The Blues Foundation held its 37th annual Blues Music Awards ceremony on May 5th, 2016 in Memphis, Tennessee. Blues fans, industry professionals, and talented musicians all gathered at the Cook Convention Center in downtown Memphis to honor the best of the blues. Legendary Chicago bluesman Buddy Guy won both “Album of the Year” and “Contemporary Blues Album of the Year” BMAs for his Born To Play Guitar album. Perennial Blues Music Award winners like Duke Robillard and Ruthie Foster were also honored, the former with the “Acoustic Album of the Year” award (for his album The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard) and the latter with her fourth Koko Taylor Award for “Best Traditional Blues Artist.”
The most satisfying story of the evening was the comeback of beloved blues-rock guitarist Walter Trout. After suffering from Hepatitis C and liver failure, and struggling through a life-saving transplant and subsequent therapy, Trout came roaring back in 2015 with the critically-acclaimed album Battle Scars. The album walked off with the well-deserved “Rock Blues Album of the Year” award, Trout’s song “Gonna Live Again” earning the “Song of the Year” award.
The late Otis Clay was posthumously honored with his first two Blues Music Awards for “Soul Blues Artist of the Year” and “Soul Blues Album of the Year” for This Time For Real. Pianist Victor Wainwright earned the coveted “B.B. King Entertainer of the Year” award, while the late New Orleans R&B legend Allen Toussaint won his first BMA, the “Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year” award.
The night before the Blues Music Awards ceremony, the Blues Hall of Fame inducted musicians Elvin Bishop, Eddy Clearwater, Jimmy Johnson, John Mayall, and the Memphis Jug Band along with Malaco Records partners Tommy Couch Sr. and Wolf Stephenson, all worthy and influential members of the blues music community. We have a complete list of 2016 Blues Music Award winners below.
• Acoustic Album of the Year: Duke Robillard’s The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard
• Acoustic Artist of the Year: Doug MacLeod
• Album of the Year: Buddy Guy’s Born to Play Guitar
• B.B. King Entertainer of the Year: Victor Wainwright
• Blues Band of the Year: Victor Wainwright & the Wild Roots
• Best New Artist Album: Mr. Sipp’s The Mississippi Blues Child
• Contemporary Blues Album of the Year: Buddy Guy’s Born to Play Guitar
• Contemporary Blues Female Artist of the Year: Shemekia Copeland
• Contemporary Blues Male Artist of the Year: Joe Louis Walker
• Historical Blues Album of the Year: Slim Harpo’s Buzzin’ the Blues (Bear Family Records)
• Instrumentalist of the Year - Bass: Lisa Mann
• Instrumentalist of the Year - Drums: Cedric Burnside
• Instrumentalist of the Year - Guitar: Sonny Landreth
• Instrumentalist of the Year - Harmonica: Kim Wilson
• Instrumentalist of the Year - Horn: Terry Hanc
• Koko Taylor Award: Ruthie Foster
• Pinetop Perkins Piano Player: Allen Toussaint
• Rock Blues Album of the Year: Walter Trout’s Battle Scars
• Song of the Year: Walter Trout’s “Gonna Live Again”
• Soul Blues Album of the Year: Billy Price and Otis Clay’s This Time for Real
• Soul Blues Female Artist of the Year: Bettye LaVette
• Soul Blues Male Artist of the Year: Otis Clay
• Traditional Blues Album of the Year: Cedric Burnside Project’s Descendants of Hill Country
• Traditional Blues Male Artist of the Year: John Primer
It’s a rough world out there for an independent record company, but the esteemed blues label Alligator Records has beat the odds and is celebrating its 45th anniversary this year. Apart from the great music that Alligator has scheduled for 2016 release, the label is sharing its good fortune with its fans with the June 10th, 2016 release of the Alligator Records 45th Anniversary Collection. A budget-priced two-disc set offering over 148 rockin’ minutes of music from artists across the label’s storied history, the Alligator Records 45th Anniversary Collection features career-defining performances by artists both old and new, including Selwyn Birchwood, Shemekia Copeland, Curtis Salgado, Delbert McClinton, Anders Osborne, Joe Louis Walker, and many others.
Alligator Records was formed by Bruce Iglauer in 1971, a young blues fan working in the mailroom of the owner Bob Koester’s legendary Jazz Record Mart (also home to Delmark Records). Iglauer wanted Koester and Delmark to release an album by his favorite bluesman, Hound Dog Taylor, and when his boss wasn’t interested, Iglauer used a small inheritance to fund Alligator’s first album release, Taylor’s self-titled Hound Dog Taylor & the HouseRockers.
In those early years, Iglauer ran the label out of his small Chicago apartment, and each LP he released had to finance the next album, leading to a sporadic release schedule. Alligator’s early album releases, though, by legends like Big Walter Horton, Son Seals, and Fenton Robinson, helped establish blues music in the 1970s. Iglauer signed the great Koko Taylor in 1975, and soon attracted artists like Albert Collins, Roy Buchanan, and Johnny Winter.
