18. Rick Estrin was cool...wish I could be in a band with him, but I thought they’d be stuck together forever.

“When we started this thing we made it a group where everyone contributes and

we share common ground.”

It’s pointless to copy Little Charlie. But I like all the stuff Charlie likes. He’s more skilled at swing and jump, but it’s part of my musical background too.J. Hansen: The biggest difference between Kid’s styleand Charlie’s style is that Kid’s style encompasses morerecent decades like the sixties and the seventies rockstuff, just a lot of stuff Charlie wasn’t interested in. Charliewas more into Charlie Christian and such.KA: The first song we worked on, “Big Time” (from theirTwisted album), wasn’t like any previous Little Charliesong. It’s a mix of swamp rock and T-Rex. We got awaywith it because Rick didn’t know T-Rex; it’s a cool hybrid

with a cool vibe.Lorenzo Farrell: With the organ, we can add more ideas into songs. There is much more space to fill, more of a bottom and a cushion. We can still do the older songs like “My Next Ex-Wife,” which is much funkier now than the original; we’re doing it the way it’s supposed to be.RE: We’ve added new dimensions

to the older songs and are rehearsing songs that weren’t generally played live. We’ve added a new sound with Lorenzo’s Moog bass and Lorenzo is a kick ass soloist, an inspiring soloist to hear.JH: Everything is out in the open. No one is really the boss. Of course, Rick is the bandleader, but we don’t feel like employees. Backing Rick feels more communal. We all have more input in all facets.RE: And when you are more invested, there’s more synergism, wherein the sum is greater than the individual parts.

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LORENZO FARRELL, ESTRIN, J. HANSEN, AND ANDERSEN


“How does a Norwegian guitar player get to America?”

Kid Andersen, “Personally, I like an airplane.”That’s the kind of tongue-in-cheek answers you get when you sit and talk with Christoffer “Kid” Andersen. Be ready to be assaulted with his quick-witted, off-beat sense of humor. It’s that same quirkiness that permeates his guitar playing. When some guitarists play, they recreate bygone eras; when Andersen solos, his string work flies into the future.

So I’ll ask again, “How does a Norwegian guitar player get to America?’

Andersen started taking rock ‘n’ roll guitar lessons at age ten. “The first time I met the blues was watching TV and seeing a little snippet of a report about the blues festival in Notodden. They were showing a clip of Robert Cray’s band doing a slow shuffle. I’d never heard blues before. I heard about eight seconds of that shuffle with Richard Cousins looking cool as hell standing with his bass and I thought it was pretty cool.”From there, Andersen followed the same path of his American counterparts: Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimi Hendrix, et al. “When I was 12, I really started learning the blues from my guitar teacher Morton Omlid in Notodden.” Andersen’s father would drive him the one and a half hours back and forth once a week and wait in the car reading his newspaper while this little kid was having guitar lessons with Omlid.

Each year since 1989, the Notodden Blues Festival supports a weeklong blues camp for forty musicians aged 14-18. Because of his enormous talent and relationship with Notodden, Andersen was allowed to attend the camp at age 13.

Throughout his teens, Andersen immersed himself in every facet of blues guitar. From there, Andersen landed a job in the house band of Oslo’s Muddy Waters Blues Club, which booked American blues artists with Andersen backing them.

“There is a really great blues scene in Norway. There are some really talented musicians. There are 70 or more blues clubs in the country. [Blues clubs are the equivalent of our blues societies.] And there are many, many festivals.”

Andersen always played with thought of coming to America. “When I got into blues and listened to Muddy or Wolf, it transported me to a different world. I wanted

to be where this music originated. I told everybody who came over, ‘Hey, you need a guitar player?’

“I got a couple of offers. One was from a guy just was released from prison for shooting his old guitar player. He wanted me in his band, but I told him ‘That’s too bluesy.’ I had the great honor of playing with Homesick James before he died. The owner of the club asked James what he thought of me and James replied, ‘Send him to my house for a couple of weeks and I’ll show him how to play guitar.’ “I declined that offer too. Finally Terry Hanck, a seemingly sane individual with enough gigs to support myself, offered me a gig. Terry played with Elvin Bishop for over 10 years, so I got to meet Elvin pretty early. That was March 2001.”

As part of the Northern California scene, Andersen was quick to rekindle musical friendships with many of his mentors he’d met as they toured Norway. Musicians like R.J. Mischo, Junior Watson, Mark Hummel and his neighbor June Core, who was Charlie Musselwhite’s drummer, quickly accepted Andersen into the blues family. “When Kirk Fletcher left Charlie to play with the

Fabulous Thunderbirds, June recommended me to Charlie. Terry is incredibly talented and as good as anybody out there. But getting with Charlie, I really felt it was a big step up for me, and it opened a lot of doors.” After five years with Musselwhite, Andersen joined Rick Estrin in 2008. What are the important lessons from 12 years of backing harmonica players? “Playing with harp players is very much

like a music conversation, all the time. Everything I play behind them is a reflection and response to what they are playing. You have to have big ears to really play with a good harp player. And you have to know the language before you can have these conversations. Know the shit, and listen to everybody else at least as much as you’re listening to yourself.

“When I was 12, Morton, my first guitar teacher, gave me a Little Walter double album to study. He told me, ‘There are almost no guitar solos on this, (much to my horror), but learn the stuff they are playing behind the harmonica.’ Needless to say, that proved more valuable to me than anything.”

Andersen has taken those musical lessons into his current artistic growth. “Rick and I are both entertainers, and we complement each other, without

by Art TipaldiKid AndersenNorway to nighthawk

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being in a competition. Rick is a very deep musician, who inspires and encourages me to grow. Playing with him, I have found my groove and pocket is much better. He helps me focus on the right things musically and his ongoing love and enthusiasm for the music and constant new discoveries are an inspiration.”

Many of those inspirations are evident in the depth and growth of Andersen’s expressive solos. Throughout any given set or recording, his creativity and spontaneous ideas easily take listeners to another level far from a Little Walter double album.

“Blues is vocal music. A solo should first of all be a reflection and extension of the song, the vocal melody. That’s my starting point. I do play a number of extended guitar solos on any given night, but I try not to beat it to death. Many guys now sing a few verses so they can get to their favorite part, self-gratification on their

instrument. That’s not blues, to me.“I’ll start with a musical idea that fits the songs

and do variations and deviations from that theme in a way that makes compositional sense to me. I try to use dynamics; I talk to the listener, try and make it like a conversation. When I’m playing my best, I’m tripping less and feeling more confident, and the ideas flow more freely.”

In addition to his superb guitar, Andersen also runs his own Greaseland Studios. At least 50 records have been recorded in Andersen’s studio, but numerous other musicians have hired Andersen as the producer or engineer. “The bottom line for me, and something that separates me from most guys you will meet operating a studio, is that to me, the studio is a musical instrument, and I treat it and think of it that way. I am musician, and I create and facilitate music. Having the studio enables me to do all that without needing help from anybody else.

“My role varies from project to project. With the Nightcats, I’m the band member as well as the engineer and producer. Rick is a great producer too, and we make a really good team, as we both tend to focus on very different things and compliment each other very well in that aspect. I tend to focus on the big picture, the whole band, and the sound of the record. Rick is excellent at zeroing in on minute, yet spectacular, details, and subtleties of vocal performance and phrasing.”

Andersen recognizes that being in America these 15 years has given him a blues education he would never have been immersed in had he not boarded that aforementioned airplane. “You don’t have to know everything and be able to play any style to sound like a convincing blues musician –though a big part of the learning is to try. You just have to sound sincere. And that is not going to happen unless you completely immerse yourself in it.

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Back Where He Started...Ten years ago this summer, Kenny Wayne

Shepherd set off on an unforgettable journey while doing the legwork for his award-winning CD/DVD project 10 Days Out: Blues From The Backroads. The native of Shreveport, Louisiana, had tasted success long before that; in fact, with his very first album, Ledbetter Heights, the guitarist viewed by some as the heir apparent to Stevie Ray Vaughan’s throne immediately struck gold. The record spent 20 weeks atop Billboard’s blues chart and sold half a million copies within a year of its release. Shepherd was 17 years old and suddenly thrust into the spotlight. Today, nearly two decades later, his is still one of the most recognizable names in the blues.

Yet more than any other work he has produced during that time, it is 10 Days Out that has defined his M.O. especially in the decade since.

“It was definitely one of the most significant experiences of my musical career,” he reflects. “I wanted to do it for the love and appreciation of the genre of music that has been so inspirational to me. But also for the players who inspired me to play.”

In the 100-minute documentary, Shepherd criss-crosses the American South and Midwest to talk and jam with blues lifers like Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Bryan Lee, and Etta Baker. “There were several people in the film who had been playing blues their whole lives, but for whatever reason never crossed over to mainstream audiences.

So I was trying to use my success to give them a platform and help get their music out to more people. For the ones who passed away, it was also to contribute to their own legacy.”

His first filmmaking experience was so gratifying that a sequel is currently being discussed. Shepherd hopes it can be released in time for the ten-year anniversary of the first project, which only became available in 2007. “It takes a long time to put something like that together,” he stresses. “It was a lot of work editing that film.”

In the meantime, he’s finding other ways to pay tribute to the music and musicians who first inspired him to pick up the guitar. Exhibit A: his current release Goin’ Home, which includes interpretations of songs written or made famous by Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, Bo Diddley, B.B. King, and others. “It was like going back and revisiting the soundtrack to my childhood,” says Shepherd of the recording. And the act of returning home was physical as well. For the first time ever, he chose to record in his hometown of Shreveport. It was there that his father and current manager Ken Shepherd introduced him to the blues during the 1980s, culminating in a Stevie Ray Vaughan concert that finally set him on his life’s path.

“My dad is a huge blues fan and a huge music fan. He was a disc jockey and general manager of a radio station in my hometown. So I grew up surrounded by music. Blues was certainly a staple and the soundtrack around the house.

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PHOTOGRAPHY © GREG LOGAN courtesy of SHEPHERD ENTERTAINMENT, LLC

14 Blues Music Magazine

One of the first concerts I went to – my dad was the promoter of the show – was Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker. So he introduced me to the blues at a very young age.”

Looking back, Shepherd also appreciates the geographical advantages of being raised in Louisiana’s third-largest city, which is actually closer to Dallas than to New Orleans. “From Shreveport, we could drive down to New Orleans or over to Dallas or further southwest to Austin or up to Memphis. We could go anywhere to hear great music. Just hop in the car and drive a few hours. It was amazing.”

These days, Shepherd spends a lot of time on tour with his road band, which includes singer Noah Hunt, bassist Tony Franklin, keyboardist Riley Osbourn, and drummer Chris Layton. So actually finding the time to get himself and his bandmates to Shreveport was something of a challenge. Ultimately – and partially out of necessity – the basic tracks for Goin’ Home were completed within the space of two weeks during a brief time out from the road.

Prior to the break in the tour schedule that allowed them to record, Shepherd began sifting through his chief influences and their catalogues in search of appropriate material. “I was trying to find interesting songs that hadn’t been recorded a million times before. Obviously, blues purists are aware of these songs. But a fair amount of listeners won’t be familiar with some of them. So it’ll sound like a fresh new album. But they’ll also find out that these were somebody else’s songs, and hopefully it will encourage them to dig a little deeper into these artists’ catalogues themselves.”

The two-week time span from start to finish wasn’t only due to touring pressures, however. It was also a by-product of the way Goin’ Home was made. Shepherd wanted to record in a manner similar to the way Muddy, B.B., and others might have done it 50 years ago. “We basically went into the studio and just went for it. A lot of the songs, we hadn’t worked up at all. We cut ‘em on the spot.”

Shepherd feels the relative lack of preparation generated a looser, more spontaneous vibe than on some of his previous records. He is also proud of having spurned the latest high-tech gadgets for a more old-school approach to recording.

“We all set up in the same room – including whoever was singing the vocals. So guitar amps are bleeding over into drum microphones. You can hear the drums on the guitar tracks, and it’s all coming through the vocal mic as well. That’s how they did these songs back in the day, before studios had five or six isolation booths.\

“We recorded it all to two-inch tape and used no modern trickery. There was no click track, no auto-tune, or anything like that.” While he admits the approach

does put a pressure on a band to get things right, he knew his four road-tested companions were up to the task. “Fortunately, I’ve surrounded myself with an extremely talented group of musicians.” Once the foundation of Goin’ Home was in place, Shepherd stepped back into the Digital Age and invited friends far and wide to add vocal and instrumental parts at their convenience. The incendiary guitar playing of Californian Keb’ Mo’ on the Albert King classic “Born Under A Bad Sign” is bound to surprise a few listeners. For Shepherd, it was par for the course. “I’d heard him do [that song] before, so I knew he’d do a great job on it. I thought twice about including ‘Bad Sign,’ because it’s probably the most mainstream blues song on the record. But Keb’ Mo’ did such a great performance on it, I couldn’t not put that on there.” Prior to making Goin’ Home, Shepherd had been in the studio with Joe Walsh and asked him if he would

contribute as well. The Eagles’ guitarist and singer turns up on a version of Willie Dixon’s “I Love The Life I Live.” Kim Wilson, Robert Randolph, Warren Haynes, and the Rebirth Brass Band also join in. “Logistically, it was very challenging,” says Shepherd about his decision to embrace modern means in completing his album. “We’re talking about some very successful musicians here. So trying to fly them all down to Louisiana just to play on one song with today’s technology, that doesn’t happen anymore.”

Shepherd’s biggest coup was in enlisting the help of former Beatle Ringo Starr.

Lest we forget: The Liverpudlian is no stranger to the blues. In 1971, he was on hand for both B.B. King In London and The London Howlin’ Wolf Sessions. He later became involved in Bill Wyman’s R&B project Willie & The Poor Boys. “He’s a big blues fan,” confirms Shepherd, who has known the British rock ‘n’ roll legend for about 10 years. “A lot of those English cats are very aware of the musical history of Shreveport.

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15Blues Music Magazine

“One of the first

concerts I went to was Muddy Waters and John Lee Hooker.

So he introduced me to the blues at a very

young age.”

Like Elvis Presley was down there on the Louisiana Hayride. Mick Jagger came to Shreveport just to see the Municipal Auditorium, where all those guys played.” A couple of years ago, Shepherd lent his guitar skills to a Starr album called Ringo 2012. “I played on ‘Rock Island Line,’ the old Leadbelly song, and a ballad,” he recalls. Two years later, Starr was happy to return the favor, adding drums to a version of “Cut You Loose” styled after Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. “He’s a fantastic person,” gushes Shepherd. But despite the all-star cast, it’s clear that the part

of Goin’ Home he enjoyed most was being back on his home turf and, in effect, throwing a party for friends. The Blade Studios where the recording took shape is owned and operated by drummer/producer Brady Blade Jr., a childhood friend who shares co-producing credits on the album. The off-the-cuff atmosphere that prevailed during the sessions there is illustrated by a story Shepherd tells about recording “You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover” with surprise guest vocalist, Reverend Brady Blade Sr. “He’s a preacher in my home town, who also had a syndicated TV show for a while,” he explains. “[He] and my dad grew up together, and Brady Jr. and I kind of grew up together.” Shepherd’s band, including singer Noah Hunt, were in the middle of recording the classic Bo Diddley number when Blade Sr. showed up unannounced. “He just came to the studio to see what was going on.” Next thing anyone knew, the pastor at Shreveport’s Zion Baptist Church was standing next to Hunt. “He just walked up to the microphone, next to Noah, and started singing the song with him. We were like, o.k. It sounded really great, and we kept it.” The unusual circumstances turned out to be a blessing; the duet between Hunt and Blade Sr. is one of the album’s highlights. Goin’ Home, as a collection of covers, could easily have become an academic exercise. It is inspired moments like those, captured on record, that ultimately imbue the album with life. “We did it the way records used to be made,” smiles Shepherd, “and had a fun time doing it.”


George “Harmonica” Smith affectionatelycalled Doug MacLeod “Dubb”

and that name has stuck. His loyal and enthusiastic followers consider themselves “Dubb Heads.” Plying the triple talents of songwriting, singing, and facile blues guitar work, MacLeod has made a successful career of entertaining audiences with his unique storytelling abilities that then segue into yet another self-penned song. It wasn’t always that easy. MacLeod had to overcome a difficulty stuttering, but he learned that when he sang, his voice self-corrected.

His sartorial splendor and ubiquitous toothpick are two of his trademarks; his humor is also infectious. At one recent performance, a certain song was requested from somewhere in the audience. MacLeod stopped and said, “Well, let me ask the band first.” He immediately held both hands in front of him and addressed them: “Say band, can you play that request?” and then slyly smiled and told the audience that the “band” could. The laughter was only exceeded by the grateful applause. Not to be outdone by the band of his hands, MacLeod also accentuates his music with deft foot tapping to emphasize the beat. As he usually tours alone, those fancy shoes see a lot of wear.

In May, 2014, he was awarded not one but two Blues Music Awards in the categories of Acoustic Artist of

DougMacLeod

the Year (after being nominated for this award for the past six years) and Acoustic Album of the Year for There’s A Time on Reference Records. His current Reference Record, Exactly Like This, should add BMA 2016 nomination. He has recorded for several labels over his career, and, for aspiring guitarists his 101 Blues Guitar Essentials on DVD by Solid Air Records is highly recommend. His insightful lyrics, unique voice, steady beat, and delicious resonator guitar sounds may entice you to join the ever-increasing ranks of Dubb Heads.

Enticing this double of the Blues Music Award winner to my home to play my early ‘30s Tricone National Resonator Guitar was easy. The discourse that followed should be as much a pleasure for your eyes as it was my ears. His current management is with Miki Mulvehill’s Heart & Soul artist management. Blues Music Magazine: Why did you choose acoustic over electric?Doug MacLeod: I started off as an acoustic player back in the ‘60s in Norfolk, Virginia, when I was in the Navy. Then I wanted to go electric because I heard B.B. King and Kenny Burrell. So I went electric; the first four albums of my career were with a band. I forget what day it was or the year, but I was talking to my wife, Patti, and I told her that I wanted to make a change and go back to my acoustic roots. She said “why?” and I said that I don’t think that I’m connecting with the people.

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Part of what I do is tell stories. She said to me, “go ahead.” I said that the money is not going to be as good. “We’ll be fine,” she said. That was many albums ago and we have been fine. Son House was a singer/songwriter as was Blind Boy Fuller, Lightnin’ Hopkins, and Blind Willie McTell. I consider myself a singer/songwriter, as everything I do is my own. I find it amazing that people do not accept me as a singer/songwriter because I’m basically a blues guy.

It’s really funny to me because all those guys were singer/songwriters. They were blues guys as well, but they wrote their own songs and traveled with a guitar and a satchel and that’s exactly what I do. But I can’t be accepted as a singer/songwriter. I’m a blues guy and I’m not ashamed of being a blues guy, I’m proud of it, but I don’t know why people don’t connect that I’m a singer/songwriter. To me it’s obvious, but to a lot of people it’s not obvious.

When Honeyboy Edwards and I traveled, we talked about this. I want to tell you a great story about him. We had traveled three or four days, and I was driving him. He said to me after the third day, “I’ve been with you for three days and you haven’t asked once about Robert Johnson.”

I said, “That’s because I’m riding with Honeyboy Edwards.” He loved me after that and that was the connection. He then started to tell me about the kind of life that they had and how they did things. I said, “Tell me something that has nothing to do with music.”

He said, “Doug, he knew how to pack a suit.” Apparently Robert Johnson could pack a suit in his guitar case. You gotta remember that those guys would travel with a satchel and a guitar case so they could hop trains going to towns.

Singer &

They never wanted to look cheap or dirty; they always wanted to be clean. All dressed up, they considered themselves entertainers. So Robert Johnson would pack his suit in his guitar case in such a way that when he took it out and shook it, it looked like it was pressed.BMM: What makes your sound ‘your sound?’DM: I think what makes a musician have his own sound is a process. At first when you start, you listen to other people and you acquire things. You take what you like, you put that into you, and then you have to find a way of expressing what you want.

Songwriter

You go into any crowd of people and everybody’s got two eyes, a nose, and one mouth and nobody looks the same. That’s amazing. All through history, nobody has looked the same, yet we all have the same features.

PHOTOGRAPHY ® JOSEPH A ROSEN

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For a musician or artist or writer who does a creative thing, the secret is that they have to have the courage to express youself. Have the courage because you don’t want to imitate somebody else. George “Harmonica” Smith told me something years ago. When I was playing electric, I was playing an awful lot like B.B. King, maybe too much. George took me to the side and said, “Dubb, you sure sound like B.B. King. I don’t mean that as a compliment. Let’s put Dubb out there and see what happens with Dubb.” That was a real awakening for me. What he told me was to get me to do what I do now.

When you look at acoustic players, none of them sound the same. Broonzy doesn’t sound like Hopkins who doesn’t sound like McTell or Fuller because your left hand is your brain and your right hand is your personality. So when you are playing, what goes on in the right hand is what makes the guitarist stand out. Jimmy Reed had a right hand, Doc Watson had a right hand, Son House had a right hand. Doug MacLeod’s got a right hand, that’s how that works.BMM: What tunings do you play in?DM: I play in a lot of tunings: Standard tuning, open G, and open D. I also play in bastard G and what I call too many G’s, drop D, and too many D’s.BMM: At what point did you become such a sharp dresser?DM: That happened way back in St. Louis. I was playing bass with these black guys, and I was wearing jeans and loafers with a madras shirt. After the first set, one of the guys took me over to the side and said, “Look, if you dress like the audience, I’m gonna pay you like the audience.” Since then, every other black musician that I played with always wanted me to dress up. They did not want me to look like I’d just come off of the farm. So I’m kinda old school like that. That’s what those guys taught me, and that’s why I do it.BMM: What prompted you to have such an affinity for National Resonator Guitars?DM: It was late in life and late in my career. When I went back to acoustic in the ‘60s, I couldn’t find me one, but I always liked the sound of them and I always liked the look of them. I finally went to a music store, I played one, and I said, “That’s it.”