Four-and-a-half decades later, Alligator Records is the largest independent blues label in the world, and it has been honored with 41 Grammy™ nominations, and three awards for its albums. The label and artists like James Cotton, Koko Taylor, Luther Allison, Saffire – The Uppity Blues Women, and Michael “Iron Man” Burks, among others, have been honored with over 100 Blues Music Awards and over 70 Living Blues magazine awards.
While Iglauer and his dedicated staff of 15 employees (many of which have spent over 20 years with the label) continue to live up to the label’s slogan, releasing “Genuine Houserockin’ Music,” they’re not resting on their laurels. Iglauer, in a press release for Alligator Records 45th Anniversary Collection, says “Alligator should be the label that's exposing the next generation of blues artists and bringing their music to the next generation of blues fans. I want the future of the blues and the future of Alligator Records to be one and the same. I want to keep bringing blues and roots music to new fans and getting them as excited about the music as I am.”
Launched in 1991 by blues fan Matthew Johnson, the Oxford, Mississippi-based Fat Possum Records quickly earned a name for itself by recording artists that had largely been overlooked by established blues imprints like Alligator and Blind Pig Records. Specializing in artists well-versed in the (then) obscure branch of the genre known as Mississippi Hill Country blues, Fat Possum gained respect and recognition with releases like Junior Kimbrough’s All Night Long and R.L. Burnside’s Bad Luck City, which were produced by respected musician and former New York Times music critic Robert Palmer.
It’s been a quarter-century since Johnson formed his ground-breaking label, and throughout the ensuing years Fat Possum has branched out, releasing acclaimed albums by bluesmen like Robert Belfour and T-Model Ford as well as rockers like the Black Keys and the Stooges. The underdog Southern label whose motto is “we’re trying our best” celebrates its Silver Anniversary in 2016 with an ambitious, year-long program that will feature the first-time-on-vinyl release of thirty phenomenal, ground-breaking blues recordings from the Fat Possum archives. Many of the titles will also be made available as digital downloads.
Among the fresh-to-vinyl reissues to be released by Fat Possum as part of its 25th anniversary celebration are Junior Kimbrough’s Meet Me In The City, which was originally released on CD a year after the bluesman’s death in 1998, and T-Model Ford’s outrageous LPs Pee Wee Get My Gun (1997) and Bad Man (2002), the latter produced by Memphis music legend Jim Dickinson. Other classic titles receiving the deluxe ‘hot wax’ treatment include Asie Payton’s Just Do Me Right (2002), Robert Belfour’s What’s Wrong With You (2000), and R.L. Burnside’s Unplugged, an anticipated collection of performances recorded in Europe in 1982, years before Fat Possum’s most beloved bluesman signed with the label.
Additionally, the Fat Possum-affiliated Big Legal Mess Records will be releasing ten album reissues on its own on vinyl and digitally, vintage bluesmen recorded by producer and music historian George Mitchell in the field between 1963 and 1982. Many of these albums have been unavailable since their original release, and among the titles are great records like R.L. Burnside’s Mississippi Hill Country Blues (1981) and Furry Lewis’s Good Morning Judge (1960s-era recordings from the Memphis bluesman). John Lee Hooker’s Alone, a solo live set recorded at Hunter College in New York in 1976 will be released as two single vinyl albums.
Fat Possum has long been known for the label’s inspired compilation discs, and collections like the label’s three volumes of Not The Same Old Blues Crap (from 1997, 2001, and 2004 and featuring Fat Possum artists and rockers like Hasil Adkins and Paul Westerberg’s Grandpaboy); 1998’s All Men Are Liars (with Bob Log III and the Neckbones); and its 2005 Junior Kimbrough tribute Sunday Nights (featuring the Black Keys, Iggy & the Stooges, and Mark Lanegan) will also be released on vinyl and digitally. We have the label’s release schedule for the rest of the year listed below, and you can join in the anniversary celebration at Fat Possum’s website.
Fat Possum Records 25th Anniversary Vinyl Releases:
April 8th: Furry Lewis - Good Morning Judge [LP/digital]
April 8th: Houston Stackhouse & Friends [LP/digital]
April 16th: Sunday Nights: The Songs of Junior Kimbrough [Record Store Day LP]
April 16th: Junior Kimbrough - I Gotta Try You Girl (Daft Punk edit) [Record Store Day LP]
May 6th: R.L. Burnside - Mississippi Hill Country Blues [LP]
May 20th: John Lee Hooker - Alone, Volume 1 [LP]
May 20th: John Lee Hooker - Alone, Volume 2 [LP]
May 27th: T-Model Ford - Pee Wee Get My Gun [LP]
May 27th: T-Model Ford - Bad Man [LP]
June 10th: Jim Bunkley & George Henry Bussey [LP/digital]
June 10th: Junior Kimbrough - Meet Me in the City [LP]
June 24th: R.L. Burnside - Unplugged [LP]
July 15th: Asie Payton - Just Do Me Right [LP]
July 15th: Robert Belfour - What's Wrong With You [LP]
July 22nd: All Men Are Liars compilation [LP/digital]
August 17th: Jimmy Lee Harris - I Wanna Ramble [LP/digital]
August 17th: Robert Cage - Can See What You're Doing [LP]
September 9th: Johnny Farmer - Wrong Doers Respect Me [LP]
October 7th: Dewey Corley & Walter Miller [LP/digital]
October 7th: Paul “Wine” Jones - Mule [LP]
Named for the classic Muddy Waters' song, Rollin' 'n' Tumblin' is the second volume in The Reverend's Archives, a collection of over 100 blues-related long-form album and book reviews written by the award-winning music critic, Rev. Keith A. Gordon. From classic blues by legends like B.B. King, Howlin' Wolf, and Muddy Waters to contemporary albums by talents like Walter Trout, Duke Robillard, and George Thorogood, Rollin' 'n' Tumblin' provides a wealth of musical information guaranteed to send you to your local record store in search of new music!