I then called National Resonator Guitars in San Luis Obispo and said, “I just want to shake the hand of the man that made this guitar.” They said to come on up. That was about 15 years ago, and I’ve been an endorsee ever since. Marie Gaines was the artist rep then, and she liked the way I played and asked if I would like to endorse that guitars. I said that I would be honored and that’s what happened.

The main one I got is ‘Moon,’ which is the M-1 Tricone they made for me. They wanted me to play one that was in the catalogue as the one I was playing for many years, called ‘Mule,’ was a Frankenstein: an original M-1 with lots of changes on her. They gave ‘Moon’ to meat the NAMM show maybe three years ago. I asked if Ididn’t like it could I go back to playing ‘Mule.’ I got a callfrom Eric Smith, the President of National, who said, “Howdo you like it and have you named it?” I called him about amonth later and said that I liked the guitar and her name is‘Moon.’ That’s the only guitar that I travel with.BMM: How did you get the name for your NationalResonator Guitar?DM: It just came to me. The name of the car that I drive

when I tour is “Bump.” When I tour, it’s “Bump,” me, and “Moon.”BMM: How do songs come to you?DM: I don’t’ know. Every time I record a new album, I think that there’s nothing left but Patti always says, “The field is fallow, and it will come back.” When I was driving back from Texas and Patti was sleeping, I took out Siri and said, “Siri, take a

note.” Thought I travel with Siri, sometimes songs come like a baby is born – sometimes the whole song comes out in maybe ten minutes, and sometimes it just drags and can take months.

I guess it just depends on the mood. I’m not the kind of guy that can go into my room at ten in the morning and say, “I’m gonna write.” That doesn’t work for me, whenever they come, they come. I’ll listen to other music, like jazz or organ trios, old soul music or old time country music. A different kind of music might spark something. It comes out of the strangest places and you’re not expecting it. And if you don’t get it, it’s gone. The song says, “If you don’t want me I’m going down to the next guy.” So if I dream a line, I’ve got to get up before the next guy gets it.

“What goes on in the right hand is what makes the guitarist stand out.

Jimmy Reed had a right hand, Doc Watson had a right hand,

and Son House had a right hand. Doug MacLeod’s got a right hand.”

PHOTOGRAPHY© JOSEPH A. ROSEN


DEITRA FARRChicago To The Core

In her more than 30 years as a blues performer with anurge to travel, Deitra Farr has long been regarded

as a musical powerhouse whose roots lie deep within the culture and music of Chicago, her city of birth. Born on the South side, a very young Farr displayed an award-winning writing ability in grammar school that ultimately blossomed into a lifelong passion, as demonstrated by her work as a writer for Living Blues and other publications. A graduate of Columbia College with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism, Farr has recorded many of her own compositions and has written articles for the Chicago Daily Defender and The Chicago Blues Annual.

That talent – “Call it a need to write,” says Farr – recently got her working on an autobiography thatpromises to be a vibrant snapshot of her life, as well as ofthe Chicago blues scene as viewed through the eyes ofthis multitalented performer since she began singing theblues in the early 1980s.

Farr’s interest in music began early. “I would dance and sing and just involve myself in the music I’d hear on the radio.” However, it was a “girl group” from another musical city – Detroit – that formed one of her earliest and strongest musical influences.

“I just loved Diana Ross,” says Farr, who recalls Oprah Winfrey’s comment that young black women of Farr’s generation had never been able to identify with most of the all-white musical acts seen on television until the Supremes came along. “To this day, Diana Ross means a lot to me,” she says.

By the time she entered high school, she was on a musical path. She took vocal lessons in from the legendary Chicago voice teacher Lena McLin, whose other pupils include R. Kelly and Chaka Khan.

“Ms. McLin used to talk about her uncle, the renowned gospel composer (and former blues singer) Thomas A. Dorsey. So I started walking over to Pilgrim BaptistChurch as a teenager to listen to Professor Dorsey andthe choir.”

Farr also used to visit her grandmother’s home to watch Chicago TV’s “Jubilee Showcase,” a program that first aired in Chicago in 1963 and is today considered one of the greatest gospel programs ever broadcast. “I fell in love with the great quartet harmonies of groups like the Soul Stirrers and the Sensational Nightingales, and the emotional power of artists like Mahalia Jackson and Clara Ward and The Consolers.”

Even though she has met a great many blues and gospel luminaries over her career, “seeing Reverend Dorsey at work was a revelation, knowing that so many of the great gospel songs of the 20th century were composed by him,” she sighs, a note of awe still in her voice after all these years.

There’s also something ineffable about Chicago that influences the musically gifted. “There are so many great performers in blues, gospel, and R&B that came out of Chicago – Sam Cooke, Al Green, Little Walter, Sunnyland Slim, and so many more.

“Of course, there are also all the great Southern bluesmen from Howlin’ Wolf and Muddy Waters to Buddy Guy, who migrated to Chicago and made it a musical blues mecca. These folks, in turn, attracted a generation of talented white performers who carried the Chicago blues torch all over the world. When you say ‘Chicago-style blues,’ people know what you mean instantly. It’s the sound that’s named for the city.

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“In any event, I grew up with music all around me,” says Farr. “The Staples kids went to grammar school nearby. Lou Rawls, Curtis Mayfield, Jerry Butler also grew up in the area. Gospel greats Mahalia Jackson and James Cleveland, too.”

One of her strongest memories – and one that convinced her to sing – was the first time she listened to Brenda Lee. Eager singing a duet with Jerry Butler on the record, “Ain’t Understanding Mellow.” She says, “I was in love with that record. Came out in ‘71 or ‘72.

“Shortly after ‘Mellow’ came out, I was babysitting for Brenda – I was like 14 and she was the first show business person I had ever met. I was so impressed with the woman that I can hear her influence on my very first record; I can hear her style of phrasing coming clear through. Although I realized quickly that I had to develop my own sound, that I had to become ME, I can still hear myself trying to sound like her. It’s amusing, now.”

Farr’s first foray into performing music professionally came about in 1975. An 18-year-old Farr recorded the lead vocals on the Mill Street Depo’s record, “You Won’t Support Me.” That record was a Cashbox Top 100 R&B hit in 1976. Over 30 years later, that recording has been re-released and is popular again worldwide.

“It was a great song, and a great first experience in professional music,” she notes, “but it really didn’t do all that much for my career. And you can still hear Brenda’s phrasing,” she laughs.

Farr tells the amusing story of how she first met Gladys Knight, another of her favorite singers. “Gladys was at a book signing for her autobiography. I was so excited that I was going to meet her and buy her book.So I lined up like everybody else. As I get to the table where Gladys was signing books, I realized I had no money with me! I was so embarrassed. However, I did have one of my CDs with me, and I gave it to Gladys. And that great lady actually asked me to sign the CD!”

By 1982, Farr had moved to the North side of Chicago, where she was embraced by all the Chicago blues greats who were still performing. “I felt so at home when I moved to the north side. Everybody was just so nice to me, Mama Yancy, Koko Taylor. I was privileged to have all those blues elders embrace me.” She recalls how the blues affected her deeply as she listened to the greats performing in clubs like the Checkerboard and Theresa’s Lounge.

“Remember,” she says, “a lot of the legends we talk about with such reverence today were still alive. Muddy, Jimmy Rogers, and others.”

To this day, Farr comments that her favorite blues and R&B voices are male voices like Little Walter’s and Al Green’s. “I clearly remember when Little Walter died in 1968. Little Walter – his voice and harp –really got to me. I also got to know and idolize performers like Sunnyland Slim, Louis and Dave Myers, Jimmy Rogers, and Junior Wells. I really liked Junior.

“Back then, we were the people who actually knew the big blues cats. People say they wish they knew Junior Wells. Gee, I used to see him every week. I’m mad at myself that I didn’t take more pictures and do more to document that period.”

Asked how has the Chicago blues scene changed in the 30 years she’s been a part of it, Farr’s voice deflates a bit. “The scene now is filled with many people who didn’t study the masters.

It’s like somebody got a blues gig or two, liked the blues scene, and just stayed there and started playing, but having no sense of the musical or cultural history. They have not studied the music. That’s why I don’t go out to the clubs much anymore, I get depressed because I don’t hear what I want to hear. I love to hear artists like Lurrie Bell, John Primer, Jimmy Burns, Billy Branch, Matthew Skoller, and Demetria Taylor.”

Another exception to this empty blues copying is someone like Brother Jacob, she notes. “He is clearly a young man who knows the past, and has been listening to the music since he was a baby. It shows in the depth and emotion that you can feel in his music. He’s a real favorite because he respects the music, something that many of the younger ‘instant blues’ folks don’t. One of the things I tell young people is be yourself, put your stamp on the music. I loved Diana Ross, but I would never try to sound like her. It would be false. It wouldn’t be me.”

The year 1983 saw Farr sitting in at the clubs and performing blues full time.

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She also toured the U.S. and Canada for the first time with the Sam Lay Blues Band. Lay is a fabulous blues drummer best known for his work with the Muddy Waters band, but who also played with Willie Dixon, Howlin’ Wolf, and many other legends. “I couldn’t get any better immersion into the core of the music than working and traveling with Sam’s band. It was a perfect place for me to be in that time in my career.”

Farr further developed her musical chops playing in the Chicago clubs, listening to everyone she could, “I used to go backstage when artists like Al Green and Gladys Knight were performing. They were always nice to me, treated me with such respect. That’s how I like to be with my fans.”

Three things about Farr that her fans should know. First, She is probably one of the more traveled blues performers on the scene, having performed in at least 30 countries. Second, she takes writing very seriously as an integral part of her life. Third, she is a huge fan of Facebook. There should be no surprise there because for Farr Facebook has taken the place of a booking agent.

“The part nobody believes is that I have no booking agent. I get most of my gigs through requests, and many of these are funneled through Facebook. For example, one day, I got a Facebook message from Mexico asking me to do a gig there. Later that same day, I got an invitation to Italy. My late daddy used to marvel at this.” She continues, “A friend of mine, also a performer, told me she disabled her Facebook account. There’s no way I’d do that because I get many of my gigs from Facebook.” Going back to Farr’s penchant for travel, a recent coincidence involving blues singer Lea Gilmore gives both women a kick. They had been corresponding for years and had become close virtual friends, but had never met in person. Unknown to one another, both were booked in Russia at the same time and met up in, of all places, Siberia.

“I was gonna e-mail Lea to tell her I got me a gig in Siberia. Then I see online that she was booked in Siberia, too. One night, Lea came to see my show. We just looked at each other and said, ‘This is unbelievable.’ We were the only two African-American women in sight, and we said, ‘Ain’t this something?’ That experience brought our friendship to a whole different level.”

Farr got the Siberia gig through Facebook. “All of a sudden I get a Facebook message from a guy I hadn’t spoken to in 20 years. He’s from Argentina, and I met him in Chicago when I sang with Mississippi Heat back in the early 1990s. He said that a Russian promoter he knew was looking for a female blues singer, and he thought of me. Easy as that.”

She continues. “I usually do research on the countries where I’m going to appear. However, for Siberia, I thought ‘I’m just gonna go.’ My father had just died, so I was kind of depressed. Lea had been there before, so I asked her what it was like. She said it’s different. It was wonderful. The food was good, the people were warm, and my Russian booking agent is one of the most trustworthy people I’ve ever met. I told him I would trust him with my life – and I would.”

Farr has also spent a lot of time in Italy, having lived there for a year. “It’s probably one of my favorite places in the world to be.” She was living in Rome when 9/11 happened and visa restrictions and personal concerns forced her to return home.

When she is not performing or traveling, Farr loves to read. Most of her reading involves books about music. And with her journalism background, she loves to write as well. She authors a column titled “Artist to

Artist” for Living Blues. She’s also currently writing her autobiography that will cover her 40-year life in music.

Through it all, Farr says she will continue to perform her brand of power blues wherever she can – whether it’s back home in Chicago or abroad. “I’llperform anyplace that’s hospitable to the blues,” shesays.

PHOTOGRAPHY © JOSEPH A. ROSEN


Did I ever tell y’all how I got into the blues? In a word: Elvis.

I was 10-years -old when he died in 1977. My parents didn’t really listen to music, so The King of Rock ‘n’ Roll’s death led to my first real exposure to music via TV, movies, and lots of radio airplay in the weeks that followed his early expiration. If I kept up with my chores, I received a 50-cent weekly allowance. That allowance plus whatever I could secretly shake out of my “college fund” piggy bank went towards 45-rpm Elvis records at Sears.

Unbeknownst to me at the time, the Elvis I liked was the “blues” Elvis, much more the Tupelo and Memphis music man than the Hollywood/Vegas actor. Through time, my Elvis interest led to other rockers with similar blues roots. Eric Clapton in particular “named names” and pointed me towards Robert Johnson and the like, but it was Elvis who first awoke my interest in both the fruits and the roots.

I say all this to say that another Elvis fan died recently. And if not for my ultimate journey into all things blues, he easily could have been me. This extreme Elvis fan was “Mississippi” all the way. As a fan, he obsessed, collected, obsessed, acted crazy, obsessed, and ultimately opened a homemade, in-home museum.

Oh, he also shot a guy a couple days before he died himself. But mostly, he just obsessed about his musical hero. The King.

PAUL McLEOD CALLED IT “GRACELAND TOO”

Holly Springs, Mississippi, is perhaps best known asground zero for Hill Country blues. If not in town, then certainly in the nearby countryside, Hill Country blues

czars like Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside once gigged and grooved “All Night Long.” Second to that, fans of American music and roadside attractions likely know Holly Springs for the greatest Elvis tourist stop never actually visited by The King himself, Graceland Too.

Lest you think the late Paul McLeod was just about exploiting Elvis’ name for fame and fortune, let me point out that Graceland Too was the only Elvis attraction I’ve ever seen with no gift shop. McLeod collected a $5 entrance fee and advertised his shrine as a 24-hour family affair, though his family had long since abandoned him to his obsession.

Many an enthusiastic music fan or drunken college student told stories of touring Graceland Too at three in the morning. Maybe it was all those Cokes he drank or simply his tireless commitment to his King, but McLeod really did make an effort to keep the doors open at all hours. Of course, when he described this commitment, he was as likely to spin tales of naked coeds and pit bulls in his front yard at three a.m. as he was to recall a Swedish film crew’s recent moonlight visit.

Like the young Elvis, McLeod was energetic and excited. (A dozen Cokes a day will do that to you.) Like the old Elvis, he was heavyset and pistol packing. It was one of those pistols that silenced an alleged intruder the same week a higher power silenced McLeod.

VISITING THE WORLD’S BIGGEST ELVIS FAN

I first visited Graceland Too back in the late 1990s. My now ex-wife and I found McLeod’s shrine listed in a guidebook, I think. The listing fell woefully short of describing the man or the “museum” that we soon

encountered. If McLeod wasn’t yelling auctioneer-style Elvis “facts” and figures at you, then he was grabbing your shoulder or thumping you in the chest to focus your attention at some particular Elvis needle-in-a-haystack that he thought you were missing. All this was after he’d

already locked you inside his windowless house and proudly announced his love of large caliber firearms. Despite – or perhaps because of – the drama (or was it trauma?) involved in a visit to McLeod’s vision of Graceland, it was a visit you could not soon forget. He was an unstable, unlikely, and completely welcoming host.

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On my first visit, the large, two-story house was decorated to match a circa 1971 Christmas postcard of the actual Graceland. The home was painted white, and he had old tires stacked in front (also painted white) to mimic snow on the bushes outside of the original Elvis abode.

“MOONSHINE & MOJO HANDS” VISITS CRAZYLAND TOO

Fifteen years later, McLeod was still in business. In summer 2013 – just months before McLeod’s passing – my buddy Jeff Konkel of Broke & Hungry Recordsand I returned with our Moonshine & Mojo Handsfilm crew. (Yes, that’s our much-delayed web seriesthat will finally debut with apologies in 2015, www.moonshineandmojohands.com)

As we pulled up to the curb across from Graceland Too, our mouths fell open. The once white, relatively simply-decorated would-be mansion was now a full-fledged compound, complete with barbwire and other assorted fencing. The entire house was now painted a mentally-unhinged Moody Blue in tribute to The King’s final album (which, to be fair, was pressed on blue vinyl).

After first speaking with the King’s keeper through his abundant fencing out back, McLeod eventually agreed to meet us at the front door. We went through an animated discussion regarding our camera crew’s entrance fee, and after finally arriving at a number that was out of our budget but still woefully below his, we entered with hopes of eventually leaving and seeing our families again.

The place was mega-packed with real and imagined Elvis artifacts. High points included an enormous stack of old TV Guides with dozens of colorful paperclips marking pages where something including

The King had once aired, just in case musicologists some day need to know that Clambake came on at nine p.m. Eastern/eight p.m. Central on a particular Tuesday night in 1981.

Behind the layers of backyard fencing, our favorite item was the homemade electric chair. McLeod had built it in tribute to Elvis’ Jailhouse Rock. Oh, did I mention that it was hooked up to a large, gas-powered, Dewalt electric generator? Well, it was. Soon after that,

the world’s greatest Elvis fan flashed us the pistols he had slung on his person, beneath his layers of camouflaged clothing.

It was time to go.

DON’T THINK HE DIDN’T IMPRESS US

Clearly, I’m making light of an honest-to-Elvis, Mississippi character. But please don’t think we weren’t duly impressed by him. McLeod’s commitment to the man who got me into the blues was as serious as the heart attack that soon took him to the Promised Land. RIP and thanks for the memories.

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I hope you enjoyed Part 1 of my interview with Terry Abrahamson, about his friendship with great blues musicians, his songwriting with and for them, and his photo book In The Belly Of The Blues. Let’s take another long ride together and conquer Time.

Bob: Tell us how you got into songwriting and the experience of Muddy recording your songs.

Terry: Even before my teens, songwriting inspiration came from two seemingly different sources, both lyrically driven. Sunday nights, my dad and I listened to Art Roberts’ folk music show on WLS. Buffy St. Marie’s “Universal Soldier” and Judy Collins’ “Hey Nelly Nelly,” written by Shel Silverstein, still give me goose bumps. I felt firsthand the power of a song to pierce the soul and ignite the spirit.

My second influences were the comedy albums of Allan Sherman and the Smothers Brothers. They taught me there was more to music than dancing and love songs; there was the power to make people laugh. Since then, I’ve placed tremendous value on the power of whimsy in music from Chuck Berry to The Kinks to Jimi Hendrix to Warren Zevon. And then, there was Dylan.

But it was Eddie Shaw, the first guy I ever heard sing the blues, priming the crowd as the bandleader for Howlin’ Wolf, who showed me the possibilities for a little shtick in the blues. When he launched into Chick Willis’s “Stoop Down Baby,” I knew I could write a blues song, that it could be funny. Thank you, Eddie, for being there for me early and often.

Still, getting a song I wrote on somebody’s record was never on my radar until one night in the fall of 1973. I’d brought Jim Brewer out to Boston for four weeks of one-nighters. On this particular night, he’d been paired with a young kid on acoustic guitar and harmonica who my partner Ted Kurland and I discovered opening for Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee. His name was George Thorogood. On the ride home, Jim mentioned a girl in the audience and declared, “I’d surely like to plug into her.” I started vamping.

by Bob Margolin

A Life In Music: Part Two

The men call me Jim, the women call me Electric ManWhen I plug into your socket, I’ll charge you like no one

else can.

Jim said, “That’s good shit, Boy. You oughta give that to Muddy Waters.” A few weeks later, I visited Muddy in his dressing room at Paul’s Mall; you [Bob] couldn’t

have been more than a few feet away at the time. Nervous as hell, I told Muddy “Jim Brewer wanted you to hear something I wrote.” Muddy put down his champagne glass, rested his palms on his knees, leaned in and said “Go on.” Swapping out “Jim” for “Muddy,” I ran through what I’d expanded to a few verses and a bridge. Muddy thought for a beat, and responded, “That’s good shit, Boy. Write that down.” A few weeks later when Ted declared that Jim Brewer was so cool that he “put the ‘unk’ in funk,” I wrote a song inspired by that as well.

A few months later, you and the band were recording “Electric Man” and “Unk in Funk” with Muddy. And Eddie Shaw showed up as producer. That summer of ‘74, Muddy’s album was released with Ted’s title, and my name under two songs.

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And I was a songwriter for the guy who had given The Rolling Stones their name. As Abe Trieger, who took me down to see the Wolf that first time, told me “Think about it, Abrahamson. The Allman Brothers and Cream and Led Zeppelin do Muddy Waters songs. And Muddy does Terry Abrahamson songs.” Because of contractual issues Muddy had with Chess, the co-writer on those two is listed as A. Cooper, his granddaughter. But it was Muddy and me.

After that, every time Muddy and I were in the same town, we’d find a quiet spot in a bar after the shows and I’d scribble down lyrics on cocktail napkins. One more song made it onto vinyl, “Bus Driver,” on Hard Again, produced by Johnny Winter, and again featuring you and the band along with James Cotton. And the credits for that one are Morganfield/Abrahamson on the record and on the Grammy.

These days, I’m back with Eddie Shaw, who I’m writing for with Derrick Procell. We’ve got “All That Stuff” and “The Wolf Will Howl Again” in the can, and Eddie’ll be laying down vocals on a few more before shopping his next recording deal.

Derrick and I are also tweaking some songs we did for the legendary Bobby Rush, and Lynn Orman Weiss has been using our song “Why I Choose To Sing The Blues” as her WNUR blues show theme song, and Eddy Clearwater wants it for his upcoming release.

Your very own Long Tall Deb (Terry calls Deb “my own” because she records for The VizzTone Label Group and I am a partner) and I are following in Howlin’ Wolf’s footsteps (“Smokestack Lightning”) down the Erectile Dysfunction path with “Little Blue Pill.” Plus, Derrick and I are sowing seeds for a bunch more. And rumor has it you and I are having a

baby called “Heaven, Mississippi.”Bob: For our readers, I made a demo of Terry’s song “Heaven, Mississippi” that was aimed for B.B. King. But the song moved me so much I re-wrote some of the lyrics to suit my own life. I have made a demo and will certainly record our song for my new album. Thanks, Terry. Your songwriting stories can be heard on the recordings you mentioned, and your

book can be purchased at www.inthebellyoftheblues.com, but let’s enjoy some more of your photos, and the stories behind them.