Published on January 5th, 2016 you can buy the book via Amazon.com or order Rollin' 'n' Tumblin' direct from the Reverend for $14.95 postpaid for the U.S. or $24.95 for Canada by using the PayPal buttons below. European orders should be made through Amazon.com. Rollin' 'n' Tumblin' is a 5.5" x 8.5" trade paperback, a whoppin' 390 pages and profusely illustrated with album cover artwork.
Cleopatra Records moved further into the blues field with the November 6th, 2015 release of the talented blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist Kenny Neal’s I’ll Be Home For Christmas album. Neal, a New Orleans native, is a Blues Music Award winner, multiple Grammy® Award nominee, and Louisiana Music Hall of Fame inductee.
The son of Louisiana music legend Raful Neal, Kenny has forged a career entirely on his own talents over the past 30 years, the multi-instrumentalist creating a legacy of his own with acclaimed albums like 2008’s Let Life Flow and 2010’s Hooked On Your Love. Neal’s I’ll Be Home For Christmas is the bluesman’s first foray into holiday music, the album mixing soulful takes on traditional and modern Christmas songs, all delivered with no little soul and plenty of Louisiana flavor. If you’re looking for something to mix a little ‘blues’ into your holiday reds and greens, check out Kenny Neal’s I’ll Be Home For Christmas!
I’ll Be Home For Christmas track list:
1. Christmas Comes Once A Year
2. Silver Bells
3. Winter Wonderland
4. Merry Little Christmas
5. Please Come Home For Christmas
6. I’ll Be Home For Christmas
7. Merry Christmas Baby #2
8. Lonesome Christmas
9. Merry Christmas Baby #1
10. O Come All Ye Faithful
11. Silent Night
With one foot in the past and his eyes on the horizon, bluesman Eric Bibb is one of the most exciting and innovative artists on the blues scene today. Working with acclaimed French harmonica wizard JJ Milteau, Bibb further fuses blues tradition with a contemporary edge on Lead Belly’s Gold, scheduled for November 6, 2015 release by Stony Plain Records.
Lead Belly’s Gold features eleven live tracks recorded at the legendary Paris jazz club The Sunset, combined with five new studio tracks. Offering both material chosen from the Lead Belly songbook as well as original tunes written by Bibb and Milteau in tribute to the influential bluesman, the pair are backed on Lead Belly’s Gold by guitarist Jerome Browne, bassist Gilles Michel, keyboardist/percussionist Glen Scott, drummer Larry Crockett, and backing singers Big Daddy Wilson and Michael Robinson.
In his day, Lead Belly (born Huddie Ledbetter in 1888 in Louisiana), was known as a “songster,” a musical wanderer who would perform a mix of folk, gospel, blues, and ballads – whatever songs might elicit tips from an appreciative audience. Ledbetter was also a skilled and innovative 12-string guitarist, a role taken on by Browne on the new album. Ledbetter’s ability to take a traditional song and interpret it in a way so as to make it his own is a large part of his legacy, and his artistic influence extends beyond blues music (notably Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee) to folk singers (Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Bob Dylan) to rock ‘n’ roll (Creedence Clearwater Revival, Grateful Dead, the White Stripes – even Nirvana recorded a Lead Belly song).
Lead Belly’s Gold features several classic tunes from the artist’s milieu, including “Midnight Special,” “Good Night Irene,” and “Rock Island Line,” as well as lesser-known Ledbetter gems like “Where Did You Sleep Last Night” and “The House of the Rising Sun.” One of the more intriguing among the new Bibb/Milteau compositions is “Swimmin’ In A River Of Songs.” Writing in the album’s liner notes, Bibb notes, “It’s hard to remember when I first heard Lead Belly’s music because, somehow, he’s always been around. Most likely, I heard recordings of others (The Weavers and Woody Guthrie) singing songs from his huge repertoire before hearing his actual voice…”
Continuing, Bibb adds, “what I hear now, when I listen to Lead Belly’s recordings and YouTube clips, and what I must have sensed when I was a boy, is the man’s personal power and independence. His sound made it clear that he was his own man. The fatalism and resignation that I heard later in the voices of many of my prewar blues heroes was missing in Lead Belly. He was way ahead of his time. The path he cut through a world that conspired to rob him of his humanity, dignity and manhood was a personal triumph that will inspire for generations to come.”
“Lead Belly was a human jukebox,” says Bibb. “He knew hundreds of songs that he’d either heard somewhere and adapted, or written himself. Jean-Jacques and I chose songs from Lead Belly’s vast repertoire that we could make our own. We wanted to pay homage to not only a great musician, but to the rich tradition he embodied. Staying pretty close to his renditions, we had a lot of fun collaborating on these new arrangements.” Check out the video below for a taste of Lead Belly's Gold!
The Reverend has long sang the praises of blues legend Bobby Rush, one of the most talented cats to ever step up to a microphone and strum a guitar, and one of the most genuinely nice people you could ever meet. Over the course of a storied career that has spanned some five decades and earned Rush ten Blues Music/W.C. Handy Awards – including the coveted “B.B. King Entertainer of the Year” honor earlier this year – the singer has released a heck of a lot of great music for a plethora of record labels.
Any attempt to collect a complete Bobby Rush discography would put a serious dent in your bank account and probably drive a person certifiably mad trying to dig up a literal crate full of rare records. Thanks to the good folks at Omnivore Recordings, on November 27, 2015 you’ll be able spend your hard-earned coin on Chicken Heads: A 50-Year History of Bobby Rush, a four CD, 74-song deluxe box set that spans the singer’s entire career. Offering nearly five hours of music, Chicken Heads compiles material from 20 different record labels (!) and includes a 32-page booklet with notes by my esteemed colleague Bill Dahl, who knows this stuff better than anybody.
Born in Homer, Louisiana in 1933, Rush was originally influenced by his guitar and harmonica-playing father to experiment playing with a wire diddley-bow. Moving to Pine Bluff, Arkansas as a teen, Rush became friends with guitarist Elmore James and pianist Big Moose Walker and it was here that he formed his first bands. Relocating to Chicago in the 1950s, Rush played with blues greats like Muddy Waters, Luther Allison, and Jimmy Reed, and recorded at Chess Records. It would be the 1971 release of his Billboard R&B charting single “Chicken Heads,” on the indie Galaxy label, that would bring him to national prominence. Almost 30 years later, “Chicken Heads” would re-enter the charts after being featured in the movie Black Snake Moan.
Bobby Rush photo by James Patterson
Rush recorded his debut album, Rush Hour, in 1979 with producer Leon Huff for the Philadelphia International label, scoring a minor hit with the song “I Wanna Do The Do.” Rush would return to the south where he became a fixture on the “chitlin’ circuit,” touring the back roads of the southeast and southwest United States and earning a reputation as a dynamic live performer (Rush still performs almost 200 nights a year!) Along the way, the talented singer, songwriter, and musician developed his own unique style of blues called “folk funk,” the sound an amalgam of blues, soul, and funk music as only Bobby Rush could perform it. Rush has released better than two-dozen albums during his career, earned three Grammy® Award nominations, and a whopping 41 Blues Music Award nominations.
Chicken Heads: A 50-Year History of Bobby Rush offers material from Rush’s records for labels like Checker, Galaxy, Jewel, Philadelphia International, Malaco/Waldoxy, and LaJam Records as well as his own indie Deep Rush label. “It’s very exciting,” Rush says in a press release for the box set. “Truly I feel honored that someone would think enough of me to do this. The record side of it is the glory side of me and that’s the side that I want people to know and I’m grateful for that. I’m happy that someone thought before I leave this land to tell my story. I’m proud of it and flattered about it. I want the world to know that this is my first time and I want to say it for people to be enthused about me. I’m not enthused about all of the songs because at the time I didn’t think they were all good. But after you become a ‘legend,’ you look back and it all looks good. There are things you had in the can you didn’t want to put out, and then you get asked what you have in the can that’s never been heard to put it out.”
Tommy Castro is one of the most popular bluesmen on the scene today – a six-time Blues Music Award winner, Castro has twice been honored with the coveted “B.B. King Entertainer of the Year” award. Since releasing his debut album for Blind Pig Records in 1996 – by which time Castro had already had better than a decade of experience under his belt, including a stint with Warner Brothers Records band the Dynatones – Castro has recorded frequently and toured non-stop, building a loyal worldwide audience.
Castro signed with the esteemed Alligator Records label in 2009, releasing the BMA winning Hard Believer album. In 2012, Castro scaled back his band to the lean, mean four-piece outfit known today as the Painkillers, which released the acclaimed 2014 album The Devil You Know. In-between these two band releases, Castro oversaw 2011’s Tommy Castro Presents the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Revue – Live!, a collection of raucous live performances from the perpetually sold-out ‘blues cruise’ that features Castro and his band, who also back up stars like Rick Estrin, Michael “Iron Man” Burks, and Joe Louis Walker, among other artists.
On October 23rd, 2015 Alligator Records will release Castro’s latest world-beating album for the label, titled Method To My Madness. A twelve-track collection that features ten new Castro originals or co-writes (including songs penned with pals Rick Estrin and Joe Louis Walker), the album also features covers of the Clarence Carter hit “I’m Qualified” and B.B. King’s “Bad Luck.” Castro is backed by the Painkillers – bassist Randy McDonald, keyboardist Michael Emerson, and drummer Bowen Brown – on an electrifying blend of blues, rock, and soul music that is guaranteed to add extra octane to your tank!