“Think about it, Abrahamson. The Allman Brothers

and Cream and Led Zeppelin do Muddy Waters songs. And Muddy does Terry Abrahamson songs.”

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Terraplane is Steve Earle’s 16th studio album since 1986’s Guitar Town. While he refers to it as his blues album, it definitely has his stylistic imprint on it. Even with a four-year period in the early ‘90s of no musical output while he was dealing with serious addiction issues, his career to date has been incredibly productive since his return with 1995’s Train A Comin’. Since then, he has put out an album (or “record” as he refers to them) at least every two years. Earle is a three-time Grammy winner and multiple nominee.

A prolific writer, Earle has also written books and a play, acted in film and the TV series The Wire and Treme, produced other artists’ albums, and been a long-time activist for the elimination of the death penalty. Upcoming are the completion of his memoir in 2015, writing another play, and working on a country album with T Bone Burnett. A conversation with Earle can cover a lot of ground; from the Texas band 13th Floor Elevators to Shakespeare to Bob Dylan and to why some in the bluegrass community refer to him as the “bluegrass anti-Christ.”

Blues Music Magazine: You got the idea for doing a blues record a few years ago and said you’d release it when the time was right. What made it right?

Steve Earle: This record started like my others. Me and the band were touring to support the last record, and I started writing the first song “Baby Baby Baby,” then I wrote another. Having Chris Masterson in my band was also a factor. Chris cut his teeth on this type of music in Houston. He was a well-known guitarist in his teens. So I had the right musicians. I had thought about doing it a number of times but talked myself out of it.

Steve EarleSinger/songwriters making

a blues record is not new. Bob Dylan has been doing it for a long time. I was also going through a divorce. Over the time I was married, everybody got sick of my happy songs.

BMM: Growing up, were you influenced by the blues?

Earle: The first band I was ever in was a blues band in 1968. I was in the eight grade and the other guys were in the ninth grade. We’re in Texas and it was all Canned Heat that year. Electric Flag and Butterfield had records that year. Johnny Winter was from Texas so we got his earliest album on the Imperial label. Electric Mud was out by that time, so we backtracked into Chicago blues from that.

When I was 17, I got to Houston. I saw Mance Lipscomb and Lightnin’ Hopkins at the same time on more than one occasion. I saw Freddie King and Johnny Winter a lot when I was growing up. I knew Dusty Hill and Frank Beard (ZZ Top) a little bit through Dusty’s brother, Rocky. I was a huge ZZ Top fan.

BMM: Along with guitar, you also play some prominent harmonica. When I first listened to the songs, I had no credits info and wondered if you had brought in a blues harp player like maybe Charlie Musselwhite.

Earle: I was more than comfortable playing acoustic blues on guitar on this record. I’ve more than acquitted myself playing that kind of blues. Texas blues from that era, especially as a guitar player and a bandleader, is very intimidating to me for a lot of reasons. So the bar is very high. Doing Terraplane was a lot like why I did a bluegrass record. I wanted to challenge myself.

My approach to this is always as a songwriter. I just wanted to write some new blues songs.

Over the past few years, my harp playing has definitely gotten better so I played it on this record. But I know Charlie. He’s been my next door neighbor for blues festivals in Australia. Charlie plays notes on the harp that I can’t find. And he’s talked to me about it and tells me what he’s doing, but I don’t understand it. He’s one of my favorite people. He’s the monster.

BMM: What was the Terraplane recording process like?

Earle: The vocals are all live. There are virtually zero vocal overdubs. There might be one line punched in if I sang something flat or sang a wrong lyric. But that might have happened once. My producer was R.S. Field. He’s one of my oldest friends and when I thought of doing a blues record he’s the only guy I knew who had produced two John Mayall albums and a Buddy Guy album. It was the obvious and right choice. He did a great job. And Ray Kennedy, my production partner, has engineered several of my records.

BMM: Did you know when you walked into the studio what was going to be a shuffle, what would be blues-rock?

Earle: Yes. This record was kind of a study. “Go Go Boots” is meant to be like ZZ Top with a slight nod to the 13th Floor Elevators. Sonically, this record is based on three things: Howlin’ Wolf records, the first two ZZ Top records, and Canned Heat. That’s the template.

There was a template for the fiddle too. David Hidalgo (Los Lobos) and Mike Halby (Canned Heat, John Mayall) did a blues album called Houndog. Hidalgo played electric violin on the whole thing. On Terraplane, Eleanor Whitmore is playing fiddle through an amp just like everybody else.BMM: You and she do a duet on “Baby’s Just As Mean As Me.”

Earle: That was the only song that was written on the session. A few weeks before we were going to start recording, a friend of mine asked, “So what’s the duet gonna be”?


And I realized this was the first record I’ve made since I got out of jail where I hadn’t written a duet. Allison Moorer had been my duet partner for the last few records, so it just hadn’t occurred to me to write one because we were divorced. Before that, I did duets with Emmylou Harris, my sister, Stacey Earle, Lucinda Williams, and Iris Dement. Eleanor Whitmore and I sing some of those duets in live shows. She deserves a duet that’s her own, so I wrote “Baby’s Just As Mean As Me,” which was the very last thing we recorded. She’s the best musician in the band and she sings her ass off.

BMM: Did you play more electric guitar on this than other of your albums?

Earle: There are other records that are more rock oriented like El Corazon and The Revolution Starts Now where I probably played more electric guitar. There are two songs on this record where I just played harp and sang. I play electric guitar on “Go Go Boots” and baritone electric on “Better Off Alone.” That was just a matter of getting into a key with the baritone guitar sounding like I wanted it to so I could sing it.

BMM: That’s a very sad song that sounds deeply personal. Earle: In that song there are no disguises involved. I’m very proud of that song. I think it’s the best song on the record. But overall I’m really proud of this batch of songs.

BMM: Do you do projects like this to challenge yourself?

Earle: I had this musicologist and Texas thing that I wanted to satisfy in myself. I’m perfectly willing to get my ass kicked. When I did The

Mountain, there were people in the bluegrass world – most of them were not musicians – who voted me the “bluegrass anti-Christ.” With Terraplane, it’s probably going to happen with some blues folks too. Musically for me the first ZZ Top records and Canned Heat are the blues. You can say “blues-rock” all you want to, but if you don’t think ZZ Top is the blues then you’re not paying attention to the right stuff. The most successful song on this record is “You’re The Best Lover.” It’s true to the spirit of the blues.

BMM: “The Tennessee Kid” stands

out from the other songs since it’s a spoken word piece based on the devil and the crossroads story done in iambic pentameter. How does iambic pentameter combine with the blues?

Earle: By and large, the blues is in iambic pentameter. If you take a boogie or a shuffle or even “Stormy Monday” and you count the beats of the instruments and the vocals all together, it comes out with five beats. I did this once before. There’s a song on The Revolution Starts Now called “Warrior.” I was at the beginning of a Shakespeare fascination for the third time in my life, when I made that record. And I became aware of iambic pentameter and why it works as well as it does. When the narrator and the devil are speaking in “The Tennessee Kid,” it’s in iambic pentameter and when the

kid’s speaking it’s not quite, which is fairly common in Shakespeare. The first account I know of about Robert Johnson going to the crossroads came from Skip James. Other musicians were jealous; Johnson was just better than everybody. I tried to work Bob Dylan references into that song, but I just couldn’t pull it off. Trust me; the other folkies in the Village said similar shit about Bob. He was that much better than everyone else.

BMM: You’ve also written plays, books and have more on tap. Do you take on projects apart from music to

challenge yourself?

Earle: I do them to keep myself interested. I’ve learned a lot that I’ve taken back to songwriting from writing two books and a play. I’ve learned a lot from acting. When you go out and you perform words that were written by David Simon and Tim Blake Nelson you learn something about writing. You get to know that material intimately on a level you don’t know in any other way but acting. I do all of it to bring back to my day job. I consider what I do as literature and art. It’s art because I learned to do it as an artist. I carry myself as an artist. I’m not doing it for money, although I try to get as much money for it as I can. But I’ve done it since I was 13 or 14 and I try everything I can to get better at it.– Mark Caron

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There is no better way to get to know someone than to travel with them. First you learn their habits, whether they have a sense of humor or not, and then you learn their strengths and weaknesses. Eventually you hear their story too, in bits and pieces over meals in roadside cafes, having a drink after a gig, stranded in airports, on long van rides.

It was in this way that I got to know the story of June Core, a great drummer and a good friend, who has traveled a most interesting road to get to his current prestigious position of drumming with renowned blues man Charlie Musselwhite.

June was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1956 and grew up in large family (6 siblings) with strong church ties during some tough times: total segregation, desegregation leading to riots, factories relocating and leaving unemployment in their wake, and gang violence.

At 12, June saw his first concert – Aretha Franklin at the Alhambra Theater with the flamboyant Bernard Purdie on drums. He wasn’t old enough to get in, but his babysitter drew sideburns and a pencil thin moustache on him and snuck him in with the help of an usher that she was dating. June hadn’t picked up a drumstick at that point, but was fascinated by Purdy’s style and his beat.

Soon afterwards June’s mother offered to buy him a guitar and an amplifier after they watched B.B. King on television, but in an act of defiance, June proclaimed that he instead wanted to be a drummer. Since the offer didn’t extend to drums, June got a job and earned enough money to put a drum kit together within a few years and would practice in his basement.

One afternoon a man driving down the street heard the drums and knocked on his door. The man asked June’s mother who was that playing and if they might be interested in playing for some money. Of course, she answered, but he’s too young to be in clubs. The man promised to take care of that and June had his first professional gig (under the watchful eyes of a beautiful waitress).

June’s next job was an encounter with an accordionist and a brief drumming stint in Cleveland’s Polish section of town in a polka band. Cleveland was a mecca of polka music (thanks to Frankie Yankovic) and June was welcomed into this appreciative and supportive group of Polka fans. A stint with a blind piano player/organist followed which required June to drive while receiving directions from the blind man. June would have to help him haul his chopped organ up and down stairs.

One day, Eddy Bacchus, the blind keyboard player, suggested that June accept a phone call from a “Bad Ass Player” and just say yes to whatever he asked. A few minutes later the phone rang, and it was Robert Jr. Lockwood on the phone inquiring whether June would be willing to do a weeklong engagement in Buffalo. Since June was still a teenager, he wondered who this old man was and why was he playing this old-time music from his grandmother’s time.

June agreed to do the job (which also featured Johnny Shines), but didn’t prepare musically and they were fired after the first night. Not willing to accept defeat, Robert Jr. suggested a rehearsal the next day, which took place in a small broom closet, and he showed June five shuffles that he’d be able to use the rest of his life.

Making of a Drumming Legend by Charles Baty

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They returned to the club that night on probation and brought down the house. At this point Robert Jr. offered a permanent job to June, who had never been outside of Cleveland, and despite the old-timey nature of the music – June was more into funk and soul music at the time – June agreed and hit the road. Lockwood looked out for June as a father figure insisting on rooming with him and getting June out of trouble more than once.

Now it is one thing to learn a style from listening to records and copying licks, and another thing to actually play with the people who made those records. June’s eight years with Lockwood gave him a deep understanding of the role of drums in the Chicago blues sound, as well as experience playing jazz music.

June still loved funk and soul and had developed a reputation as a go-to drummer. Soon he was receiving offers to tour with bands such as the O-Jays and Drifters traveling throughout the U.S. As with many of the ‘60s and ‘70s bands, there were several versions of these bands with various original members heading up different bands and unfortunately the money wasn’t that good.

June decided to return to the blues world, but despite his experience with Lockwood, June had a tough time getting a gig in the San Francisco area. Eventually he was able to work with Mark Hummel, Angela Strehli, and LaVern Baker and be part of a successful Santa Cruz band called the Soul Drivers.

When our drummer Dobie Strange decided to retire from Little Charlie and the Nightcats, we immediately called June Core and he consented to join the band. We recorded a great record together, Shadow Of The Blues, and toured around the world. June is a vegetarian and had a hard time getting a healthy vegetarian meal with adequate protein while traveling.

This was especially true in Europe, where they would shrug their shoulders and bring out seafood because they believed that to be vegetarian. One time in Norway, in frustration, June simply requested some vegetables over rice. He meant stir-fried veggies, but they returned with a lettuce and tomato salad dumped on top of a bed of rice.

June’s stay in the Nightcats was hectic, usually fun, and occasionally filled with drama. The first time that I bought airline tickets for June, I mistakenly bought them under his name June (short for Junior, not his given name). The airline agent wouldn’t let June on the plane claiming that he was traveling under a false name. Luckily we found another agent at the gate who was more reasonable.

Another incident involved a border crossing into Canada near Vancouver. We had an especially thorough

border agent go through our van and our bags, and she first demanded to know the owner of a leather jacket. June claimed it and it turned out to contain a toy switchblade. A backpack belonging to June contained some firecrackers bought out in the desert somewhere. The bottom line was that they soon had June in the backroom, grilling him, because he was practically a terrorist possessing a deadly weapon and explosives. They quickly decided to destroy the contraband and let June go. But June asked them for a favor. Would they please pretend to handcuff him and bring him out to the van and proclaim that he’s been arrested? He wanted to see me have a heart attack I guess – well I almost did!

June eventually left the Nightcats and began working with Charlie Musselwhite and has kept that chair for almost 10 years, assuming a de facto role of band director. June also continues to play on some of Mark Hummel’s Blues Harmonica Blowouts, including the Remembering Little Walter tour that resulted in a Blind Pig recording and several blues awards and a Grammy nomination. Musselwhite refers to June as being ‘courteous and

compassionate and thoughtful’ and compares June’s drumming ability with legendary drummers Fred Below and S. P. Leary.

When June plays drums behind you, you feel as if you’re playing with one of the cats from the 1950’s with his solid groove and his perfect timing – his steady groove, his uplifting bounce, his intensity and his ability to listen. Robert Jr. used to come to see Little Charlie and the Nightcats each time that we played in Cleveland –

undoubtedly to check up on June Core and to see how his prize pupil was doing. You did good Robert – you helped shape a great blues drummer.

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LONE STAR GOLDEN STATE REVUE MARK HUMMEL, CHARLIE BATY, AND ANSON FUNDERBURGHLoafers Beach Club Raleigh, North Carolina

It’s billed as a cross-country meeting of theminds. But in person, the Golden State Lone

Star Revue is more about hands and a set of lips. The hands belong to Anson Funderburgh and Little Charlie Baty, and the lips are attached to Mark Hummel. As for the revue, that’s the audience participation part where they show up and marvel at what’s going on a few feet in front of them.

Left Coast denizens Hummel (harp) and Baty (guitar) represented the Golden State contingent, while Funderburgh carried the Texas banner. Bassist R W Grigsby (Carlene Carter, Mike Morgan and the Crawl) and drummer Wes Starr (Omar and the Howlers, Asleep at the Wheel, Anson And The Rockets) are Georgia boys who have worked together on and off since they were in high school.

On this Wednesday night in late August the place was packed for the 7 p.m. show. The first set included Hummel’s Sonny Boy Williamson interpretation, tossing lots of WAAHS around. Funderburgh’s Texas roots were on display for “Linda Lou,” a song Funderburgh says you had to play if you wanted to work as a musician in Texas in the ‘60s. There was dance called the push that was very popular, a slow dance similar to West Coast swing. Shaggers and West Coasters swarmed the dance floor from the moment Funderburgh’s first chord was struck and pushed to the last, grinning while twirling sweatily to the sensuous shuffle.

The interplay between Baty and Funderbugh was intense, but playful. Baty was the aggressor, often sighting down his fretboard like a rifle barrel, aiming at Funderburgh and firing off bursts of menacing, sinister licks. Funderburgh was more laid back, a sly grin on his face as he answered Baty’s incoming rounds with fluid, mellow chords that sliced open the dark belly of Baty’s thunderheads, unleashing torrents of sparkling notes to fall to the floor. But Hummel was not overshadowed by the guitar shenanigans.

A powerful presence on stage, he took big bites out of his harp, chewing on the notes as he stomped out the beat. Tackling Muddy’s ‘55 stomper “Baby I Wants To Be Loved,” covered by Hummel on 2010’s Retro-Active, the harpist chomped away on it. Hummel has said that Little Walter swung like a madman, a fact he demonstrated with his interpretation of Walter’s “You Better Watch Yourself,” sailing smoothly over the choppy jump blues backbone.

On “Slim Harpo’s “Scratch My Back,” Baty and Funderburgh played an ongoing game of chicken, coming at each other head on, relentlessly, seeing who’d back off first. To end the first set, Funderburgh and Hummel left the stage to Baty, who tore off a chunk of Django for a gypsy jazz interlude.

The second set blasted off with the Royal Teens ‘58 hit “Short Shorts,” a big grin on Funderburgh’s face as he cranked out a struttin’ twang that packed the dance floor with ecstatic retro time travelers. Hummel tossed off two more chunks of Little Walter. “I Got To Find My

Baby,” covered by the Beatles and Chuck Berry, had the punch and soul that matched Walter’s original, and “One Of These Mornings,” a tune Charlie Musselwhite covered on Remembering Little Walter, the 2014 BMA award winner for Best Traditional Blues Album and Best Blues Album which Hummel contributed and produced. The revue closed out the set with Big Joe Turner’s ‘54 horn-heavy glider, “Flip, Flop, And Fly.” But when this trio of pilots took it for a spin, it soared and rocked, powered by electricity and an elite crew who make flying the blues-friendly skies a reality, not a catchphrase.– Grant Britt

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Following a rousing set by Shakura S’Aida’s nine-piece band might seem like a formidable task to some, but Moreland & Arbuckle more than rose to the challenge at New Hampshire’s White Mountain Blues & Boogie Festival, the 2013 recipient of the Blues Foundation’s Keeping The Blues Alive Award.

The energy level actually increased as Aaron Moreland prowled the stage like a caged tiger, Dustin Arbuckle blew tough, gritty harp, and sang like a banshee, and Kendall Newby kept up a ferocious beat. The Wichita, Kansas, trio was just back from a successful tour of Europe and eager to light up American audiences again. Amazing how just Moreland’s cigar box guitar, Arbuckle’s vocals and harp, and Newby’s drums produced a big, full sound that had everyone’s feet and heads bobbing to the tribal, garage blues, hill country beat.

The classic “Mona,” Just A Dream’s “Good Love,” and “Quivera,” the leadoff track from their latest CD 7 Cities, got things off to a rousing start and had the howling audience screaming from the get go. Moreland then switched to a gold Les Paul guitar, which emphasizing his finger picking over the use of picks.

MORELAND & ARBUCKLEWhite Mountain Blues & Boogie FestivalNorth Thornton, New Hampshire

Arbuckle urged the crowd repeatedly to buy CD’s so “Kendall can go to a cosmetologist.” The adoring looks and yelling directed at him from the audience spoke otherwise.

Having played as a duo for 12 years before Newby joined, they revisited this format for the mournful ballad “Wrong I Do” from their 2008 record titled 1861. Arbuckle next gave his harp a workout on the blazing instrumental “Variations On Juke” from Floyd’s Market. Arbuckle provided another wrinkle when he switched to bass for “The Devil An Me” from 7 Cities, ably holding down the bottom while vocalizing. Proving they are constantly moving forward, they played a new song “Under The Olive Tree,” to which Arbuckle cracked “Here’s one you’ve never heard before, even if you’ve seen us before.”

They then revved it back up with the foot stomping, runaway train sound of “The Legend Of John Henry;” you almost thought they had anvils in their hand as their song raced through the night. After thanking the crowd for being so nice, 7 Cities’ “Road Blind” was a balls-to-the-wall, fast and furious exclamation point to end their set. The long line at the Merchandise/Autograph tent showed the crowd was highly appreciative of the career spanning set.– Charlie Frazier

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Two decades after Robert Cray’s crossover leap into the pop charts, he continues to remind his loyal fans why he became such a hot property and

gave the blues and big push into the mainstream. While the popularity of the blues has waxed and waned in the mainstream since then, Cray’s vision has never wavered.

New fans starting their journey with In My Soul will find all the ingredients that keep Cray at the forefront of contemporary blues: great singing, great guitar playing, and a journeyman musician’s exquisite taste for song choices, both that of him and his band members and those from outside writers and classic soul nuggets.

The Steve Jordan-produced set kicks off with a Cray original “You Move Me,” an up-tempo R&B track that would have sounded at home on Strong Persuader. While the production here comes without the pop sheen of those discs, it has the kind of groove-heavy hook that makes it instantly likeable.

From the nuggets bag this time comes “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” an obscure Otis Redding track revived

ROBERT CRAY In My Soul Provogue

Billy Boy Arnold is one of the last links to the glory days of Chicago blues. At age 13 in 1947, he met and became a harmonica disciple

of the original Sonny Boy Williamson. After a few years of practice, Arnold began performing in the streets and then in the studio with Bo Diddley (that’s Arnold on “I’m A Man”). Add a couple more years, and Brit blues bands, most notably the Yardbirds with Eric Clapton, started covering Arnold’s songs.

Today, both Sonny Boys, I and II, as well as the Walters, Big and Little, and their contemporaries are long gone, but Billy Boy Arnold, at 79, soldiers on in good voice and with strong harp on a fine new release, featuring superlative backing from Duke Robillard and his band.

The Blues Soul Of Billy Boy Arnold, to my perspective, is the best blues album to come out in the last half of 2014. Clocking in at 60 minutes spread over 14 tracks, the disc is, in this time of over-stuffed albums, neither too long nor too short but just right.

Billy Boy sings and plays his way through songs

BILLY BOY ARNOLD The Blues Soul Of Billy Boy ArnoldStony Plain

here as a hard-driving duet between Cray and drummer Les Falconer, whose vocals lead off the song.