“My main objective when making a new album,” says Castro in a press release for Method To My Madness, “is to do something different from before. I’ve always been a blues guy; it’s what I’m meant to do. But I’m always listening and reacting to what’s going on in the outside world, experimenting with my guitar tone and my songwriting approach to constantly keep my music fresh. In the end, though, my brand is on every song.” The album was recorded at Laughing Tiger Studio in San Rafael, California, with Castro producing for the very first time. The band was recorded without studio gimmicks – just the raw sound of talented musicians cranking out the tunes with passion and energy.
“With the new album,” says Castro, “I was trying to get back to my basic ingredients: blues and soul. I went for the energy of connecting with my band. We kept everything raw, capturing the feeling of playing live. I’m not about being perfect,” he concludes, “I’m about being real.” Having heard this electrifying and entertaining album, I’d say that Castro accomplished what he set out to do with Method To My Madness.
Nashville-based bluesman Mark Robinson is one of my favorite contemporary guitarists, a talented string-bender who can deliver songs with either subdued sizzle or flamethrower intensity. The two acclaimed albums that Robinson has released to date – 2010’s Quit Your Job, Play Guitar and 2013’s Have Axe Will Groove – garnered all sorts of rave reviews from your humble scribe. Of the former, I concluded “expect big things in the future from this ‘self-employed’ singer/songwriter” while of the latter I said “Robinson proves that’s he a talent to be reckoned with, and you can climb on the bandwagon now or wait until he’s a festival headliner…”
Robinson has kept busy since Have Axe Will Groove, producing and performing on albums by a number of Americana artists, including an excellent effort by Nashville’s poet laureate, David Olney (his 2014 LP When The Deal Goes Down). In a classic case of “what have you done for me lately,” Robinson answers proudly with a brand new ‘digital’ single, “Gone South.” This is no throwaway track tacked up on iTunes to gain some attention, but rather a carefully-considered and true double-sided single in the spirit of our beloved vinyl 45s of old.
As you can see and hear for yourself by watching the videos embedded below, “Gone South” is presented by Robinson as two entirely different-sounding versions, albeit both featuring the same exciting blues DNA. The ‘electric’ version of the song is a blustery, blues-rock tornado complete with swaggering, cerebellum-crushing fretwork that certainly owes a debt of gratitude to the late Texas masters Johnny Winter and Stevie Ray Vaughan. By contrast, the ‘acoustic’ version of “Gone South” is a rootsy delight, Robinson’s twang ‘n’ bang reading offering a laid-back Piedmont blues vibe in the vein of Eric Bibb or the Carolina Chocolate Drops. Both versions are unique and inspiring Robinson creations.
“Gone South” was recorded with the backing of bassist Daniel Seymour and drummer Justin Amara, with Robinson affording both versions of his skilled and creative fretwork. Poco’s Michael Webb adds keyboards to the ‘electric’ version of “Gone South,” joined by Pinmonkey’s Rick Schell’s backing vocals; country singer Luke Amelang provides backing vocals on the ‘acoustic’ take, while the SteelDrivers’ Richard Bailey plays banjo. Robinson’s dual-pronged approach to the song is more than just a clever way to provide differing musical perspectives, but is also representative of the guitarist’s underrated talents and immense artistic vision. Both versions of “Gone South” are available as a digital download from iTunes and Amazon.com.
I’ve long heard it said that blues music is an international language, and it seems to be true. You’ll find a thriving blues scene in the U.K. and northern Europe, thousands of miles away from its Delta roots. Hard-touring road warriors like Walter Trout and Joe Bonamassa have spread the gospel of the blues to corners of the world, like Southeast Asia, that hadn’t yet heard the word. In over 40 years of covering music, however, much of it spent in thrall to the blues, I had never heard of blues coming from the Middle East until I heard Mr. Lazer Lloyd.
Lazer Lloyd – for those of you who have yet to discover this talented singer, songwriter, and guitarist – brings the blues from Israel. An American by birth, Lloyd was raised in Madison, Connecticut and taught a love of music by his father, who exposed the future musician to blues, folk, rock, and jazz, all vital elements of his current sound. Lloyd began playing in his first bands as a teenager, and migrated to his adopted homeland a few years ago, finding an eager audience for his intelligent songs and dynamic, charismatic performance style.
He released his first album, Lazer Lloyd Unplugged – Blues In Tel Aviv in 2011, following it up with My Own Blues in 2012, which was honored as the best blues album of the year by the Israeli Blues Society. Lloyd’s acoustic Lost On The Highway album was released in the U.S. in 2013 by Blue Leaf Records, leading to a North American tour. In other words, Lloyd is a veteran bluesman with a few miles on his odometer.
Lazer Lloyd – Blues From Israel
Lazer Lloyd, the album, was released by the Chicago-based independent Lots of Love Records label, which doesn’t seem to have anyone other than Lloyd on their roster, which is cool by me. If you’re going to launch a label, you may as well start with a good ‘un, and Lazer Lloyd is a revelation, indeed. The album features twelve red-hot tracks, eleven of them original, the lone cover an inspired take on Otis Redding’s classic “(Sittin’ On) The Dock of the Bay.” Lloyd eschews the usual, by-the-books reading of the timeless hit, his somber vocals displaying an enormous emotional depth, a weariness that is accompanied by his nicely elegant acoustic fretwork. He knows he’s not going to match Redding’s version, so he infuses the song with his own personality while holding onto the bittersweet elements of the original.