The band, which includes Dover Weinberg on keyboards and long-time Cray collaborator Richard Cousins on bass, is augmented here by Trevor Lawrence on tenor sax and Steve Madaio on trumpet. The punchy horn arrangement captures that classic Stax sound.

The 11-song album deftly changes moods. A pair of back-to-back ballads show Cray’s bittersweet side. On “Fine Yesterday,” another Cray original, he’s bewildered by the change in his lover’s affections for him. On David Porter’s “Your Good Thing Is About To End,” Cray issues a quiet warning that has the force of a scream. The tale of a jilted lover is punctuated here by subtle horns in the background.

In the tradition of Marvin Gaye’s “What’s Going On” comes “What Would You Say,” a gentle plea for compassion that points no fingers but calls for an end to war. On the lighter side is the Cousins’ original “Hip Tight Onions,” an instrumental that echoes Booker T. and the MGs.– Michael Cote

that range from Mack Rice’s “Coal Man” (the lead-off track) and the classic “St. James Infirmary” to Chuck Berry’s “Nadine” and Oscar Brown Jr.’s jazz standard “The Work Song.”

There’s even a cover, right down to the girls backing group, of Ray Charles’ hit “Don’t Set Me Free.” Arnold also ponies up two original tunes, “Dance With Me Baby” and the amusingly salacious “Keep On Rubbing.”

But my favorite track is his take on B.B. King’s haunted “Worried Dream,” which runs nearly eight minutes and matches the Peter Green version from the early blues days of Fleetwood Mac for intensity, in no small part thanks to Robillard’s guitar and Bruce Bears’ piano. Their performances as well as the rest of the ensemble’s playing cushion Arnold’s voice and harmonica on every track, whether aboard Chuck Berry’s imagined bus when “Nadine” is spotted or looking at that gambler’s corpse at “St. James Infirmary.”

Consider this disc, as well as Robillard’s new Calling All Blues! (also Stony Plain), as essential additions to any serious blues library.– Bill Wasserzieher

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It’s one of best blues lines of the last decade: “You ain’t ever seen a hearse with luggage on top.” Not only does it paint a graphic image in your mind like the

classic lyrics of Willie Dixon, but it defines Elvin Bishop’s attitude toward aging. In the same song, “Everybody’s In The Same Boat” he sings “I got my money’s worth out of being young and then some. Now I’m 71 and I’m still having fun.”

Since his days in the 1960s with Paul Butterfield when he called himself Pigboy Crabshaw and threw away a Fulbright Scholarship to hang out on Chicago’s South Side, Bishop has had a let’s have-fun-for-tomorrow-we-die attitude and an ability to translate that attitude into lyrics with a wink and sense of humor uncommon in much of the blues genre. He applies that humor by turning the mirror on himself and makes fun of his “Old School” ways with more self-deprecation than a redneck hillbilly at the Grand Ole Opry in the 1940s.

In that song he pokes guest harp player Charlie Musselwhite about the tough time Superman would have

ELVIN BISHOP Can’t Even Do Wrong Right Alligator

LUCKY PETERSON The Son Of A BluesmanJazz Village

It’s always a good day when Lucky Peterson records a new record. In 2012, he released a CD/DVD combo pack Live At The 55 Arts Club Berlin, which showcased

his explosive live club show. Earlier this year, that label released a single CD of the music in hopes of reaching Peterson’s die hard fans. This current record, however, is a stunning extension of everything Peterson. His triple blues attack, fearless guitar, charbroiled organ, and forceful vocals, ably backed by his familiar touring band, Shawn Kellerman (guitar), Tim Waites (bass), Raul Valdes (drums), gives this 11-song outing its organic and dynamic vibe.

Peterson’s story is fairly well known. Son of blues guitarist James Peterson, who provided the day-to-day instruction to learn the music right. Lucky began pounding on the family drum set at three; at four he started playing the Hammond B-3 organ; at five, he recorded a single, “1-2-3-4,” which became a national R&B hit. That lead to an album called Our Future and an appearance on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show for this talented five- year old.

changing clothes today. “Watcha talkin’ about,” responds Charlie. “No phone booth,” says Bishop.

Of course, all humor aside, Bishop is one easy, greasy guitarist facile in all manner of the blues whether it be a Smokey Smothers-like ramble through Rosco Gordon and Jules Bhari’s “No More Doggin’” or a shuffle through the title cut about Maurice, a bungling burglar who breaks into a house down the street to smoke his neighbor’s stash and falls asleep on the couch with sandwich in hand. I was listening this cut in my car while approaching the tollbooth on the Mass. Pike, and the sound byte of police sirens had me furtively looking in my rear view mirror. Got me, Elvin!

You can always count on Elvin Bishop to deliver a consistent package of great guitar picking and originals that show an uncommonly comfortable sense of self. This is no exception with 10 cuts, five originals and five covers including Fats’ Domino’s “Bo Weevil” and Lionel Hampton’s Hey-Be-Ba-Re-Bo.” Check out the surprisingly tasty guest vocal by Mickey Thomas on Elvin’s “Let Your Woman Have Her Way” that has Thomas sounding more like Wendell Holmes than a Jefferson Starship refugee.– Don Wilcock

He learned his chops at his father’s club in Buffalo, NY, became Little Milton and then Bobby “Blue” Bland’s band leader, and forged his own career in 1989.

That career has always focused on redefining the sound of modern soul blues. Like every original who has come before, Peterson sprinkles in some of this and some of that and designs a music that defies categorization. Part soul blues, part blues-rock, part gospel, part sexy R&B, part chest thumping funk, part genuine blues, Peterson’s music is always redefining arbitrary boundaries.

This record does all that and more. There are autobiographical songs like “Blues In My Blood” and “The Son Of A Bluesman,” songs that pay tribute like Bland’s “I Pity The Fool,” songs that celebrate personal recovery like “I Can See Clearly Now” and “I’m Still Here,” and songs that simply celebrate like “Joy,” which features Peterson’s wife Tamara as the lead vocalist and enlists his daughter and son offering joyous background statements. And don’t miss “Nana Jarnell,” Peterson’s big city B-3 tribute to his mother and the mother of his wife. The repeat button was made for this beautiful instrumental.– Art Tipaldi

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SUGAR RAY AND THE BLUETONES Living Tear To Tear Severn

Sugar Ray and the Bluetones, mainstays of the New England blues scene, are celebrating the band’s 35th anniversary. Frontman Sugar Ray Norcia and his mates have been a New England blues institution

for so long, their great talent is sometimes taken for granted.

Not so this year. The band has been nominated for seven 2015 Blues Music Awards by the Blues Foundation, including Album of the Year and Traditional Album of the Year for their latest, Living Tear To Tear; and Song of the Year for “Things Could Be Worse” from that CD.

The 12-track disc is chockfull of wonderful original blues, with one expertly-handled Sonny Boy Williamson tune, “Ninety-nine.” Norcia, who handles vocals and harp with his usual forte, flair, and sexy side growls, wrote most of the songs. But two of the best songs, “I Dreamed Last Night,” a cool slow blues with a long emotional piano solo, and the title track, showcasing Monster Mike Welch on slide guitar, are penned by pianist Anthony Geraci, who is stellar on piano and Hammond organ throughout the disc.

MARCIA BALL The Tattooed Lady And The Alligator ManAlligator

More than 40 years into her career, Marcia Ball and her crackerjack traveling band are still crisscrossing the country, bringing her soulful and joyful music from the

Gulf Coast to the masses. Her newest, The Tattooed Lady And The Alligator Man, adds a massive horn section to the mix, which adds the perfect ingredient to her musical gumbo. Ball’s 2011’s Roadside Attraction was a self-penned rejuvenation with a few songs supported by the Mingo Fishtrap Horns. Here, she continues as primary songwriter with help from guitarist Michael Schermer who co-wrote two cuts. She also draws help from Terrance Simien (accordion), Roscoe Beck (bass), Delbert McClinton (harmonica), Kaz Kazanoff (baritone sax), and Red Young (B-3).

The driving title cut tells the story of the Lady and the Alligator Man and their love and adventures. “Clean House” has Ball equating doing that chore. with getting ridof her man.

Welch and bassist Michael (Mudcat) Ward also contributed a song each. All are solidly backed by drummer Neil Gouvin. The Norcia-penned and gritty Chicago-style “Things Could Be Worse,” nominated for the BMA, has everyone contributing great chops, especially Norcia on chromatic harp and Geraci on keys. In fact, the whole band is really solid and cohesive here. The song has a good message: “For every bad I know, there’s a worse/my teeth are no good, but long ago they made teeth out of wood.” That positive theme is continued with Ward’s “It’s Never As Bad As It Looks.”

The eight-minute “Misery,” also written by Norcia, is a masterful slow blues featuring Welch’s ace guitar work and Sugar Ray’s angry emotional lyrics. “Short Ribs” – a shout out to Memphis – is a fun, danceable instrumental, again with terrific play between Norcia and Welch.

Living Tear To Tear follows a 2014 Grammy nomination and two Blues Music Awards for Norcia for his contributions on Blind Pig’s Remembering Little Walter. As always, Norcia and the Bluetones’ current record feels fresh while not straying from what we like the best – real blues.– Karen Nugent

Punchy horns and great lead work by Schermer and sax player Thad Scott keep it at full boil. Hank Ballard’s “She’s The One” is transformed into “He’s The One” with shades of Fats Domino mixed in. Then she heads off to “Hot Springs” to get her man back who “promised her forever but forever came too soon.” “Human Kindness” is an uplifting ballad backed by the soulful gospel choir of Amy Helm, Shelley King, and Carolyn Wonderland. Another highlight is “Lazy Blues”; a hushed, soul-baring song with Ball’s moving, intimate vocal exposing the downside of a lost love. The up-tempo and rousing “Get You A Woman” has Ball giving a male friend the advice that the woman will “…tell you what to do…if you know what’s good for you.” Album closer, “The Last To Know,” is a brooding reflection on love gone bad.

The Tattooed Lady And The Alligator Man has garnered Ball more well deserved nominations for Blues Music Awards in the Contemporary Blues Female Artist and Pinetop Perkins Piano Player categories. With a recent track record of Grammy nominations and BMA awards, Ball is certainly on a late career roll.– Mark Caron

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JOE BONAMASSA Different Shades Of Blue J & R Adventures

There’s no denying that Joe Bonamassa is a prolific singer, songwriter, guitarist, and recording artist. While the blues community continues to enjoy the tried-and-true

tradition of the genre, Bonamassa is quietly shaping the future of the blues with inventive song crafting, blazing fretboard abilities, and an impressive discography of recordings that include studio albums, live performances, and instructional DVDs as well as collaborative albums. In fact, the last five years have been especially productive for Bonamassa as he has released a staggering collection of 23 CDs and DVDs. Put in perspective, most artists don’t release that much product during their entire career, so Bonamassa has been busy indeed.

On Different Shades Of Blue, his 11th studio album, Bonamassa trekked to Nashville to write with some of that music Mecca’s best songwriters. Hence, the divergent collection of tunes that makes up Different Shades Of Blue. Bonamassa opens with an instrumental nod to one of his biggest influences, Jimi Hendrix, with “Hey Baby (New Rising Sun).” From there the jet engine begins to roar to full throttle with the Bonamassa/James House penned “Oh Beautiful” featuring a swirling wah-wah drenched solo and some cleverly picked notes. The funk-filled groove of “Love Ain’t A Love Song,” continues the ascent in to the aurasphere.

Songwriter House works jointly with Bonamassa on “Living On The Moon” and “Heartache Follows Wherever I Go” as they inventively expand the horizon of the blues. Bonamassa’s guitar does the talking in the latter while giving the listener a ringside seat of sorrow and heartache told via his six strings.

DAVINA & THE VAGABONDS Sunshine Roustabout

Davina Sowers is the real thing, a genuine once-in-a-generation talent. She’s a compelling, edgy singer of blues and classic jazz with

a style that combines the vulnerability of Billie Holiday with the edginess of Amy Winehouse and the sass and commanding stage presence of vaudeville legend Sophie Tucker. She’s also a fine, cliche-avoiding songwriter in a variety of genres from blues to jazz to reggae to pop; a two-fisted barrelhouse piano player; a seasoned bandleader and a master show woman. Full disclosure, I work on the PBS series Bluegrass Underground and she was at Cumberland Caverns a few months back filming an episode of Season 4.

Journey keyboardist, Jonathan Cain teams up with Bonamassa for the epic, “Never Give All Your Heart.” This track, more than any other, rides off the blues rails despite the emotive guitar work and soul-filled vocals.

Bonamassa gets back on track with the formulaic, “I Gave Up Everything For You, ‘Cept The Blues” penned by Bonamassa and Nashville scribes Jerry Flowers and Jeffrey Steele. Hang on to your hats gang ‘cause this I-IV-V gallops. Once again the songwriting team of Bonamassa and House prove fruitful on the album’s title track. There’s no denying Bonamassa’s guitar prowess, but he really hits this song out of the park with his heart wrenching vocals and innovative orchestration.

Blues radio has quickly adopted the catchy, riff filled, “Get Back My Tomorrow” making it a contemporary hit among blues aficionados and rockers alike. Again, Bonamassa hits his stride vocally turning in a qualified blues-rock anthem that’s sure to include him in the pages of music history. Next up, the big band horns of “Trouble Town,” drive a syncopated dance groove alongside Bonamassa’s voice and grizzly guitar work.

Former SRV keyboardist Reese Wynans joins Bonamassa on the album closer “So, What Would I Do,” bringing a sweet heartfelt lilt to the proceedings. The band’s understated offerings make this slow burning ballad a true gem.

At 37 years old, Joe Bonamassa has the swagger and confidence of an old vet and Different Shades Of Blue is just another inspired chapter in the life of that prodigious bluesman.– Brian M. Owens

A relative unknown among much, much bigger names, once the smoke cleared, she was the performer that people were talking about. So, until she comes to your town, you’ll have to make do with her new CD, Sunshine. There’s more focus on her songwriting, and despite the title, the themes remain lost love and betrayal, whether she’s warning a man that his woman is going astray (“You Better Start Praying”) or covering the blues standard “I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water” or Fats Waller’s menacing minor-key warning “You Must Be Losing Your Mind” (which gives her fine band a chance to stretch out). That she’s able to go from there to a sweet and soulful solo version of Patty Griffin’s “Heavenly Day” shows her impressive range. Get out your SPF 45 – Davina’s Sunshine burns hot. But whatever you do, get to one of her live shows as soon as you can.– Larry Nager


DUKE ROBILLARD Calling All Blues! Stony Plain

Duke Robillard has had a stellar career. Robillard had founded Roomful of Blues in 1967, then replaced Jimmie Vaughan in The Fabulous Thunderbirds in 1990, and

then founded his own Duke Robillard Band in 1993. Along the way he has lent his six string talents to likes of Joe Louis Walker, Pinetop Perkins, Tom Waits, Bob Dylan, and so many more as both guitarist and producer. Most recently he’s won back-to-back Blues Music Awards for the Best Blues Guitarist in the first two years of the new millennium.

Either in CD format or a 180 gram vinyl record, Calling All Blues is a ten-song romp through a variety of blues styles that showcases not only Robillard’s guitar work but also his singular voice and oh-so-clever lyrics. With his full horn section and layered background vocals, “Emphasis On Memphis” is the standout song on the album.

OTIS CLAY & JOHNNY RAWLS Soul Brothers Catfood

Soul Brothers was partially inspired by Otis Clay’s three song guest appearance on Rawls’ last album Remembering O.V., a tribute to Rawls’ mentor the late O.V. Wright (who was

Clay’s Hi Records label mate in the 1970s). Executive producer/songwriter/bassist Bob Trenchard leads the band (including four horns, Latin percussion, and backing vocalists) on this ten song set of duets that will draw favorable comparisons to Sam & Dave (and lesser lights from Soul music’s golden age like James & Bobby Purify, Simtec & Wylie, and the Sims Twins to name a few). Among the four covers are two famous Northern Soul laments: Jimmy Ruffin’s Motown classic “What Becomes Of The Brokenhearted” and Tyrone Davis’ signature tune “Turn Back The Hands Of Time”

ERIC BIBB Blues PeopleStony Plain

Although he’s been recording since age 21 in 1972, Eric Bibb really came into his own with 1994’s Spirit & The Blues. That album marked the arrival of an acoustic blues artist with adventure in mind.

Bibb often plays solo or within a small combo. Sometimes he presents an elaborate affair. Whatever the case, he’s consistently engaging, exciting even, and reaching out.

On this, Robillard uses both his Stratocaster and his Esquire for the slide work as he accurately replicates his former Roomful of Blues full sound. I had to double check the writing credits on “Confusion Blues” as it was a dead on example of Mose Allison’s oeuvre and Robillard had his keyboardist/singer Bruce Bears sing it Mose-style. Sunny Crownover’s vocals are also quite pleasing on “Blues Beyond The Call Of Duty.” The rest of the band is rounded out by Brad Hallen on bass and vocal, Mark Earley on saxes, Doug Wolverton on trumpet, and Mark Teixeira on drums and vocals.

For you guitarists out there, Robillard’s liner notes on each song detail all the nuances of the guitar gear being used and his inspiration for each song. Robillard penned all but two songs and the whole feel of this CD in Duke’s words is, “We feel that it’s special and we hope you feel the same.” I certainly did and trust you will as well.– Pete Sardon

(which Clay previously recorded as a single in 1975). The other covers are more in a Southern soul vein (as are most of the originals): Dave Mason’s “Only You Know And I Know” and a new tune by singer/songwriter Darryl Carter (also a Hi Records label mate of Clay’s), “Momma Didn’t Raise No Fool.”

For soul-blues fans, there are two blues-tinged originals: the caveat about a heart-shredding, psyche-sapping “Voodoo Queen” (by Rawls and Trenchard) and the tale of life on the road “Road Dog” (by Rawls, Trenchard, and Clay). Gospel is represented by Rawls’ uplifting “Hallelujah Lord.” The versatile Clay exudes his usual deep soulfulness; Rawls’ equally deep vocals are among his best and serve as a perfect complement to his friend and musical soul brother. This immensely satisfying slab of timeless soul music will likely be a candidate for Soul-Blues Album of the Year.– Thomas J. Cullen III

The very appropriately titled Blues People is Bibb’s career statement to date – and it’s one of his bigger productions. Every place he and his friends go on it, and there are many friends and many places, represents a strong link in a chain that tells a neat story within a much bigger picture. Blues People are the Black people of America. The facets of their evolution are presented with pride and class and without complaint throughout 15 wonderful songs.


ERIN HARPE & THE DELTA SWINGERS Love Whip BluesVizzTone

This debut album features solid, country blues finger pickin’ heavily influenced by the sound that came from the ‘30s Mississippi Delta. Vocalist/guitarist Erin Harpe and veteran harp player Rosy

Rosenblatt stand out on each cut and are tightly backed by a rock solid rhythm section that includes bassist Jim Countryman and drummer Bob Nisi. Blues chanteuse Harpe sings powerfully sweet and sour and mostly reminds me, at different times, of Bonnie Raitt, Memphis Minnie, and Bessie Smith; and Rosenblatt, with his Sonny Boy Williamson 1 sound, plays off her voice on every song.

I really like the way she harmonizes with herself on songs “Good Luck Baby,” the opener “The Delta Swing,” and a great cover of Lucille Bogan’s

Popa Cubby on guitar adds to the edginess of “Silver Spoon,” the idea that there was a lack thereof in the particular case. Guy Davis, who gained popularity around the same time Bibb did, blends voices beautifully with Bibb in the old-timey “Chocolate Man,” a Davis tune he recorded on his own Skunkmellow. The spooky “Pink Dream Cadillac” illustrates misplaced desires. But the beautiful big take on the Rev. Gary Davis’ “I Heard The Angels Singin’” – Davis is among Bibb’s major musical touchstones – brings it all back down to earth with heavenly ideals, and singing.

“Dream Catchers,” written and performed with Harrison Kennedy and Ruthie Foster, stands out for its message that great things are there for all. “Chain

MUD MORGANFIELD & KIM WILSON For Pops: A Tribute To Muddy WatersSevern

This worthy and heartfelt tribute covers 13 tunes from Muddy’s Golden Age of Chess recordings during the 1950s and one from 1965, “My Dog Can’t Bark” (penned by Otis “Big Smokey” Smothers).

These versions are true to the spirit of the originals. Impeccable musicianship is provided by guitarists Billy Flynn and Rusty Zinn, pianist Barrelhouse Chuck (Goering), bassist Steve Gomes, and drummer Robb Stupka in support of Morganfield’s Muddyesque vocals and Wilson’s stellar harmonica (that evokes the playing of Little Walter, James Cotton, and Big Walter Horton, the harp masters on the original versions).

Although most of these songs have been covered in varying degrees by a variety of blues and rock artists, its tight focus on these somewhat lesser known songs (but ones that are equally loved by Muddy devotees like me)

Reaction” follows a similar path of hope and change, the song’s celebratory modern soul sheen courtesy of writer, producer, and guest singer Glen Scott. Those are the two songs that signal that Bibb has made a bold and very successful move to the forefront of artists playing and shaping blues music. After them, two more highlights emerge in the rolling country gospel of “Needed Time,” featuring Foster, Taj Mahal, and the Blind Boys of Alabama, and the solo acoustic blues “Out Walkin’,” which is Bibb ruminating in a positive light on the struggle and the triumph and what really matters. After hearing the first three or four songs, my 25-year-old country music fan daughter told me she loved this album. That’s a very good thing.– Tom Clarke

“The M & O Blues” that features a sizzling slide guitar cameo by Muddy Waters band vet Bob Margolin. More R&B than traditional blues, songs like “One Way Man” (based on “One Way Girl” by country blues artist Bill Moore), “Virtual Booty Blues,” “Pick Poor Robin Clean” (a cover of country blues artist Luke Jordan), and “Charles River Delta Blues” (based on Willie Brown’s “Mississippi Blues”) all showcase the band’s growling guitar pickin’ sound. To close their release, this Boston-based blues band takes no prisoners on their great version of John Prine’s “Angel From Montgomery.” The change in the song’s meaning when it’s sung by a woman instead of a man is both interesting and refreshing. Erin Harpe and the Delta Swingers showcase country blues done really well.– A.J. Wachtel

is one of the album’s main selling points. The most oft covered tune here is “I Just Want To Make Love To You” (the other “hits” are “She Moves Me,” “Still A Fool,” and “Trouble No More”); a few may be familiar to some fans by their better known versions (e.g., Mose Allison’s “I Love The Life I Live, I Live The Life I Love” and the Allman Brothers’ “Trouble No More”).