Lloyd’s original “Burning Thunder” kicks off the album, his slash ‘n’ burn electric guitarplay providing the muscle to his powerful, albeit oblique lyrics. His solos are as sharp as a stiletto, his deep, rich vocals backed by a crescendo of bass notes and explosive drumbeats. The tongue-in-cheek autobiographical “Rockin’ In The Holy Land” tells of Lloyd’s move to Israel with an up-tempo, rockabilly-tinged soundtrack that features some snappy harmonica lines, a locomotive rhythm, and livewire guitarplay. By contrast, the self-referential “Never Give Up” is a thoughtful ballad that reminds of Jeff Healey, with sharp, clean guitar solos and softer, more considered vocals wrapping around inspirational lyrics that carry a positive message for all of us.
The bluesman goes caveman on us with the dino-stomp wonder of “Out of Time.” Although the song’s lyrics are based on traditional blues, albeit with a contemporary tilt, musically the song is an edgy, raucous construct – all sinew ‘n’ bones with stunning, chaotic guitars and sledgehammer rhythms, with powerful vocals and an overall 1970s arena-rock sound that sits comfortably alongside Pat Travers or Robin Trower’s best work. The tearful “Broken Dreams” is a clever note on lost love with beautiful guitar tone and trembling vocals that make for a timeless performance. The haunting “Moroccan Woman” brings an exotic air to the album, with sparse lyrics and an overall swamp-blues vibe, while “Time To Love” offers up a Chicago-styled blues sound with Otis Rush influence and a universal message that soars on the strength of Lloyd’s breathless fretwork, which veers dangerously into Jimi Hendrix territory at one exhilarating point in the song.
The Reverend’s Bottom Line
In my humble opinion, Lazer Lloyd is one of the most exciting blues artists to come down the track in many a year. His songs display a unique lyrical perspective; the music derived from familiar blues forms but imbued with Lloyd’s own original vision. The invigorating performances on Lazer Lloyd display a uniformly high quality of musicianship, from Lloyd’s imaginative guitarplay to the band’s masterful backing. Overall, the album is a fine, entertaining, and innovative effort from the unlikely blues hotbed of Israel. RIYL Joe Louis Walker, Walter Trout, or Coco Montoya.Grade: A (Lots of Love Records, released June 23, 2015)
Since hooking up with the good folks at the Music Maker Relief Foundation in 2010, blues legend Ironing Board Sam has been making up for lost time. After the non-profit outfitted the flamboyant musician with new gear, Sam has been hitting the road and the recording studio alike, releasing four critically-acclaimed albums under the Music Maker banner in four years.
The 75-year-old bluesman isn’t done yet, nosirree…on October 2nd, 2015, Big Legal Mess Records (a subsidiary of Mississippi’s esteemed Fat Possum Records) will release Ironing Board Sam’s Super Spirit, a new ten-track collection produced by Big Legal Mess head honcho Bruce Watson and roots ‘n’ bluesman Jimbo Mathus at Watson’s Dial Back Studio in Water Valley, Mississippi.
Ironing Board Sam is backed on Super Spirit by a band that includes Mathus on guitar, bassist Stu Cole (Squirrel Nut Zippers), and drummer Barrett Martin (Screaming Trees). In his role as producer, Watson drew inspiration from classic 1960s and ‘70s era singles, pulling out songs by Ann Peebles, the Gories, Mathus, Jack Oblivian, and Roy Hawkins, among others for Sam to wrap his soulful voice around. The result is Super Spirit, a lively collection of blues, soul, and rock ‘n’ roll with a funky undercurrent that’s guaranteed to blow your mind!
Born Sammie Moore in Rock Hill, South Carolina in 1939, Sam got his nickname by strapping his keyboards to an ironing board hanging from his neck, allowing him to move around on stage. Way back in ’62, Sam’s band included a red-hot guitarist who would become known as Jimi Hendrix, and throughout the 1960s and ‘70s he released a number of singles for Atlantic Records and numerous soul labels, and was a regular guest on the Night Train TV show.
Although Sam scored some regional hits through the years, he wouldn’t release a debut album until 1996’s Human Touch. An earlier album, Ninth Wonder of the World of Music, which Sam using as a sort of calling card with promoters, was recorded in the 1970s but not released commercially until 2011. With Super Spirit, Ironing Board Sam is building on a legacy decades in the making. Check out Sam’s “Baby You Got it,” a track from Super Spirit, embedded below. You’re welcome…
Blues guitarist Duke Robillard has earned his share of W.C. Handy/Blues Music Awards yet he doesn’t seem to receive the respect due his status as not only one of the most innovative artists in the genre, but also one of blues music’s greatest traditionalists. These two things aren’t as mutually exclusive as they may seem – Robillard’s creativity as an instrumentalist has influenced a generation of blues guitarists, his immense legacy built not only on his tenure with seminal modern era blues bands Roomful of Blues and the Fabulous Thunderbirds, but also for his lengthy and exhaustively prolific career as a solo artist. With dozens of albums released under his own name, Robillard has also recorded and toured with folks like Bob Dylan, Tom Waits, Pinetop Perkins, and Robert Gordon, among many others.