Even though I will always favor the originals, it’s difficult to cherry pick favorites when every tune is a winner. For Pops should be a candidate for Traditional Blues Album of the Year. It keeps the faith with a crisp, concise integrity and also shines a high beam on Muddy’s extensive Chess catalog.– Thomas J. Cullen III


FRANK BEY & ANTHONY PAULE BAND Soul For Your BluesBlue DotThe documentary film Take Me To The River and its companion soundtrack album do a fair enough job of demonstrating musical continuity in Memphis, linking “old-school” soul and blues

artists with “nu-skool” rappers and hip-hoppers. But try as I have, I would rather hear the late Bobby Bland and William Bell, Bobby Rush, Charlie Musselwhite, etc., in their own context rather than dueting, if that’s the right word, with P-Nut, Al Kapone, 8Ball, and out-of-towner Snoop Dogg.Maybe I’m showin’ my age.

More to my liking is an old-school album called Soul For Your Blues by Frank Bey with the Anthony Paule Band. It’s nearly 58 big-sounding minutes of soul-blues spread over 13 tracks that remind me of what came out of Memphis during the glory days of Stax, Hi, and Goldwax records.

A few of the tracks on Soul For Your Blues are classics by familiar names – Willie Mitchell’s “I Don’t Know Why,” Wynonie Harris’ “Buzzard Luck,” and poet-of-the-blues Percy Mayfield’s “Nothing Stays the Same” – but just as strong are originals by Paule, who has worked with Boz Scaggs as well as backed Musselwhite, Maria Muldaur, and Johnny Adams, and by Christine Vitale, who is a busy

JP SOARS Full Moon Night In Memphis Soars HighIt sounds like Dr. John and Delbert in a tonsil rasslin’ death match. Although JP Soars’ raspy ululations on his latest, Full Moon In Memphis, resemble the vocal chords of a man who

took the term fireater literally, inhaling the flames stead of blowin’ ‘em out, it’s Soars’ guitar that grabs you by the throat and won’t let go.

Playing like a fiery demon, Soars rips it up on a stringed arsenal including Dobro, lap steel, and cigar box guitars, often on the same tune as he does on the title cut, a howlin’ tribute to some rock ‘n’ roll were-wolvery antics in Sun Records territory. Soars fonks through some swampy wah-wah for “Back To Broke,” like Tony Joe White wading big footedly through the bayou in search of a Loup Garou. Switching gears for “Makes No Sense,” Soars mellows out with some Les Paul-like shimmery guitar as the band slinks along behind with an after hours, cabaret vibe. “Something Ain’t Right” is slap-you-upside-the-head, screamin’ Lenny Kravitz-style arena funk.

Soars slips back to the ‘30s for a headlong gallop though his only cover, Cab Calloway’s two-minute

publicist for San Francisco-based musicians and Paule’s “significant other.”

These cuts are powered by a full brace of horns, Paule’s knife-edge guitar playing, solid rhythm work from drummer Paul Revelli and bassist Paul Olguin, and guest cameos by Rick Estrin on harmonica and fellow Nightcat band member Christopher “Kid” Andersen on second guitar and even clavinet (!) on one track. But as good as their ensemble playing is – and it’s regimental precise – Frank Bey’s vocals are what seal the deal on these songs.

My favorite is “I Want To Change Your Mind,” a writing collaboration between Vitale and Karen Falkner, which has all the essentials necessary to be an instant soul classic, especially with Bey’s big-voiced delivery. He also brings off a deep-blues reading of Americana artist John Prine’s “Hello In There” and is just as satisfying on “I’m Leaving You,” penned by Paule, and Jeff Monjack’s “Bed For My Soul.”

Then Bey steps aside so the band can conclude the disc with an instrumental cover of “I Left My Heart In San Francisco,” erasing four decades of accumulated schmaltz with sizzling fretwork from Paule. School is in session.– Bill Wasserzieher

marijuana opus “Reefer Man.” But where Calloway’s viper mad version was more lightly dusted with horns in the upper register, Soars’ is bottom heavy with a pounding tribal tom-tom and honking bari sax over Soars’ Chuck Berry-on-meth guitar licks. The singer/guitarist goes back deep into the swamp, paying tribute his Arkansas raising for the kudzu-covered “Way Back Home,” sounding like Howlin’ Wolf with a gator chewin’ on his leg. Then, “Viper” shows off Soar’s Django-ish side, gypsy jazz surrounding a dire warning about a snaky she- creature whose habitat is far ranging. Shifting gears and genres, Soars follows that with plenty of Bakersfield twang on “The Country Has Got Me Down.” An unholy, wandering instrumental mix of Marty Robbins, Django, and Tito Puente, “Lil’ Mamacita” crosses borders with impunity. Soars goes back to the ‘40s for the fast-paced T Bone Walker-ish shuffle, “Missing Your Kissin’.”

A sonic barrage transcending genres, borders, and styles, Full Moon Night In Memphis brings out the beast in us all, stimulating lupine cravings for lunar activities and bloody good fun.– Grant Britt


DAVE RAY LegacyRed House

A labor of love and respect from longtime bandmate and collaborator Tony Glover, Legacy is an in-depth look at the career of Dave “Snaker” Ray spanning 1962 to

2002. Ray was one of the first white artists to study and learn blues from the ‘20s to the ‘40s. This compilation of tracks recorded on reel-to-reel tapes, old soundboard cassettes, studio recordings, and live broadcasts present Ray’s talents vividly and completely. His were an emotive, throwback blues voice that belies his Minnesota upbringing, amazing Lead Belly-styled 12-string skills, and innovative, fingerpicked, six-string electric guitar.

Leadoff track “Alabama Woman” by Leroy Carr shows his reverence for the music and sound of old blues. Ray didn’t just copy; he channeled the deep feelings and emotions of early blues artists into his performances. This lo-fi basement-recorded track is reminiscent of older recordings and gives it added genuineness. It’s hard to believe he was just 20 at the time. In the same “session,” Ray does a dark, eerie holler of Lead Belly’s “Go Down Old Hannah.”

ADRIANNA MARIE AND HER GROOVE CUTTERS Double Crossing BluesSelf-releasedAdrianna Marie has a honey-sweet sultry voice and a youthful energy that lends an uptown sophistication to this collection of vintage R&B and jump blues. Marie transports listeners to the blues and

jazz clubs of the ‘30s, ‘40s and ‘50s with covers of songs written or popularized by Louis Jordan (“Is You Or Is You Ain’t My Baby”), Billie Holiday (“Sugar”), Helen Humes (“I Ain’t In The Mood”) and Little Esther (“Cherry Wine.”). Her singing shows restraint, control and playfulness; while she’s clearly in the spotlight, her performance is always in service of the tune and the arrangement. While Adrianna Marie gets top billing, her Groove Cutters, led by guitarist LA Jones and featuring a swinging horn section (Ron Dziubla on saxes, Lee Thornburg on trumpet and trombone), more than live up to their name. Lead-off track “I Want A Tall Skinny Papa,”

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The three-disc set travels through Ray’s covers of old blues, his later album work with Glover and then on to some live cuts adding Koerner. Highlights abound in this compilation and also show Ray’s diverse musical interests and wonderful guitar skills. Along with old blues classics, he also touches on The Carter Family and Bill Monroe. His heartfelt interpretation of Monroe’s ballad “With Body And Soul” (not the jazz classic) showcases his voice and 12-string with the subtle accompaniment of Glover’s harp.

You also hear Ray’s musical experimentation with bands (Bamboo, Beach & Glover, Three Bedroom Ramblers, 6L6, and others). Ray, although he worked in other capacities (he ran his dad’s insurance agency for a time), never ever lost his deep, innate commitment to making the music he loved his entire life.

Legacy is a painstakingly compiled tribute to the music of Dave Ray about whom Tony Glover said, “He brought a vitality to the blues that the scholars who’d been on the scene couldn’t muster.”– Mark Caron

with its call and response vocals between Marie and the band, sets the stage for a rollicking, diverse set of tunes.

Jones and Marie share lead vocals on the title track, a piano-based ballad originally performed by Johnny Otis and Little Esther that features a stellar guitar solo from Jones. Jones also shares vocals on “That’s A Pretty Good Love,” one of that album’s most upbeat tracks and the one on which closest Marie gets to earning the moniker “blues shouter,” sounding a bit tougher and putting a bit more punch in her voice; it’s clear she’s got the pipes.

Pianist Larry “Big House” David Cohen” adds some amplified harmonica to a pair of the album’s rougher-edged tracks, “I’m In The Mood,” and “Hands Off,” which recall early Chess sides by Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf. The rest of the band gets to show off their chops on the album’s instrumental closer, “Sad Night Owl.”– Michael Cote


RITA ENGEDALEN Women In The Blues and My Mother’s Blues BluestownAfter decades of hard work touring, recording, and traveling annually to Clarksdale, the taproot of the blues, Rita Engedalen has assumed the title Norway’s Queen of the Blues. Most

recently she was awarded the Notodden Blues Festival award in 2010, and in 2012, she copped first place in the European Blues Challenge.

Currently she is on the road in support of two recent CDs. Women In The Blues, a celebration of the accomplishments of women blues singers released in 2012, and My Mother’s Blues, her current release. Both recordings feature Engedalen’s band Backbone, vocalist Margit Bakken, and a slew of guests like Ruthie Foster, Danielle Schnebelen, and Dana Fuchs.

Women In The Blues allows Engedalen to tour and to educate her audiences about the role of the woman blues singer. She and Bakken acknowledge these trailblazers from Mamie Smith, who recorded “Crazy Blues,” the first vocal blues in 1920, up to and including Engedalen’s double mentors, Jessie Mae Hemphill and Norway’s Kristin Berglund.

The CDs opens with an acoustic swing and vocal harmonies on Memphis Minnie’s “Minnie’s Lonesome Song.” Engedalen’s “Come Home” is an a capella duet with the spiritual undertones. Fuchs and Schnebelen are added to the vocals on Janis Joplin’s “What Good Can Drinkin’ Do.” She focuses on traditional tunes like “Can’t No Grave Hold My Body Down,” done with an

DUDLEY TAFT Screaming In The WindAmerican BluesThe seemingly prolific Dudley Taft has just issued this third solo disc less than a year after his standout Deep Deep Blue release. An aggressive collision of rock to blues, this 12-track album benefits from

the tangible addition of producer Tom Hambridge (Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter) to the scrum, opening up the artist to new ways of expanding his broad definition of the blues.

Interesting to see Taft’s development from his Seattle-weaned Sweet Water, Second Coming, and Omnivoid days, steeped in the era’s somber, metallic edge yet you’ll find remnants of post-punk gloom in his tough, distinctive sound. You’ll also find better songs, tighter playing, and a slight embellishment to his typical trio format with the addition of Reese Wynans on occasional keyboards. Busting out with Skip James’ “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues” à la Hendrix, bassist John Kessler and drummer Jason Patterson prove just how powerful and full-sounding a trio they can be. Covering Freddie King’s “Pack It Up” adds an element of hard-rockin’ funk to the

“I’m A Man” swagger, and Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “This Train.” Berglund’s “Another Empty Kitchen” which praises the strength of these tough women singers, and “Libba,” a heartfelt tribute to Elizabeth Cotton, are her recognition of Women Rock The Cradle Of The Blues, Berglund’s 2003 glorification of women blues singers.

Her current CD features 11 Engedalen originals inspired, as always, by her visits to Clarksdale and her devotion to blues women like Hemphill. On her opening song, “Snow Falls,” Engedalen sings alone in a style that could be rural Norway or rural Appalachia. Though the title cut, with Knut Nyheim’s fiddle accents, also has that rural feel, its message is clearly rooted in the struggles of women around the world. Foster joins Engedalen for their sisterly honoring of their dear friend Jessie Mae Hemphill on the biographical “She Let The Eagle Fly.” Other highlights here include Engedalen and Goren Grini’s lush grand piano duet on Kris Kristofferson and Donnie Fritts’ “Epitaph (Black And Blue)” written for Joplin after she died; the hard driving “Panny’s Porch,” which strengthens her connections to her Clarksdale friend; the double acoustic guitar fueled “Me And Rosa Lee,” a tribute to the her guitar of the same name; and the joyous voices of the Coahoma Community College choir backing Engedalen on “Mississippi Prayers.”

Sometimes it takes an outsider’s eyes and voice to remind about sense of place and history. These recordings by Engedalen are those gentle reminders.– Art Tipaldi

menu, leaning heavily on the Muscle Shoals Horns and Wynans’ B-3.

Yet, it’s Taft’s own “Red Line” that tips the scale on this album having more to do with rock than blues, filtered through an Alice In Chains’ cheesecloth. A ZZ Top-friendly, creamy-smooth driving song, Taft’s signature guitar work remains his ace-in-the-hole, his voice still gruff but less an acquired taste than before. His leads are standout – especially here – giving flight to each composition, his guitar playing clearly up to any challenge. The title track hits a ghostly nerve yet, this track alone proves that it’s the addition of Wynans that give certain tracks a leg up. “I Keep My Eyes On You” is another case-in-point, Wynans taking some of the pressure off the band, allowing things to lighten up an adding an element of funk as Taft’s guitar spars with Wynans’ undeniable chops. Likewise, “The Reason Why” serves up a slow, satisfying grind that could go for days. The hooky “Rise Above It” proves itself another solid trio song built around a rock riff with support vocals and seismic, supportive leads.


The novelty of “3DHD” features plenty of Taft’s powerful guitar presence, yet its lyric feels forced while the irritating “Barrio” seems like, with its addition of Spanish guitar and the wasted presence of the full-throated McCrary sisters, a forced detour. Doing what you do best – like the driving rock of “Say You Will,” with its slightlysinister overtone despite its lyric and its slight sidebar

THE ASYLUM STREET SPANKERS The Last Laugh Yellow DogBefore they called in quits in 2011, these folks were the Cirque du Soleil of roots music, a mind-blowing multi-ring circus of blues, country, jug band, gospel, and novelty tunes, with alternating lead

singers, multi-voice choruses and a dizzying array of instrumentalists. And like those gravity-defying Canadians, this Austin band was willing to work without a net, or a microphone, performing truly acoustic shows. The ground’s been covered by other bands from Martin, Bogan, and Armstrong to the Kweskin Jug Band to Dan Hicks, but not one can match the Spankers’ Gus Cannon-meets-The Sex Pistols approach.

They closed up shop with three hometown shows, the setlist picked online by their fans.

ERIC JOHNSON Europe LiveProvogueHow does one categorize Eric Johnson? Is his playing jazz? Fusion? Blues? I’d say a little of all is displayed over the 14 tracks of his new CD Europe Live. Recorded in the spring of 2013 and culled from shows

in Germany, Amsterdam, and Paris, all facets of his guitar prowess are spotlighted, providing an accurate snapshot of how his live show would play out. Songs from his body of work and two new compositions are included.

Right out of the gate “Intro” and “Zenland” ratchet up the wonderful sonics with soaring flights of arpeggiated fretwork, of which there will be many. Drummer Wayne Salzmann and bassist Chris Maresh lay down a rock solid foundation for Johnson to build upon. It’s hard to believe Johnson is the only guitarist; he glides so effortlessly between crunching, chordal rhythmic colors and dazzling spitfire solos. A mark of the great ones is an instantly identifiable sound, and Johnson’s is just that. His vocals on “Austin” let him ruminate on his Texas hometown, and his singing on “Last House On The Block” and “Forty Mile Town” shows his vocals are as distinctive as his

Here’s the result, an 11-song set that reminds us just how much we’ve lost. There’s tent-revival gospel in “Didn’t It Rain,” laidback jug band stylings in “I’d Rather Drink Muddy Water” (with plenty of space for solos), and lots of clever originals, included “She Texted Me Goodbye” and “F#*@K” Work”

Fittingly, the finale features Christina Marrs, whose expressive country blues voice has been a highlight of the Spankers since they started 20 years ago. She does the first song she sang in the band, a great, wailing version of Lucille Bogan’s risqué “Coffee Grinder Blues.” They go out with a fine farewell, but I for one would have liked a longer goodbye. Don’t miss this one.– Larry Nager

into outer space – is what Hambridge has helped bring to the surface, adding a slightly melodic edge to their sound which wasn’t here before. This powerful band is on a mission and for those who like their blues extremely rock-like, start scaring the neighbors now.– Eric G. Thom

guitar chops. John Coltrane’s “Mr. P.C.” allows extended workouts for the rhythm section, and proves there are no slouches in this band. “Song For Life” lets Johnson showcase his acoustic guitar talents, demonstrating his fingerpicking prowess is equal whether plugged or unplugged. Grammy nominated “Zap” and “Fatdaddy” should come with a warning to “fasten your seat belt” for the rousing, raucous, ferocious riffing featured. His hit from 30 years ago, “Cliffs Of Dover,” sounds as fresh as when it captivated FM radio back in the day. A deceased friend had suggested he name a song “Evinrude Fever,” since Johnson likes to water ski in what little spare time he has. So he did just that to honor his friend, and you can almost feel the breeze blowing through your hair as he rocks the instrumental encore.

As he says in the liner notes, this was his first live album, and he was striving to make more spontaneous, immediate, and connective music. Mission Accomplished! Close your eyes and float away to the remarkable sounds of one of today’s guitar masters. I’m quite sure a smile will cross your face more than once. Turn It Up!– Charlie Frazier


THORBJØRN RISAGER & THE BLACK TORNADO Too Many Roads RufThe name Thorbjørn Risager may be hard to pronounce, but it’s one to take note of. During the past ten years, the nattily attired native of Copenhagen, Denmark – a

self-professed disciple of Ray Charles – has released a succession of impressive albums with his seven-piece band, which he only recently dubbed The Black Tornado. Like the great Brother Ray, Risager has always kept one foot in the blues. But the other one jumps around constantly. Soul, R&B, jazz, and straight-ahead rock ‘n’ roll are all part of the mix. The musicianship is top-notch. His voice? Critics have bent over backward trying to find the right comp to describe its dark, raw tone. Names like David Clayton Thomas, Van Morrison, Ray Charles, and even Tom Jones have been tossed around. Yet at the end of the day, Risager and his talented mates have managed to create a sound all their own, and it has come into full bloom on Too Many Roads. The album juxtaposes quiet moments of spine-tingling beauty with powerful rockers

KENNY “BLUES BOSS” WAYNE Rollin’ With The Blues BossStony PlainYou won’t scare Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne by calling him a boogie man. Wayne’s piano shenanigans have made the New Orleans native one of Canada’s favorite adopted boogie-

woogie denizens since the ‘80s. Wayne specializes in a smooth variety of boogie that’s mellow but choogles along at a good clip.

“Leavin’ In The Morning” features B.B. King guitar flourishes over Wayne’s laid back vocals, chronicling a traveling man’s journey to get away from a soon to be former loved one who ain’t living up to his expectations. “Two Sides” recalls the rollicking gospel soul of the Dixie Hummingbirds thanks to Wayne’s velvety harmonizing and call and response with Eric Bibb.

Most of us think of a hootenanny as a bunch of slicked up young white folk singers doing pop versions of Appalachian music. But Wayne redefines that idea

like shots of adrenaline.The high-octane opener “If You Wanna Leave”

roars out of the starting gate like nobody’s business. It’s like a compact version of The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues” with the horns generating even greater power. “China Gate” two tracks later is quite the opposite – a gentle and somber reworking of the title song to a 1957 Hollywood film, originally sung by Nat King Cole. After the groovy “Paradise,” Risager delivers the haunting original “Drowning.” Here, horns, organ, and bass create a spooky carnival atmosphere while minimalist surf-like guitar riffs shimmer in the distance. But the true star is the exquisite horn refrain – an Eastern-European-inflected melody that hangs around one’s consciousness like a long-lost love. Further highlights like the Stones-esque “High Rolling,” the lush soul of “Red, Hot & Blue,” or the supercharged rock ‘n’ roll of “Play On” show that this band can do a lot of things really, really well. This outstanding release should boost their profile outside of Europe, where they have been touring successfully for years.– Vincent Abbate

on “Hootenanny Boogie-Woogie,” a banjo clattering in the background as he introduces the song, saying that he overheard his idol Jay McShann talking about ahootenanny being a gathering of blues and boogie-woogie players getting together to jam in Kansas City in the 1930s. The song is as odd as the title sounds like it would be, a funk bass anchoring Wayne’s jangly off kilter melody, a banjo tinkling in fits and starts as Wayne chants the title over and over as the chorus, finally cutting loose with some rollicking piano boogie for the last 30 seconds.

“Roadrunner” is another strange one, a gospel-tinted blues that has nothing in common with Bo Diddley’s take on that subject, this one more an Albert Collins feel than Diddley’s trademark shave and a haircut beat. “Keep On Rockin’” sounds like it slipped off Fats Domino’s piano stool, an easy rollin’, Crescent City bounce with Wayne’s promise to keep going till his dying day. Although Wayne exported himself to the great white North, his Southern roots are still showing. And for fans of vintage boogie-woogie piano, that southern exposure is always welcome.– Grant Britt

DR. JOHN Ske-Dat-De-Dat The Spirit Of Satch ConcordMusical legend Dr. John, aka “Mac” Rebennack, epitomizes the unique amalgam of New Orleans music that emanates from that city. On his latest CD, Ske-Dat-De-Dat The Spirit of Satch, Mac pays

tribute to another favored son of Louisiana’s Crescent City, Louis Armstrong. The legendary trumpeter and singer immortalized a string of songs that are immediately identifiable, and now Dr. John gives them an all-new workout that bends and stretches the boundaries of the original recordings while paying homage to the master.


Enlisting a gang of contemporary and traditional singers and players that include Terence Blanchard, The Blind Boys of Alabama, Shemekia Copeland, The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Anthony Hamilton, Ledisi, Bonnie Raitt, Arturo Sandoval, Telmary, Nicholas Payton, Anthony Hamilton, Wendell Brunious, The McCrary Sisters, and James “12” Andrews, Dr. John serves up a compelling musical gumbo that blends the sentiment of Satch with dashes of spice from funk and rap to old school New Orleans jazz.

Best tracks, “What A Wonderful World” featuring the uplifting gospel tinged vocals of

CHRIS SMITHER Still On The Levee –50 Year Retrospective Signature SoundsIf you’ve ever had the pleasure to hear Chris Smither live, you are instantly captivated by his unique sounding voice, impeccable fingerpicking, intelligent, and deep lyrics

and drawn in by his foot tapping beat that frames each song into a deeper dimension. The 26 songs on this double CD and a 28-page booklet listing the lyrics and musicians make for an attractive package.

Smither has described his guitar style as, “one-third Lightnin’ Hopkins, one-third Mississippi John Hurt and one-third me.” Still On The Levee – 50 Year Retrospective was recorded in New Orleans where Smither has gone back to his roots as he spent about 17 years in the Crescent City before hitting the Boston/Cambridge folk scene in 1965 sharing time with the likes of Bonnie Raitt and Eric Von Schmidt. His association with Dick Waterman there also plied him with the love of the early blues artists.

The Blind Boys of Alabama, the swanky “I’ve Got The World On A String” spotlighting a superb vocal duet with Bonnie Raitt, the tastefully sung “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child” featuring Anthony Hamilton handling lead vocals, the outstanding “That’s My Home” highlighted by the gorgeous vocals of The McCrary Sisters, the blues inflected “Nobody Knows The Trouble I’ve Seen,” the roadhouse pleaser “Dippermouth Blues,” and the Latin infused “When You’re Smiling (The Whole World Smiles With You)” featuring the big band sounds of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band.– Brian M. Owens

His best songs are included here and are rendered with a pleasing musical lilt that includes the use of the occasional cello, violin, baritone sax, diddley bow, drums, and piano. In addition to his sister and his daughter, Smither adds musicians of note such as Allen Toussaint, Loudon Wainright III, the group Rusty Belle, and Members of Morphine.

There is a theme of loss, longing, and aging throughout the titles highlighted by “Leave The Light On” which concludes both discs. The indelible lines from this song are: “I may live to be a hundred, I was born in ‘44/31 to go, but I ain’t keeping score./I’ve been left for dead before, but I still fight on./Don’t wait up, leave the light on/I’ll be home soon.”

The blues songs are played in an economical guitar style that will have you smiling at the fingerpicking talent that he possesses. As they say in New Orleans, “I guaran-damn-tee you” once you purchase this double CD you will immediately want to play it for your friends, it’s the next best thing to seeing Chris Smither live.– Pete Sardon

WILL KIMBROUGH Sideshow LoveDaphneEvery city’s music scene has its local heroes, but in a town with as many master players as Nashville that’s a hard-won status, and ace guitarist, singer, and songwriter Will Kimbrough

has been at the forefront for more than 20 years. He’s a musician’s musician who’s worked with folks like Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell as well as his own legendary Nashville band, The Bisquits, and has had a close musical partnership with Todd Snider.

On his first solo album in four years, Kimbrough is in a rootsy mood, working the bluesy side of Americana, with a dozen emotionally wise songs with a strikingly intimate feel. “When Your Loves Comes Around” sets the pace with an in-the-pocket J.J. Cale groove.

The title track is a love song surprisingly infused with sideshow imagery. “Soulfully” showcases another kind of love, this time with a gospel feel. “Home Economics” is worth the price of admission by itself, mixing slide guitar and strummed banjo for a vaudeville blues feel, but with lyrics taking a distinctly modern, sardonic view of romance. It’s hard to write songs both clever and heartfelt, but Kimbrough pulls it off, notably in the folk-pop “Dance Like Grownups Dance” which also quotes both Richard Thompson and the Flamin’ Groovies. If Will Kimbrough is new to you, it’s time you learned what folks in Nashville have known for a long time. Even in a place called Music City, this guy is freakishly talented.– Larry Nager


DADDY MACK BLUES BAND Blues Central Inside Sounds

Most blues fans traveling through Memphis have grooved to “Daddy” Mack Orr and his band at one time or another during the past 15 years. He’s a Memphis fixture – no pun intended – and for

years he ran an auto repair shop there as well. Orr’s latest disc, the aptly titled Blues Central, is the band’s sixth CD, and oozes Memphis blues, with just a touch of funk and soul wrapped with a certain confident flair found in folks who found musical success later in life. Orr has been written up in AARP magazine for just that.

The 13 tracks, with no covers and mainly written by producers Eddie Dattel and Wally Ford, are all you need in a blues record – there’s no need to worry about some rock or country popping up here. Orr’s four-piece band is comprised of seasoned bluesmen: Daddy Mack Orr on lead guitar and vocals, brothers James and Harold Bonner, formerly from the Memphis-based Fieldstones, on rhythm guitar and bass, and drummer Eddie Lester. Not that any help is needed, but they are joined by guest artists such as Israeli guitarist Ori Naftaly, Beale Street

LITTLE MIKE AND THE TORNADOES All The Right MovesElrob

“If you ask me people/what we’re tryin’ to do/trying to make a living/laying down these blues,” Little Mike Markowitz sings on “Hard Hard Way,” accompanying his

remarks with some James Cotton-style harp on the opener of his latest, All The Right Moves. Markowitz is making those moves here with the original Tornadoes, Tony O. Melio on guitar, Brad Vickers on bass, and drummer Rob Piazza. The New York-based band specializes in hard core Chicago blues, with Markowitz’s pedigree including stints as producer for Pinetop Perkins’ ‘88 release After Hours, as well as producing and playing on Hubert Sumlin’s ‘89 effort Heart And Soul. All the compositions here but two are solo Markowitz contributions, the others by band members Melio (with the help of Willie “Big Eyes” Smith) on “Hard Hard Way,” and bassist Vickers contributing “I Won’t Be Your Fool.”

Sounding like Slim Harpo covering Otis Redding/Carla Thomas’ “Tramp” backed by Booker T and the MGs, “Problems” has Melio tossing in some lively chicken

harpist Eric Hughes, guitarist Matt Isbell, singer Candice Ivory, Paul Brown from the Bobby Rush Band on organ, and a solid brass section.

From the opener, “Blues Doctor,” a gritty, sexy number with some nice guitar riffs from Orr, whose vocals are reminiscent of Albert King, to the sad 12-bar “I Almost Left You” (Naftaly on guitar) about a man resigned to stay in a dulled relationship with a good woman, to the funky “Sensational Sally” (as opposed to “Mustang Sally”) the disc is super, straightforward blues. The jazzy “Sharp Dressed Daddy” features amusing lyrics, cool brass, and funny rap and background vocals from Ivory. “Memphis Gives Me The Blues,” is reminiscent of ‘70s soul, as is “On The Rebound,” a lament to the difficulties faced trying to make a buck on Beale Street. A listen to “Everybody Have Fun,” a crowd pleaser at live shows, makes it impossible to avoid chair dancing and head bopping. Blues Central is true blues and fun. The Daddy Mack Blues Band remains steadfast in its dedication to down-to-earth blues. Bravo!– Karen Nugent

scratch guitar. The B.B. King guitar flavored “I Got Drunk Last Night” is a substance abuser’s paradise featuring whiskey, wine, and reefer on the menu. “Sam’s Stomp” could just have easily have sprung from Little Walter’s lips, Markowitz dipping and diving deep into Chicago blowdown blues. Melio’s brittle, clipped notes propel “A Little On The Side,” a lively samba with some rattly barrelhouse piano from Jim McKaba. McKaba’s tinkly piano is the main ingredient again in “All The Right Moves” until Markowitz steps in, grinding out a scruffy, low down harp solo that skitters along the pavement, flinging up a cloud of funky grit. Markowitz’s John Lee Hooker-ish “The Blues Is Killing Me” is hypnotic, mashing melancholy deep in your pores. “Close To My Baby” is great mash up of styles, Slim Harpo reed bendin’ harp with some clangy Albert Collins- style guitar flung up in the middle.

But as good as this stuff is, you may be seeing a change in attitude and lyrics before long. If Little Mike Markowitz keeps putting out material like this, his days of singing about having trouble making a living are quickly coming to a close.– Grant Britt

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Jimmy Carpenter Walk Away Self-released

It’s always a pleasure to discover new dimensions to a familiar artist and Walk Away is a case in point. On his latest solo effort after 2009’s Toiling In Obscurity,

Jimmy Carpenter shows yet again that he’s much more than a great saxophone player. The man can sing and he demonstrates that skill on 11 of the 13 tracks, all written by Carpenter in a six-month burst of inspiration and creativity while on the road with Walter “Wolfman” Washington and the Roadmasters. Together, they comprise a meditation on the joys and sorrows of love.

The songs have strong melodies and that wide, wide groove that you can count on from New Orleans musicians, many of whom lend a hand. The subject matter is fairly evenly divided between songs of fascination and promise and others that describe heartbreak and regret.

RORY BLOCK Hard Luck Child Stony Plain

The music of Nehemiah “Skip” James is as brooding and solitary as the man himself. James was one of H.C. Speir’s discoveries in1931 in Jackson, Mississippi.He immediately went to

Paramount’s Grafton studios to record 26 seminal sides. Songs like “Devil Got My Woman,” Hard Time Killin’ Floor Blues,” “22-20 Blues,” and “Hard Luck Child” spoke to James’ inner struggles. Within a year, James returned to Bentonia, Mississippi, and gave up music. Then, like other invisible blues recording artists from that bygone era, James was rediscovered in a Mississippi hospital in 1964 and played at the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. The opening note of his first song at Newport, “Devil Got My Woman,” was immortalized in a Dick Waterman photo and James’ performance is part of Vanguard’s Blues With A Feeling, a highly recommended, two-disc compilation of that festival from 1963-66.

Like her previous Mentor Series recordings, Hard Luck Child features Rory Block channeling James on nine James originals from his Paramount recordings. Like her other mentors (except Johnson), Block sat knee to knee with James during his revived career in the sixties before his death in 1969. Her reverence for his life and music rings true as evidenced by the opening cut, “Nehemiah James,” a five and a half minute bio-verse about James’spreachin’ the blues calling.

One of the latter, “Can’t Let Go,” leads off the record and grabs hold from the first ominous notes, but the mood doesn’t last long. It’s followed by “Walk Away,” a sexy celebration of his woman’s derriere, featuring the first of Carpenter’s many hot saxophone solos. The lyrics acknowledge her other fine qualities, but confess that “Sometimes I wish you’d leave me/Just so I can watch you walk away.” Carpenter’s sax announces that it’s crying time again with “She’s Not You,” and “Favorite Muse” deals with the universality of that experience. The rollicking “Crazy ‘Bout You” couldn’t be more joyful, while “Fellow Traveler” is a sweet, sad duet with Reba Russell. Two sax-drenched instrumentals – “7th Street Shuffle” and “C King Blues” – give some breathing room between the tales of love and loss.– Kay Cordtz

From there, Block tackles James’ signature tunes with his unique, Bentonia tunings and vocal peculiarities. With no technology to spread a common music in James’ day, each Mississippi town or region had its own distinctive sound. Vocalized in a higher register than James, Block captures James aching melancholy on his iconic “Devil Got My Woman” by utilizing her expert slide in place of James’ deft finger picking. Her otherworldly vocalizations on “Hard Times Killin’ Floor Blues” make the song’s meaning as relevant today as in James’ day. With herself as the multi-voiced heavenly background chorus, Block takes a fun ride on “I’m So Glad,” the song from Cream’s first record that announced James to the world of rock.

Block’s most difficult task in honoring James was to adapt his piano songs to her guitar. “If You Haven’t Any Hay, Get On Down The Road” and “Little Cow And Calf Is Gonna Die Blues” feature her bouncy guitar turning the six strings on her Martin into James’ full 88-key sound.

Like all of her Mentor Series records, tributes to Son House, Robert Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Rev. Gary Davis, Rory Block has crafted a CD that’s been recognized with another well-deserved 2015 Blues Music Award nomination for Acoustic Album of the Year.– Art Tipaldi

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JW-JONES Belmont Boulevard Blind Pig

Blues-rocker JW-Jones was born in Ottawa, Ontario, and started playing the drums at age 13. A few years later, after attending a B.B. King show, he fell in love with

the blues and decided to take up the guitar. Soon he immersed himself in the blues styles of pioneering electric artists like Albert King, Freddie King, T-Bone Walker, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, and Jimmie Vaughan, as well as West Coast guitarists Junior Watson and Little Charlie Baty. This journey would help to shape the player that Jones has become today.

Jones has made big waves over the past 15 years in Canada as well as the European market, but after spinning his newest disc, Belmont Boulevard, it’s quite clear that Jones is poised to take American music audiences by storm.

Employing an A-list of players like former Stevie Ray Vaughan alum, Reese Wynans (keyboards), Laura Greenberg (bass), Jamie Holmes and Rob McNelley (guitar), Dave Roe (bass), and Tom Hambridge (drums and vocals), Jones struts his stuff with journeyman confidence

THE MANNISH BOYS Wrapped Up & Ready Delta GrooveFor ten years, the Mannish Boys have turned a constantly evolving line-up of musicians into a juggernaut that plays the blues with impressive skill and energy, consistently

garnering recognition at awards nominations time. Their latest CD includes twenty additional musicians and singers who inspire the core band, consisting of Sugaray Rayford on vocals, Kirk “Eli” Fletcher and Franck Goldwasser on guitar, Willie J. Campbell on bass, Jimi Bott on drums, and label head Randy Chortkoff on harmonica and vocals, to even greater heights.

Rayford’s mighty voice commands attention through the driving title track to his slow, mournful lament on “Troubles,” accented by Kim Wilson’s superlative harp accompaniment. Fletcher shines on “You Better Watch Yourself,” which also features the big, fat tone of Jacob “Walters” Huffman, a rising star on harmonica. The pace slows on Robert Ward’s “Something For Nothing,” but the intensity grows when Monster Mike Welch on guitar and Rob Dziubla on saxophones get added to the mix.

Guest Steve Freund steps into the spotlight on “The Blues Made Me Whole,” trading guitar licks with Goldwasser and supplanting Rayford briefly as the lead vocalist. Expertly using his piano to fill in around Candye Kane’s singing, Fred Kaplan makes his presence felt on “I Idolize You,” along with Chortkoff on harp and noteworthy guitar picking from Laura Chavez.

The band welcomes back Kid Ramos on guitar for two tracks, with his stinging licks on “You Belong To Me” creating a highlight moment. On “I Have Love,” Welch burns through two solos but not before guest Bob Corritore blows some mean harp. Goldwasser shines on his two originals, “Struggle In My Hometown” and “Don’t Say You’re Sorry,” the later cut elevated by his piercing slide guitar outburst.

The disc closes with a lengthy instrumental, “Blues For Michael Bloomfield,” that provides plenty of space for Fletcher, Welch, and Goldwasser to highlight the band’s guitar firepower. It is a fitting climax to another superb offering from one of the foremost blues aggregations on the planet. Definitely belongs on your “Do Not Miss” list!– Mark Thompson

on a string of originals co-penned with Hambridge along with some choice covers by the late Washington D.C. musician Bobby Parker and the legendary blues singer-guitarist Buddy Guy.

Jones is an excellent singer that has perfect pitch and a solvent, emotive sentiment that sells his songs with conviction and ease. Couple that to his extensive guitar vocabulary and sinewy fretboard abilities, and Jones proves to be a one man tour-de-force that has both the endurance and talent to make it in the fickle music industry.

Be sure to check out the swampy album opener, “Love Times Ten,” the Allman Brothers inspired “Watch Your Step” (with the catchy “One Way Out” riff fully intact), the B.B. King (The Thrill Is Gone) infused “Coming After Me,” the driving backbeat of “Thank You,” Jones’ uplifting instrumental tip of the hat to the Windy City on “Magic West Side Boogie,” and the driving 12-bar chug of “Never Worth It.”– Brian M. Owens

Blues Music Magazine’s Publication Schedule: July 10, 2015 - October 9, 2015 - January 15, 2016


EDEN BRENT Jigsaw Heart Yellow Dog

The ultra-talented pianist and singer-songwriter Eden Brent, who went to North Texas State University, showcases her singer-songwriter side on her

new release “Jigsaw Heart.” She offers up an inspired take on jazz icon Dr. Billy Taylor’s “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free,” and covers Joan Armatrading’s “Opportunity,” but most of the rest of the tunes here are Brent originals, inspired by her life and times in her native Mississippi. She’s in a decidedly more introspective, reflective mood throughout this album, with light drum and bass accompaniment on many tracks. Gone are the rompin’ stompin’ barrelhouse boogie-woogie roadhouse tunes that we’ve all grown accustomed to on her previous studio outings.

LEO WELCH Sabougla Voices Big Legal Mess

In recent years it has seemed as though the folks behind Fat Possum Records had run out of elderly bluesmen who stayed in the hill country of Mississippi rather than join

that great exodus to Chicago in the ‘50s and ‘60s. But with such giants as R.L. Burnside, Junior Kimbrough, Asie Payton, and T-Model Ford having gone to their reward, the label made the jump from men who had walked behind a mule during the week and churned out raw blues on the weekend to recording noisy young white punk bands aiming for White Stripes and Black Keys-level fame.

But Fat Possum’s spinoff label, Big Legal Mess (was there ever a better name for a record company?), has unearthed Leo “Bud” Welch, an 81-year-old woodcutter who makes a fine-sounding racket playing a hybrid of blues and gospel. The man’s a shouter, and he raises rooftops on the 10-track, 35-minute Sabougla Voices, Sabougla being the wide spot in the road south of Oxford where he’s always lived.

Producer Bruce Watson has put Welch in front of a raucous backing band comprised of Andrew Bryant,

“Better This Way,” “Jigsaw Heart,” and her cover of Jimmy Phillips’ “Panther Burn” are memorable tracks here, yet the radio ready track is her take on Taylor’s timeless “I Wish I Knew How It Would Feel To Be Free.”Overall, another fine effort from a serious American roots music woman who has paid her dues – both in terms of formal education at North Texas State University – and on the road at a zillion little juke-joints and coffee houses. Great things are in the offing for Brent as she makes her rounds at summer blues and folk festivals around the U.S., Canada, and Europe.– Richard J. Skelly

drums and organ; Eric Carlton, organ and piano; Matt Patton, bass; and the nearly ubiquitous (for Mississippi recordings) Jimbo Mathus on guitar. There is also a female choir whose members aren’t sedate when they belt out the backing choruses.

The whole disc has a real garage rock-meets-roadhouse blues sound, even though every song title contains a Biblical reference. Make no mistake: Welch is not a candidate for the Swan Silvertones as a singer. But he’d fit just fine alongside the Blind Boys of Alabama when they’re belting out Tom Waits’ “(Gotta Keep The Devil) Way Down In The Hole.”

Eight of Welch’s songs are electric bone-rattlers, but he and his crew cut the volume for “Mother Loves Her Children” at the mid-point and the album-closing “The Lord Will Make A Way.” These two change-ups provide timely respites in a collection that suggests there are still players back in the hill country who need to be heard. [ Welch’s 2015 CD I Don’t Prefer No Blues will be reviewed in an upcoming issue. Ed.]– Bill Wasserzieher

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SAMPLERSIX

JP Soars – “Missin’ Your Kissin’” from the album Full Moon Night In Memphis Soars High Productions. www.jpsoars.com

Billy Boy Arnold – “What’s On The Menu Mama” from the album The Blues Soul Of Billy Boy Arnold Stony Plain Records. www.stonyplainrecords.com

Otis Clay & Johnny Rawls – “Living On Borrowed Time” from the album Soul Brothers Catfood Records. www.catfoodrecords.com

Liz Mandeville – “Quit Me On Voice Mail” from the album Heart ‘O’ Chicago Blue Kitty Music. www.lizmandeville.com

Rob Stone – “Lucky 13” from the album Gotta Keep Rollin’ VizzTone Records. www.robstone.com

Markey Blue – “Feeling Blue” from the album Hey Hey Soulosound Records. www.markeyblue.com

Linsey Alexander – “Things Done Changed” from the album Come Back Baby Delmark Records. www.linseyalexander.com

Big Jon Atkinson – “Boogie With You Baby” from the album Boogie With You Baby Bluebeat Music. www.bluebeatmusic.com

Missy Andersen – “Night Stalker” from the album In The Moment Main Squeeze Records. www.Missyandersen.com

Aki Kumar – “Let Me Get Closer” from the album Don’t Hold Back Greaseland Records. www.akikumar.com

EG Kight – “Comin’ Down With The Blues” from the album A New Day Blue South Records. www.egkight.com

Grady Champion – “Ten Dollars” from the album Bootleg Whiskey Malaco Records. www.gradychampion.com

Rita Engedalen – “Panny’s Porch” from the album My Mother’s Blues Bluestown Records. www.ritaengedalen.com

Congratulations to all the artists appearing on sampler six. The following thirteen songs were chosen from over 120 CDs submitted. We hope you enjoy the sampler and please visit the artists websites.


MUSIC MAKERS We Are The Music Makers Music Maker Relief Foundation

For the last 20years, Tim

Duffy has been lending a hand to musicians in need. Whether it’s a gig, money for medicine, food, clothes, or shelter, Duffy and wife Denise’s Music Maker Foundation has been there to help. With assistance from big names including Taj Mahal, B.B. King, Bonnie

Raitt, and Eric Clapton, the Foundation has been able to resurrect the careers and enrich the lives of scores of roots music performers, releasing 166 albums on their own Music Maker Relief Foundation label and touring world wide with their eclectic roster.