As a producer, Robillard has produced albums by such diverse talents as R&B great Jimmy Witherspoon, Chicago harp wizard Billy Boy Arnold, Kansas City piano giant Jay McShann, and legendary jazz guitarist Herb Ellis. Robillard’s role as a traditionalist extends beyond his work in the studio with legendary figures into his own recordings, where he regularly revisits and often re-interprets blues and jazz songs from the 1920s, ‘30s, and ‘40s, exposing this influential material to a new generation of fans.
On September 25th, 2015 Stony Plain Records will release the guitarist’s The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard, the follow-up to his acclaimed 2013 album Independently Blue. Featuring Robillard’s underrated vocals and performances on multiple stringed instruments, the guitarist has dipped into his Rolodex to enlist the help of several talented friends to appear on the album, including singers Maria Muldaur and Sunny Crownover, harmonica player Jerry Portnoy, the late pianist Jay McShann, and some other well-known names in the blues world like sax player Doug James and drummer Mark Teizeira, among other folks.
With The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard, the guitarist reaches into the great American songbook to dig up songs by blues legends like Big Bill Broonzy, W.C. Handy, Sleepy John Estes, and Robert Lockwood as well as country tunes by Hank Williams and Jimmie Rodgers which are interpreted by Robillard in his own indomitable style. The album was recorded primarily at Robillard’s own Mood Room studio with additional work done at Lakewest Recording, and some live recordings captured at Blackstone River Theater in Cumberland, Rhode Island.
“This project has been about a decade in the making for various reasons I won't go into here,” Robillard states in the liner notes for the new album. “As many of you know, I am, and always have been, a huge fan of American roots music in its entirety. Blues, ragtime, early jazz, Appalachian music, early country, swing, honky-tonk, folk, R&B, soul, New Orleans music, rock and roll and all kinds of roots music have always moved and inspired me the most. Especially the artists that were there at the beginning of each style. Those artists always seem to be the most honest to my ears.”
As such, The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard is a tribute to those disparate influences, a collection of material recorded by some of the greatest and most influential innovators in their individual genres. “With this album,” says Robillard, “I honor many of the pioneers of true American music, from close to the beginning of recorded music to the 1940s. This is the time period I love most and find a never-ending river of new music to discover, enjoy and be influenced/inspired by. This recording concentrates on music written and recorded in the ‘20s to the ‘40s, with the exception of some original songs and Robbie Robertson's ‘Evangeline,’ which sounds like it could be from that time period!”
You can bet that if it has Duke Robillard’s name on it, The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard is going to be great, and if all you know of the blues and American music comes from the legion of Stevie Ray Vaughan clones weighing down bar stools across the land, you owe it to yourself to open your ears and expand your mind with The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard!
The Acoustic Blues & Roots of Duke Robillard tracklist:
1. My Old Kentucky Home
2. Big Bill Blues
3. I Miss My Baby In My Arms
4. Jimmie's Texas Blues
5. Backyard Paradise
6. Evangeline [featuring Sunny Crownover]
7. Left Handed
8. I'd Rather Drink Muddy Water
9. I'm Gonna Buy Me A Dog (To Take the Place of You)
10. Nashville Blues [featuring Mary Flower]
11. St Louis Blues
12. What Is It That Tastes Like Gravy?
13. Someday Baby
14. Let’s Turn Back the Years
15. Take a Little Walk With Me
16. Santa Claus Blues [featuring Maria Muldaur]
17. Profoundly Blue [featuring Jay McShann]
18. Ukulele Swing
Here’s some interesting news for blues music fans – the estate of Blues Hall of Fame inductee and Chicago blues legend Junior Wells has been entrusted to Cleopatra Records through an agreement worked out between the label and Wells’ daughter Regina Brown. The deal includes Wells’ sound recordings as well as his song publishing, an extensive catalog that ranges from the harp player’s earliest recordings in the 1950s through his death in 1998. The deal also includes unreleased master recordings, and Wells’ personal memorabilia including his harmonicas, performance outfits, photos, and personal journals, among other artifacts.
Born Amos Wells Blackmore, Jr. in December 1934 in Memphis, Tennessee, Wells was raised on the other side of the Mississippi River in West Memphis, Arkansas. He learned the fundamentals of blues harp from another future legend, Junior Parker, before moving to Chicago in 1946. Wells hooked up with guitarists Louis and David Myers, the three young men playing house parties and infrequent club dates as the Three Deuces. They later changed their name to the Three Aces, and finally just the Aces when they added drummer Fred Below.
Wells’ big break came when he joined Muddy Waters’ band in 1952, replacing Little Walter Jacobs, who enlisted the Aces to launch his own solo career. Wells began playing with guitarist Buddy Guy in 1958, the two forming a creative relationship that would last some 20 years. Wells’ raucous, no-holds-barred playing style, characterized by his staggering solos and vocal interplay, was perfectly suited for the era, defining the Chicago blues harp sound at a time when the music was shedding its country roots and becoming more sophisticated.