To help celebrate their 20th anniversary, the Foundation put out a two-CD compilation of 44 of its artists performing rock, blues, bluegrass, folk, and gospel. It’s a quality package, well recorded and visually presented, and the music speaks for itself.

Guitar Gabriel was the artist whom the Foundation was created around. Gabriel introduced Duffy to fellow musicians in need, giving him insider access to a musical world he had only visited previously through records, and opening the door for him to interact as a friend and participant in the music. Gabriel is represented here with “Let No Woman,” a solo fingerpicked ode to self-preservation: “I ain’t a-gonna let no woman mess up my mind,” Gabriel announces. “Love me or leave me -any one you wanna do.” “It’s the way that your mishappenings happen to you,” says Gabriel explaining the blues in a spoken word essay.

Captain Luke opens Disc One with a Jews harp solo, chugging like a locomotive on “Freight Train Boogie.” John Dee Holeman delivers his signature tune “Chapel Hill Boogie,” the epitome of clean, fingerpicked Piedmont blues. There’s nothing small about Drink Small’s voice or his presentation of “President Clinton Blues.” But the title is somewhat misleading. It’s not a complaint, but an outpouring of support, albeit one that Clinton’s handlers might hesitate to use in ads.

The second disc features 74-year-old, grandmother Beverly “Guitar” Watkins sounding as spry as Carolina Chocolate Drops Rhiannon Giddens. Watkins’ Koko Taylor vocals and clangy, rockin’ guitar sound as strong here on “Back In Business” as they did on her 1959 recordings with Dr. Feelgood and the Interns. Giddens and The Drops gallop through a fiddle and banjo dominated bluegrass workup of “Sourwood Mountain.” Macavine Hayes wasn’t always easy to understand, but it was clear that he enjoyed his performance as much as anybody. “Snatch That Thing” is vintage Macavine, barely decipherable but full of smutty fun, a rolling party that perfectly captures Macavine’s outlook on life. Cora Fulcher’s approach to “Amazing Grace” is like nothing you’ve ever heard, a low down, moaning, lament from an anguished sinner.


WE ARE THE MUSIC MAKERS: Preserving the Soul Of America’s MusicTimothy and Denise Duffy - Nautilus Press

The record is a treasure, crammed with stuff you won’t hear anywhere else, a good excuse to support Music Makers on record and when they come around to your area in their time machine, transporting you into another dimension with timeless tunes.

The CD is impressive enough, but the accompanying book of Tim Duffy’s photographs of the Music Makers is stunning. Culled from over 30,000 photos Duffy has taken since starting the Foundation in 1994 with wife Denise, it’s an intense close up of the blues in all its wrinkled, care worn glory. Duffy’s intimate portraits capture the essence of the musicians. The photos, all in black and white, are so detailed that they look like etchings from a bygone era, like daguerreotypes from the Civil War years. Some are actual tin types Duffy produced using 1880’s wet plate photography methods using collodion, a quick drying solution of gun cotton in ether and potassium iodide brushed on a glass plate and immersed in silver nitrate that produced a startlingly clear, detailed image.

But it’s not photography tricks that make these shots so arresting, it’s the obvious rapport that Duffy had with his subjects that made them feel comfortable enough to reveal their true personalities instead of posing for a promo picture. Some you can study over and over, picking out details you missed the first time like Mother Pauline and Elder James Goins performing in their living room packed with treasures. Or immerse yourself in the details of Harry Byrd’s Sanford, Florida, front yard with the fencing and the foliage reminiscent of a surrealist’s canvas. Then there’s Taj Mahal head thrown back in ecstasy, cigarette butt jutting upward from clamped lips as he savors a chord from his national steel. Check out Cora Fluker, face contorted in a primal yowl, her wig shining as if lit with a heavenly spotlight.

There’s great images on every page, with just enough text commentary to pique your interest, going back and forth from the book to the CD to find out what that lady (Willa Mae Buckner) wearing the python on her head like a Sunday hat sounds like, or why that grandmother (Beverly “Guitar” Watkins) is down on her knees playing guitar behind her head.

It’s a great package that benefits you spiritually and the musicians financially; preserving, resurrecting, and reaffirming the value of the blues and the people who have made their life’s work breathing life into it.– Grant Britt


For his fifth album Canadian harpist/singer/songwriter Raoul Bhaneja recruited two groups of West Coast blues stalwarts for this self-produced recording of eight originals and four covers:

guitarist Junior Watson, pianist Fred Kaplan, bassist Larry Taylor, and drummer Richard Innes are heard on five tracks while guitarist Rick Holmstrom, bassist Jeff Turmes, and drummer Stephen Hodges perform on three tracks. The Big Time (guitarist Darren Gallen, bassist Terry Wilkins, and drummer Tom Bona) are heard on three tracks. Additional guests include Curtis Salgado on the original harp instrumental “Curtis Charm,” guitarist Frank Goldwasser on Bobby Bland’s plaintive slow blues “Someday,” guitarist Rusty Zinn on Lee Dorsey’s “Get Out Of My Life Woman” (penned by Allen Toussaint and also popularized by Paul Butterfield on the groundbreaking East-West), and

Even though this is the SoCal-based guitarist/singer/songwriter’s third album, Detroit native Solomon King is a name that is new to me. The nine tunes (clocking in at 31.22) are all King originals

and he’s backed by a basic band of drummer Stephen “Styxxx” Marshall, bassist Princeton Arnold, second guitarist Johann Frank, and organist Buddy Pierson (with harmonica, backing vocalists, and added percussion on some tunes). The first five tracks will appeal mostly to blues-rock aficionados: “Baby Does Me Good” (the album’s best tune) is a Diddley-esque thumper with

RAOUL & THE BIG TIME Hollywood Blvd.Big Time

accordionist Johnny Sansone on the Carter Family’s “In The Shadow Of The Pine,” a bluegrass/folk standard that serves as the album’s lone curve ball.

Overall, there is definite West Coast feel as indicated by the album title and the various musicians involved; additionally, eight tracks were recorded in Burbank (the remaining four tracks in Toronto). Bhaneja is at his best when his playing evokes the raucous lyricism of the late William Clarke on originals “Nothin’ Gonna Take Me Down,” a swampy West Coast hybrid, “High Roller,” a mid-tempo tale of a “high roller with a frown,” and “I’m Tired,” a slow blues about existential weariness. Clarke especially comes to mind on two instrumentals, the rumba-infused title track and the hard shuffling “Amphetamine.” Bhaneja is a capable vocalist, but he lacks Clarke’s guttural grittiness. Fans of West Coast harp masters Rod Piazza, Mark Hummel, James Harman, and William Clarke will find much to enjoy this particular Hollywood Boulevard.– Thomas J. Cullen III

SOLOMON KING TrainJLM

slithery slide reminiscent of George Thorogood in full feral “Who Do You Love” mode, “Bad to Me,” grinding funk with screaming guitars suggestive of classic AC/DC, “Coffee Song,” a percolating ode, “Slo Blues,” exactly as the title states, and “Great Wall,” a muscular shuffle.

The remaining tunes are a mixed bag unlike those that preceded them with some country, folk-rock, and bombastic rock. They reminded me at times of Dire Straits; throughout the album his vocals mainly evoked those of Dire Straits front man Mark Knopfler as well. Overall, fans of blues-rock would be better served with a full album of tunes like the first five, and that stretches beyond a mere 31-plus minutes, because Solomon King is one engaging blues-rocker.– Thomas J. Cullen III

This aptly titled Dutch import is an ebullient showcase for this superb blues saxophonist who has worked steadily as a bandleader, sideman, and session man for over 25 years. The rampaging title track,

propelled by the puissant horn section of Scott Aruda (trumpet), Jeff Galindo (trombone), and Tino Barker (baritone sax), with Gordon’s honking tenor sax leading the charge, emphatically sets the tone for eight of the nine tunes that follow.

His seven originals, comprised of brassy shuffles, funky soul twisters, and raucous bump-n-grinds, keep alive the muscular music of the original wild men of R&B

and then early rock, tenor saxophonists like Big Jay McNeely and Red Prysock (to name a few). The covers are an obscure R&B nugget by Sonny King, “Coldest Cat In Town,” Ed Scheer’s (of the Love Dogs) “Big & Hot,” and the lone curve ball, a swampy, stripped-down version of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” with Matt “Guitar” Murphy, Matthew Stubbs (bass), and Chris Peet (drums). Gordon is joined by a horn section on all but one tune. Guitarists include Junior Watson (four tunes), Matthew Stubbs (from Charlie Musselwhite’s band on four tunes), and the aforementioned Matt Murphy (two tracks). Gordon’s dry, laconic vocals are heard on half of the tracks and are rather subdued when compared to his boisterous solos and full ramming speed tempos. Nonetheless, Showtime! is a rockin’ good time for sax fans and for fans of jump blues. – Thomas J. Cullen III

SAX GORDON 244 Showtime! Continental Blue Heaven


TICKETS: 301-791-3246 or ww.blues-fest.org | SPONSORS: The City of Hagerstown • Maryland State Arts Council • Washington County Arts Council

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MAY 28-312 0 1 5

FeaturingMatt Schofield

Rod Piazza & The Mighty FlyersMoreland & Arbuckle • Ian Siegal

Bonerama • Mike Zito and The WheelLil’ Ed & the Blues Imperials

Hamilton Loomis • Jarekus SingletonAlbert Cummings • Nikki Hill and many more.

1996-2015

*Acts subject to change

On Sunday mornings in Boston, independent radio station 92.5 The River broadcasts a show called “Brunch by the River” that encompasses rock, folk, jazz, blues, and reggae and

offers an eclectic morning soundtrack.Guitarist Paul Asbell’s instrumental version of Steely Dan’s “Deacon Blues,” a duet with harmonica master Howard Levy, is the kind of performance you could expect to hear on those free-form shows, which usually include a few unusual interpretations of well-known songs. Asbell’s understated take on this familiar pop hit, featuring the rhythm section of Mickey Dees on drums and LeRoi DeBurgher on bass, has him trading the melody line with Levy’s blues wail. It also could serve as an after-hours coda to the original.

While Asbell uses a single guitar on several tracks on From Adamant To Atchafalaya, for “Deacon Blues” he overdubbed a “small guitar army, the better to scale the walls of Steely Dan’s production,” he says in the notes.

Guitar enthusiasts will appreciate that he lets you know the models of the guitars he used on this track and every other.The album is the third in Asbell’s tribute to early guitar pioneers such as Lonnie Johnson and Eddie Lang, which began with 2002’s Steel String Americana and 2005’s Roots And Branches. It features compositions by such icons as Robert Johnson (“From Four Until Late”), Blind Blake (“Police Dog Blues”), John Coltrane (“Naima”), and Charles Mingus (“Goodbye Porkpie Hat,” one of three tracks that feature Levy.) Asbell also sings on a few songs, including “Blue Driver,” a highway lament written by Michael Hurley.

Asbell’s two original songs give the album’s title, the instrumentals “Bound For Adamant” and “Atchafalaya.” Asbell wrote the latter song, which features his slide work on a National Trovador, for a soundtrack for a story set in Louisiana bayou country. The former song, a more introspective tune inspired by his father, also has the kind of memorable melody that could complement a film set in a rustic locale. (Note: Asbell is the featured rhythm guitarist on four songs on Muddy Waters’ 1969 Father And Sons record.)– Michael Cote

PAUL ASBELL From Adamant To AtchafalayaBusy Hands


JIM BYRNES St. Louis TimesBlack Hen

After 40 years away, Jim Byrnes is finally coming home. Although the bluesman has called Vancouver home since the mid-seventies, his birthplace is St. Louis. His latest pays tribute to

that city with his own compositions as well as covers commemorating the sounds he grew up with, including Albert King, Chuck Berry, W.C. Handy, James “Stump” Johnson, and Little Milton.

Even though some of the artists he covers are not St. Louis natives, they’re all somehow connected to the city. St. Louis native Chuck Berry gets his tribute from Byrnes on “Nadine.” Byrnes takes his version down a few notches from Berry’s, sounding like Delbert McClinton loping through a Texas roadhouse pursued by Dawson’s pedal steel. Stump Johnson’s “The Duck’s Yas Yas Yas” is pure hokum from another St. Louis native. Byrnes picks up the pace quite a bit, adding a Dixieland feel to the bawdy tune, exhorting listeners to wiggle in time to the music:

“If you can’t shake your shoulders, shake your yas, yas, yas.” If you’re going to pay tribute to St. Louis, you have to include W.C. Handy’s “St. Louis Blues.” Byrnes slows it down a bit and western swings it with the help of Dawson’s steel over Byrnes’ Louis Prima vocal impersonation.

Lonnie Johnson’s “Another Night To Cry” gets a makeover from Johnson’s jazzy, breezy delivery to a dirty, low down, late night crawl through the alley. Milton gets his moment with Byrnes covering “That Will Never Do.” It’s about the same tempo, but slicked up with some greasy slide from producer/guitarist Steve Dawson. Byrnes pays tribute to Albert King with his cover of King’s ‘62 hit, “I Get Evil,” based on the 1940 Tampa Red tune “Don’t Lie To Me.” Byrnes’ version is slower, more low down, and swampier than King’s samba beat original reinforced with bright, stinging licks. Unfortunately for his U.S. fans, Byrnes isn’t coming back physically, so this is all we get. It’ll do for now, but if this is any indication what he’s still capable of, we’ll all want more, sooner and closer to home.– Grant Britt

CANDI STATON Life HappensBeracah/FAME

More Memphis and New Orleans than Chicago, this killer CD oozes with soul, funk, blues, and Gospel. Candi Staton’s voice sometimes sings from the belly and other times she

whispers softly, but her huge passion is obvious on every note as she communicates her messages similar, in style, to singers Denise LaSalle and Shirley Brown. This “First Lady of Southern Soul” hit nationally with her 1970 cover of Tammy Wynette’s “Stand By Your Man;” and she is still one of the finest singers around. Just listen to her wail on blues ballads “Where Were You?”, “Never Even Had The Chance,” and “Have You Seen The Children?”.

Listen to her sing softly and introspectively on the love song “For Eternity,” or hear her get funky on cuts “Close To You,” “Commitment,” “Three Minutes To A Relapse,” and the bonus track “Where I’m At.”

Staton wrote or co-wrote nine of the 15 tracks on this release too. Part of the appeal to me is that much of this music reminds me, in it’s joyous feel and execution, of the Staple Family Singers backed by sweet horns, a nice organ and a ripping church choir. That’s a sound that moves me. This music is for dancing, not just for sitting in a chair and listening. The two male backing vocalists on the opening track “I Ain’t Easy To Love” and the two female backing vocalists on “Treat Me Like A Secret” bring a spiritual feel to the sound; and they add much flavor and feeling to the final mix. Play this music loud.– A.J. Wachtel

LUTHER DICKINSON Rock ‘n’ Roll BluesNew West

Young guitarist-bandleader-songwriter Luther Dickinson does what all good roots people are supposed to do on his new album Rock ‘n’ Roll Blues. He challenges himself and pushes his

music in new directions, and presumably, takes his audience of devoted fans along for the ride.

Young guitarist-bandleader-songwriter Luther Dickinson does what all good roots people are supposed to do on his new album Rock ‘n’ Roll Blues. He challenges himself and pushes his music in new directions, and presumably, takes his audience of devoted fans along for the ride. Dickinson, of the North Mississippi All Stars, is the son of legendary record producer Jim Dickinson. If anyone must have sat in on sessions where his old man pushed wayward roots artists in new directions,


Iit surely would have been Luther, or Luther and his brother Cody, or both. The loss of a parent is always a tough thing to go through, particularly when it’s sudden and it’s a person as influential and well-liked as his father was. Yet, Dickinson gets right back up and dusts himself off on this record filled with refreshing textures and styles.

Standout, radio-ready tracks include “Goin’ Country” and the title track “Rock ‘n’ Roll Blues.” Dickinson explores a variety of tempos and formats on

this recording, far from straight-ahead blues. We hear the singer-songwriter side of his musical persona with items like “Karmic Debt” and his opening track about being raised in the punk rock era, “Vandalize.”

With the addition of people like Amy LaVere on bass and vocals and Lightnin’ Malcolm on drums and vocals, it’s easy to see that whatever musical direction he follows, Dickinson’s path will always be decidedly roots music oriented, and he’ll always have plenty of people with him on his journey.– Richard J. Skelly

JORMA KAUKONENAin’t In No HurryRed House

and “Seasons In The Field” are as refreshing as his takes on old folk and blues tunes, some obscure, like “Suffer Little Children To Come Unto Me,” “Sweet Fern,” and the more well-known “Brother Can You Spare A Dime.”

When it comes to a veteran singer-songwriter-musician and ensemble player like Kaukonen – what Dave Van Ronk used to call a “stone pro,” – you really can’t go wrong with whatever material he chooses to cover, and whatever new songs have been prompted by his less peripatetic life at his Fur Peace Ranch and guitar camp in Pomeroy, Ohio.– Richard J. Skelly

Master guitarist, composer and teacher Jorma Kaukonen explores his folk roots on this album with light accompaniment provided on many tracks by wispy drums, light bass and mandolin.

He’s accompanied by good people throughout: guitarist Larry Campbell, his wife, vocalist Teresa Williams from Levon Helm’s various bands, and New Jersey-based mandolin master Barry Mitterhoff.

Kaukonen covers a lot of ground on his new album, as he’s been performing many of these tunes for five decades. Others are of much more recent vintage. Kaukonen’s originals, “The Other Side Of The Mountain”

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SETH WALKER Sky Still BlueThe Royal Potato Family

As Seth Walker has moved across the American musical landscape, so has his music. The Austin to Nashville and now New Orleans journey has produced intriguing rhythmic results at every stop. None,

however, comes across as satisfying then his current record. By enlisting Oliver Wood to produce, co-write, and add guitars, Walker’s ready to show-off a style built on simplicity of arrangement and purpose.

Thought he’s currently residing in New Orleans, the record was primarily recorded at Wood’s Southern Ground Studios in Walker’s recent hometown of Nashville. The sparse swing on the opening cuts is a hint of the approaches to follow. Lead by the record’s rhythm section of Chris Wood’s upright bass and Derek Phillips’ solid timekeeping, Walker lets his heavy guitar and expressive voice identify these dire relationship realities.

The gentle acoustic sway of “Grab Ahold,” with its gorgeous harmonies of Nashville’s McCrary Sisters, seems to counter the previous messages with a bonding spirituality. The middle of the record features two songs co-written with Nashville’s Gary Nicholson (who produced Walker’s 2009 Leap Of Faith record). “Another Day” has an Eric Lindell-styled delivery; while “Tomorrow” professes a carpe diem, live for today advice. (In fact, Lindell’s vocal phrasing and tone is what I often hear in Walker’s.) By adding Ephraim Owens’ trumpet to the aforementioned rhythm section, Wood has Walker singing street corner scat on “All That I’m Askin’.” The bluesiest cut is “High Wire” featuring Jano Rix’s Wurlitzer; the most religious tune is Walker’s “Jesus (Make My Bed).” Both rely on Walker’s restraint on guitar and voice.

Through his fearless travels into the essence of this music, Walker has devised a progressive hybrid guitar style that combines engaging melodies with hard-edged, vibrating stabs. Both of today and yet hinting at tomorrow, Seth Walker and Oliver Wood have crafted an impressive collection of contemporary musical and lyrical outlooks.– Art Tipaldi

JEROME GODBOO Sanctuary CitySelf-released

Jerome Godboo has delivered another stellar CD. His 14th release of a 25-year career beautifully showcases his songwriting and harmonica prowess utilizing a stripped-down trio of drums, bass, and himself on

various harmonicas, accordion, and percussion. Producer Dave Misener, whom Jerome met while on a gardening job in a park, recorded the CD on vintage equipment for a wonderful raw sound throughout. The 12 original songs exhibit a mastery of all forms of the blues. Godboo had a hand in writing 11 of them, and the 12th is by his longtime collaborator, Spin Doctor guitarist Eric Schenkman, who co-wrote with Godboo on four others.

Many stylistic elements of the Spin Doctor’s fine 2014 CD, If The River Was Whiskey, surface.

Anchored by the solid drumming of Gary Craig, many different beats and textures are explored: New Orleans Creole on “Mon Amie” and “Pollyanna Reed,” a gorgeous ballad to his wife on “Lord Show Me How” with lilting accordion, and get down shuffles on the title track about his home town Toronto, “She’s Got The Goods,” and “October 17.” There’s no filler to be found top to bottom. He also tastefully shows the chops that earned him his Blues Foundation IBC Harmonica Player of the Year award in January 2014 in Memphis, with plenty of upper and lower register reed work. For those seeking a Mississippi saxophone fix, “New Year’s Eve” and “Why Don’t You Love Me” stand out. Throughout these 12 songs, the bass is hardly missed as Godboo, Schenkman, and Craig forge a Canadian version of hill country blues. Do yourself a favor, and check out this deserving Canadian artist.– Charlie Frazer

Listen to over 40 songs from the CDs reviewed in this issue when you read the Digital Edition of Blues Music Magazine.

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SHOR’TY BILLUPS Young Woman ana Old ManSelf-released

Shor’ty (pronounced Short-TAY) Billups is the consummate entertainer – anyone who has seenhis instructions to dancersduring a live performance

of “Walkin’ The Dog” is aware of his tremendous stage presence and musical talent. At 82, Billups proves the old man still has it on his latest release, a nine-track CD of mostly original funk and blues. Billups is joined on the disc by a host of Boston greats, including guitarists Chris Stovall Brown and Satoru Nakagawa (Tokyo Tramps,) saxophonists Mario Perrette and Jayo; and organists Felix Mawongo and Jedekiahl Brown.

The record is a good mix of funk, soul and blues. Billups handles all the vocals and drums on the record with his usual flair. One of the best tunes on the disc is manager Hattie Barrett’s “Shopping For Shoes Blues.” The eight-minute plus song drips sexy slow blues like a pair of hot pink strappy sandals strutting into a nightclub.

“Louie’s Stomp,” an instrumental, delightfully highlights the harp work of Louis Mayhew, Billups’ regular harmonica player, with some nice spurts from Jayo on alto sax and Nakagawa on guitar.

“House Party No. 5 Part 1” is an amusing romp, with riffs from Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning” in the background. There’s lots of chuckling, shouts, howls, and one-liners going on about fetching young women. The title track, “Young Woman ana Old Man” shows up toward the end of the disk. The tune is about – you guessed it – an old man telling a young chick, inplain words, why he would be good for her. It’s a lively,danceable shuffle with exceptional harp. “Soul Serenade”by King Curtis, and the last tune, “Talk About My Baby,”show off Billups’ emotional, more serious side, with Jayohitting his best groove on alto sax on the spirited “SoulSerenade.”– Karen Nugent


WAYNE SHARP & THE SHARPSHOOTER BAND Living With The BluesSelf-released

Veteran B-3 organist Wayne Sharp toured with Michael Burks for 12 years until Burks’ untimely passing in 2012. Before that, the Louisiana native worked with Lamar Williams and Jaimoe of the Allman

Brothers and with Elvin Bishop. Since Burks’ death, he has toured steadily with his Sharpshooter Band comprised of sons Sean (drums) and Grayson (guitar), Jon Woodhead (guitar), and Terrence Grayson (bass, formerly with Michael Burks).

This eclectic set of blues, soul, and Southern rock includes four Sharp originals and seven covers. The familiar covers are “Wang Dang Doodle,” “Baby What You Want Me To Do,” and the unexpected (for a blues album) “A Whiter Shade Of Pale” (perhaps inspired by Jack Mack & the Heart Attack’s version). The remaining covers are “Empty Promises,” a churning lament by Burks;

“Even Now,” a deep soul ballad by David Egan and Buddy Flett, previously recorded by Johnny Adams and Otis Clay (to name a few); “Close,” a brawny shuffle a la Burks by Lynyrd Skynyrd associate Jim Jennes; and a Southern rocker featuring Jimmy Hall’s bristling harmonica, “Drivin’ Thru the Delta,” by David McKnight. The originals include the ballads “Southern Storm” and “Runnin’ Out Of Time,” voodoo boogaloo with the funky “I Got My Gris Gris On You” and an urgent plea to his lover with the strident “Put Me Down And Let Me Walk.” Sharp’s vocals are gruff, but warm and unpretentious. He excels at laying down luxuriant chord cushions as a foundation for the band’s tight, full-bodied sound.

Additionally, he is generous in sharing solo space with his guitarists. There aren’t may organists leading blues bands on the guitar-dominated current scene and that makes this broadly appealing album even more of a refreshing surprise.– Thomas J. Cullen III


This thorough biography by Kansas State music professor and musician Wayne Everett Goins, is an in-depth look at the famed Chicago singer, composer, and guitarist Jimmy Rogers (born James Lane), a

Mississippi born musician who migrated to Chicago via West Helena, St. Louis, and Memphis in the late 1940s.

Once he landed in Chicago, Rogers soon hooked up with a young Muddy Waters and Little Walter to record classic sides for Chess Records in Chicago and the rest, as they say, is musical history. Goins does a well-researched job of digging deep via 75 hours of interviews with family, musicians, and older press interviews with Rogers, Muddy, liner notes, and more.

Muddy and Rogers’ style of interlocking guitar parts would become the template for almost all 1950s Chicago blues bands into present day groups’ incorporation of that sound. This book gives not just a complex account of his travels, who and how he met important fellow musicians, but a true flavor of Rogers’ easy-going personality.

Pianist/producer/singer/songwriter Huey Smith (b. 1934) is a seminal figure in post WWII New Orleans music. Greatly admired by his Crescent City peers, the influential pianist is best remembered for his iconic hits (with the Clowns)

from the late 1950s “Don’t You Just Know It,” “High Blood Pressure,” and “Rocking Pneumonia And The Boogie Woogie Flu” (cited by the Rock and Roll HOF as one of the 500 songs that shaped the history of rock). One enduring memory of watching American Bandstand as a boy was grooving to “Don’t You Just Know It”; I loved its infectiously slinky rhythms, gleeful nonsense lyrics, and general sense of rowdiness.

Blues All Day Long – The Jimmy Rogers Story by Wayne Everett Goins, University Of Illinois Press

Huey “Piano” Smith And The Rocking Pneumonia Bluesby John WirtLouisiana State University Press

His influence on both older black bluesmen and young white blues players is also detailed. Rogers was a blues icon whose songs eventually made their way onto the recordings of Eric Clapton, Canned Heat, Gary Moore, and countless blues artists. His hold on harmonica players (Roger’s first instrument before guitar) is also obvious, due to his timeless sides that featured both Walters, Big and Little. Because detailed itineraries populate a good portion of the book, at times it’s easy to imagine being in the van on those long drives with Rogers sitting in the front seat telling stories or pulling practical jokes on band members. Rogers remained a vital force from his early move to Chicago to his death in December 1997.

This read is a much better introduction to the early Chess years in terms of factual details then a Hollywood version like Cadillac Records. This writer was fortunate enough to have done a short tour with Rogers in the early ‘90s, so much in here rings true. Fabulous Thunderbird harpman, frontman, and singer Kim Wilson wrote the forward to this 316 page volume.

All in all, you get a clear picture of Jimmy Rogers being a proud father of both family and birthing this revered American art form.– Mark Hummel

Smith’s music was fun and liberating and according to Wirt, “Huey played his part in the shift from mournful blues to joyful music with a beat that moved young people no matter what their color.” Dr. John credits his friend with “...opening the door for funk, basically as we know it, in some ridiculously hip way, and putting it in the mainstream of the world’s music.” Much of Huey’s story is in his own words (from a series of interviews between 2001 and 2010) and is further complemented by Wirt’s extensive research. Sadly, for as much joy as Smith spread, his problems with the IRS, shady lawyers, record executives, ownership of songs, and royalty payments consumed decades of his life. This insightful tale of Smith’s triumphs and tragedies is a must read for fans of New Orleans music; fans of rock history will also find much of interest.– Thomas J. Cullen III

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Despite the seven year span between Jeff Beck’s last jazz/fusion concert DVD (Performing This Week…Live At Ronnie Scott’s) and this one (with 2011’s terrific rock and roll tribute to Les Paul in between), there hasn’t

been much variation in the guitarist’s approach. His backing trio has changed – keyboards are replaced by a second guitarist – but otherwise Beck still whips up a roaring, slashing six string frenzy with just his hands (no picks, but an elaborate set of pedals) and the talent that was obvious nearly a half century ago during his short stint with the Yardbirds. The biggest difference is that the previous two live DVDs were recorded at intimate clubs with this one captured at the expansive Tokyo Dome City Hall, a far larger, arena sized venue.

While there are some minor shortcomings – seven selections out of the 20-song set are repeated from the Ronnie Scott performance – this is a wildly entertaining 90 minutes. The high definition video and camera work is superb as is the crisp, full surround sound and simple, effective lighting. The band is all smiles as they effortlessly sling off complex riffs and patterns. Beck lays it down with his typical aplomb, reserved yet inspired, while allowing his musicians a chance at the spotlight throughout the gig. That even includes vocals from bassist Rhonda Smith, who has two solo albums of her own, on the closing funk workout “Why Give it Away,”

JEFF BECKLive In TokyoEagle Vision

showing off some of the skills she learned touring behind Prince.

Second guitarist Nicolas Meier stays predominantly in the background adding textures, but is featured on his own acoustic tune “Yemin.” It’s a beautiful and creative mashup of world music that includes strains of flamenco, Indian, and Slavic sounds, further pushing Beck’s already elastic boundaries. It ebbs and flows, building and releasing tension while shifting moods with an ease that is startling and inspirational to any budding guitar student.

Even though Beck emerged from a blues background, that music hasn’t played an especially large part in his recent repertoire. Still, he acknowledges his debt to the genre by breaking into a thunderous attack on Muddy’s “Rollin’ And Tumblin’” as this show rumbles to a close. But if blues is about emotion, Beck’s guitar is slathered in it. His tender, and unexpected, version of the standard “Danny Boy” quivers with the passion and restraint only the finest blues players exude. Ditto for his take on the Beatles’ “A Day In The Life,” something Beck has covered, and perfected, over many years. His remake of Hendrix’s lovely “Little Wing” is one of the finest of that oft-performed track.

Clearly this is not meant for deep blues aficionados. But for those who have followed the 70-year-old veteran throughout his many career changes, it’s a further reminder of Jeff Beck’s astonishing abilities that have only improved over the decades.– Hal Horowitz


The Blues Foundation has done it again. Each year, it releases the stunning DVD of its Blues Music Awards. This year’s CD/DVD package celebrates the Foundation’s 35th

Blues Music Awards held in Memphis in May 2014. For those who have never attended this marathon night of blues awards and performances, this DVD and accompanying CD are the next best way to experience these unprecedented showstoppers. This year, I played the DVD during our New Year’s Eve party, and no one wanted to turn this off to watch a ball drop!

The DVD features 20-full song productions filmed in first-rate quality. Thirteen of these songs are also available on the accompanying CD. The DVD is divided into two sections, Blues Music Awards and B-Roll Performances. There is also a third menu section that is merely a listing of each category and its winner

This award show featured two show-stopping, jaw-dropping performances and both are included in the first grouping. Ronnie Earl made his first appearance at the Awards since the late 1990s. His seven-minute slow blues and acceptance speech as Guitar Player of the Year illustrated to many new fans who have never beheld Earl’s uniquely soulful guitar voice why Ronnie is always at the top of this category.

The second moment was Beth Hart’s “Baddest Blues.” When Hart began the song alone at the piano, you can almost hear the Cook Convention Center capacity audience hold its collective breath. These 12 minutes showcase the night’s deepest emotions.

Other notable performances include Teeny Tucker and her guitarist Robert Hughes opening the first section with “Shoes,” her power-packed ode to the struttin’ ladies. Harp players can rejoice with three stellar moments. Kim Wilson and Kid Ramos front the Mannish Boys with guest Billy Flynn, Charlie Musselwhite with Kid Andersen, Bob Stroger, Jimi Bott, and Flynn performs “One Of These Mornings,” and James Cotton’s superharp backs Darryl Nulisch, Elvin Bishop, and Tom Holland on Cotton’s “James Was There.”

There is something for fans of every genre. Fans of traditional Chicago blues will enjoy seeing Lurrie Bell perform his Song of the Year, “Blues In My Soul,” and Shawn Holt celebrate his father, the late Magic Slim, with his tribute “Daddy Told Me.” Cedric Burnside’s performance of “Do The Romp” showcases Hill country blues, Frank Bey and Anthony Paule deliver sweet soul blues on “I Just Can’t Let Go,” while Mike Zito turns up the blues-rock on his “Gone To Texas.”

But there is so much more to behold in the B-Roll’s 27 minutes. The May night began with AdriannaMarie and her Groovecutters big band. Led by L.A. Jones

35th BLUES MUSIC AWARDSThe Blues Foundation

(guitar), Bill Stuve (bass), Dave Kida (drums), and the Groovecutter horns, Marie jives her way through the foot-tapping “Memphis Boogie.” As always, Rory Block’s acoustic performance sparkles while Anson Funderburgh’s instrumental “Hula Hoop” is pure Texas

organ trio. International Blues Challenge 2013 Solo/Duo winner turned 2014 Acoustic Artist of the Year Little G Weevil energetically finger-picks Tommy Johnson’s Delta anthem “Big Road Blues” as “Ain’t Going Down The Dirt Road.” Trudy Lynn and Steve Krase bulldoze “Down In Memphis” while Brandon Santini and Jeff Jensen close out the DVD program and the night with “Help Me With The Blues.” Special mention to Joe Whitmer, the Blues Foundation’s Chief Operating Officer. As the musical director and editing eye for most of the past Blues Music Award DVDs, Whitmer continually demonstrates a commitment to capturing the evening’s fireworks as well as its heart and soul.

As I have written before, 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 behold the magic of this night. Blues Music Awards DVDs from 2008 to 2013 can be ordered from the Blues Foundation. – Art Tipaldi


Style Wooten certainly lived up to his self-invented alias. As owner of the Memphis-based Designer label, he pressed up hundreds of rousing gospel 45s from 1967 to ‘77 for the sanctified unknowns that answered his newspaper ads offering his production services for a fee. Wooten had expert help from ex-Sun house guitarist Roland Janes, whose Sonic Studios hosted many a Designer session. Big Legal Mess pays tribute to Style’s unorthodox style with The Soul of Designer Records, a four-CD, 101-song extravaganza housed in a lavish LP-sized package; the names will be unfamiliar to all but ardent gospel aficionados, but even staunch atheists may tap a foot to the melismatic Gospel Songbirds (their tracks are the earliest on the set), the Harps of David, the Jubilee Hummingbirds, O’Neal and the Dean Brothers, and the Spiritual QC’s.

Bob Koester was going for a late-night feel when he produced harp wizard Junior Wells’ Southside Blues Jam at the end of 1969 and the top of ‘70. Joined by Buddy Guy, Louis Myers, Otis Spann (the pianist’s last session), and Fred Below, Wells stuck mostly to covers (Muddy, Sonny Boy, Memphis Slim), giving each his own spin. Delmark nearly doubled the running time of the set on its expanded reissue, adding revivals of Little Walter’s “It’s Too Late Brother,” the warhorse “Rock Me,” and the funky closer “Got To Play The Blues.” Junior may as well have been on Theresa’s stage, so relaxed was his approach to the session at Chicago’s Sound Studios.

Dick Shurman reached into the Biharis’ vaults and scooped up 28 new-to-CD alternate takes of Pee Wee Crayton’s early classics for Ace’s Texas Blues Jumpin’ in Los Angeles – The Modern Music Sessions 1948-1951. Unheard alternates of Pee Wee’s storming instrumentals “Texas Hop,” “Huckle Boogie,” “Poppa Stoppa,” and “The Bop Hop,” not to mention his

by Bill Dahl

signature “Blues After Hours,” are full of mile-wide ninth chords and fleet-fingered solos. Crayton’s warm vocals were no less satisfying; T-Bone Walker was a major influence, but Pee Wee was more of a risk taker on his axe and louder too. Sound quality is terrific.

George Leaner and his

brother Ernie ran Chicago’s One-derful! Records as an outgrowth of their successful United Distributors, specializing in a harder-edged sound than much of their local competition. Secret Stash takes its second dip into the Leaners’ tape pool with The One-derful! Collection: Mar-V-Lus Records, a 25-track overview with 10 unissued titles on board. Alvin Cash & the Crawlers were Mar-V-Lus’ stars, hitting big with “Twine Time” in 1965 (this unreleased “Sweatin’” is better than several of his 45s). Johnny Sayles’ scorching pipes ignite the raw blues “Whole Lot Of Lovin’,” Cicero Blake turns up with “You’re Gonna Be Sorry,” and the Du-Ettes, Josephine Taylor, Joseph Moore, and the Blenders are all, well, marvelous.

The soulful Muscle Shoals legacy of Rick Hall’s house label gets the full As and Bs treatment on Ace’s two-CD The Complete Fame Singles Volume 1 – 1964-67. Its 52 selections are dominated by 22 from flagship artist Jimmy Hughes, whose remarkably consistent output included

his impassioned smash “Steal Away” and a relentless “Neighbor, Neighbor.” A pre-stardom Arthur Conley and Clarence Carter are also here, already in full artistic blossom, along with James Barnett (“Keep On Talking”), Art Freeman (his “A Piece Of My Heart” is a gem), garage rocker Terry Woodford, and a young Dan Penn,

then trying to make it as a singer. The mid-‘60s sideman activities of Jimi Hendrix with soul singer Curtis Knight & the Squires dazzlingly resonate on Legacy/Experience Hendrix’s 14-track You Can’t UseMy Name: The RSVP/PPXSessions. The crunchy protestsong “How Do You Feel,” a hard-grooving “Gotta Have A NewDress” and “You Don’t WantMe,” and the stinging shuffle“Welcome Home” showcaseKnight’s sturdy vocals over thehornless Squires as Hendrixcuts loose with flashy guitarpyrotechnics aplenty. Jimi’slegion of fans will really beturned on by the marathon tourde force instrumentals “Knock

Yourself Out” and “Hornet’s Nest.” This cache of pre-stardom tapes has never sounded better thanks to Eddie Kramer’s sonically savvy remastering.

Atlantic Records plotted a curious strategy for New Orleans soul queen Irma Thomas, sending her everywhere but home to record: Jackson, Miss., Detroit, Miami, Philadelphia. Apart from one 45, they vaulted it all, leaving Real Gone the honor of issuing Full Time Woman – The Lost Cotillion Album (13 ofits 15 1971-72 selections are freshlyunearthed). Thomas had no problemworking with producers WardellQuezergue, Joe Hinton (not the“Funny” singer, but another vocalistwho cut for Kent and Motown), and atrio of Philly pros. Her orchestrationswere lush and there wasn’t a second-line rhythm in sight, but Irma’s innatesoul sparkled.

Southern soul screamers didn’t wear their gospel roots any more overtly than Eddy Giles. The Shreveporter burst onto the scene in 1967 with his churning hit “Losin’ Boy


” on Dee Marais’ Murco label and stuck around the imprint long enough to cut the 18 stunners comprising Kent’s Southern Soul Brother – The Murco Recordings 1967-1969. Whether tearing into the impassioned “I Got The Blues” and “Happy Man,” a scalding “Eddy’s Go-Go Train,” or an after-hours blues “Love With A Feeling,” Giles never let up in the intensity department.

Always in his superstar older brother’s shadow, L.C. Cooke was a commanding singer in his own right – especially when Sam was in charge of the music. Abkco’s The Complete SAR Records Recordings contains L.C.’s 15 glorious sides for Sam’s label, all done in Hollywood or Chicago from 1960 to 1964 (“Take Me For What I Am,” “Chalk Line,” “The Lover,” and the previously unreleased “Gonna Have A Good Time” are lighthearted charmers, while “Put Me Down Easy” singes the studio walls), along with two Cooke did for Checker in ‘59 and the rousing “Do You Wanna Dance (Yea Man),” waxed for Chicago’s Destination label in 1965.

Ace’s ongoing series of Bayou anthologies is up to Volume 10, and Rhythm ‘n’ Bluesin’ by the Bayou – Mad Dogs, Sweet Daddies & Pretty Babies is one of the best yet. South Louisiana was full of savage rock and roll and tough blues during the ‘50s and early ‘60s, and this 28-tracker really packs the goods with lethal pounders by Little Victor (“Papa Lou And Gran”), Lester Robertson & the Upsetters (“Take It Home To Grandma”), and Wonder Boy Travis (“You Know Yeah”). Katie Webster, Tabby Thomas, Carol Fran, Clifton Chenier, Leroy Washington,

Guitar Gable, Lazy Lester, and Mad Dog Sheffield bring plenty more heat.

During the mid-1950s, RCA Victor jumped into R&B with its Groove subsidiary. Bear Family salutes it on three rocking CDs: the 14-song Groove Jumping! spotlightswhooping harpist Sonny Terry, sizzlingguitarist Roy Gaines, shouters TinyKennedy and Teddy “Mr. Bear”McRae, and the polished vocal groupthe Du Droppers, while a 16-trackStill Groove Jumping! features LarryDale, piano pounder Champion JackDupree, saxman Buddy Lucas, Arthur“Big Boy” Crudup, and more Gaines,Kennedy, and Mr. Bear. The Best ofDoo-Wop Classics Vol. 2 containsfive songs by the Five Keys and 11by Detroit’s Nitecaps. Groove alwayshired New York’s best sidemen,notably saxists Sam “The Man” Taylorand King Curtis.

Funky soul was usually serious business. Not with the Maskman & the Agents, a Washington, D.C. outfit led by the diminutive Harmon Bethea. Their output for the Dynamo logo was as lyrically hilarious as it was groovingly infectious. Fever Dream’s One Eye Open twins that killer 1969 album with their eye-opening ‘72 follow-up Got to Find a Sweet Name (its cover photo featured frontal nudity!). “One Eye Open” was a 1968 hit, and “My Wife, My Cat, My Dog,” a ‘69 charter, is here as a bonus track. The stomping “Roaches” is hysterical (one of the bugs hops into Bobby the saxman’s horn mid-solo!); ditto “Talking About The Boss And I.”

Southpaw guitarist Barbara Lynn’s beguiling vocal approach was in full bloom at Atlantic in 1967.

Huey Meaux was still her producer, as on her previous hits for Jamie; working with him in Clinton, Mississippi, Lynn nailed another R&B chart entry for Atlantic with a hypnotic “This Is The Thanks I Get.” Real Gone’s 25-song The Complete Atlantic Recordings offers everything the Beaumont, Texas native waxed for Atlantic, including her ’71 hit “(Until Then) I’ll Suffer” and a half-dozen Spooner Oldham-helmed ‘68 gems that include her previously unreleased treatment of “Soul Deep,” predating the Box Tops’ hit rendition. Ace’s Ain’t It the Truth! The Ric & Ron Story Volume 2 examines the early ‘60s exploits of Joe Ruffino’s New Orleans labels, ferreting out rarities by Warren Lee, Lenny Capello, Jimmy “Skip” Easterling, Bobby Mitchell, Warren Lee, Joe “Guitar” Morris, Martha Carter, and Joe Louis alongside Eddie Bo’s classic “Check Mr. Popeye,” Tommy Ridgley’s “In The Same Old Way,” and Johnny Adams’ “A Losing Battle” (his “Showdown” is a sparkling blues). Four demos by Adams, Barbara Lynn, and Al “Carnival Time” Johnson add to the fun.

Blessed with a booming voice, L.A. product Young Jessie registereda series of torrid rockers during thelatter half of the ‘50s and early ‘60sthat are compiled on Jazzman’s14-track Don’t Happen No More. Itincludes Jessie’s 1955 classic “MaryLou” as well as his encores “Hit, GitAnd Split” and the title cut for Modernbefore segueing into his later sidesfor Capitol, Mercury, and Vanessa(including a lowdown ‘63 blues, “MakeMe Feel A Little Good”).

Blues Music Magazine #6

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