Wells recorded for a number of labels during his 50+ year career, including Chief, Profile, Vanguard, and Telarc Records, but it is the recordings he made with Guy for Delmark Records during the 1960s on which his enormous legacy rests. Albums like Wells’ 1966 solo debut, Hoodoo Man Blues, and 1969’s Southside Blues Jam would cross over to young blues-rock fans and lead to collaborations with artists like Bonnie Raitt, Van Morrison, and the Rolling Stones. In 1990, Wells worked with fellow harp players James Cotton, Billy Branch, and Carey Bell to record the W.C. Handy Award-winning collaboration Harp Attack!
It seems like the marriage of old-school Chicago blues and Cleopatra Records would be an odd fit, the Los Angeles-based label better known for its signature Goth, punk, and hard rock releases. Formed in 1992 by Perera, the label has released albums by an eclectic roster of artists, including Christian Death, the Damned, and U.K. Subs. Through their Deadline Music imprint, the label has released albums by bands like Quiet Riot and Cinderella, but Cleopatra has branched out in recent years through its Purple Pyramid subsidiary, releasing psychedelic and prog-rock archival material from artists like Iron Butterfly, Nektar, Tangerine Dream, and Quicksilver Messenger Service, among others.
In spite of the label’s storied history, the label seems psyched to venture into blues territory. “We’re very excited to enter into this deal and be a part of the one of the all time icons in American blues history,” says the label’s Brian Perera in a press release about the historic agreement with the Wells estate. “We intend to keep the Junior Wells legacy alive with a variety of releases as well as merchandise and branding partnerships in the years to come.” Perera has announced a newly-launched Cleopatra Blues imprint that will feature future releases from Wells and other artists including Eric Gales, Shuggie Otis, and Harvey Mandel. Given the label’s acclaimed previous efforts in rescuing long-lost music from the archives, I’m anxious to see what they’ll do in a blues vein. Stay tuned…
It’s my personal feeling that legendary blues guitarist Robert Cray has been somewhat underserved when it comes to the release of live material during his lengthy career. With nearly two dozen albums to his credit since his acclaimed 1980 debut, Who’s Been Talkin’?, only three of these discs have represented the guitarist’s spellbinding, dynamic live performances, all of ‘em released in a cluster by Vanguard Records between 2007 and 2010.
Although there’s certain to be some tasty live morsels hidden away in the vaults somewhere, at least loyal fans have something concrete to look forward to on August 28th, 2015 when Provogue Records releases Cray’s 4 Nights of 40 Years Live, a career-spanning set comprised of both new live recordings and archive material. 4 Nights of 40 Years Live will be available in a number of formats, including a two-CD set with accompanying DVD or Blu-ray disc, a two-LP vinyl album with download card, and straight digital download.
The first disc features live performances recently put to tape by Cray and his current band, including bassist Richard Cousins, keyboardist Dover Weinberg, and drummer Les Falconer, thirteen songs recorded at four different venues in the Los Angeles area. The tracklist represents a cross-section of Cray’s career, truly spanning the decades by offering songs like “Bad Influence,” from the 1983 album of the same name; “Right Next Door (Because of Me),” from 1986’s Strong Persuader; “These Things,” from 1990’s Midnight Stroll; and “I’ll Always Remember You,” from the more recent LP Nothin But Love. Steve Jordan returns to the producer’s chair for the album, which includes guest appearances from the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Kim Wilson, harmonica wizard Lee Oskar, saxophonists Trevor Lawrence and Tom Scott, and trumpeter Steve Madaio.
Disc two takes the listener on a ride in the “Wayback Machine,” featuring performances from Cray’s appearance at the 1982 San Francisco Blues Festival and a 1987 appearance on the Dutch TV show Countdown, including tracks like “Smoking Gun,” “Too Many Cooks,” and “T-Bone Shuffle.” The accompanying DVD/Blu-ray disc offers 94 minutes of Cray and crew’s red-hot live performances from the four L.A. shows along with video from the aforementioned S.F. Blues Festival and Countdown TV broadcast as well as interviews with Cray friends and admirers like Bonnie Raitt, Jimmie Vaughan, Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and Buddy Guy.
Although we’ll always like to hear more live music from the Cray and his band, the deluxe set that is 4 Nights of 40 Years Live goes a long way towards presenting the guitarist’s on-stage legacy in a proper light.
Blues guitarist Ronnie Earl will celebrate “Father’s Day” a little late with the July 17th, 2015 release of his album by the same name, coming to blues fans courtesy of Stony Plain Records. If you’re unfamiliar with Earl, he’s a phenomenal string-bender who earned his 2014 “Blues Guitarist of the Year” Blues Music Award by touring constantly with his red-hot and rockin’ band the Broadcasters.
Father’s Day will be the ninth album on Stony Plain from Earl and the Broadcasters, and he’s mixed up his typical musical mix for the release. The album includes the first appearance of a full horn section on an Earl album in over a decade, and he’s shaking up his normal instrumental fare with by featuring the talents of a couple of great vocalists – Diane Blue, who has lent her enormously soulful voice to Earl’s material before, and Michael Ledbetter, singer with the Chicago-based Nick Moss Band. Unlike Earl’s previous sparse use of vocalists, Father’s Day features just one instrumental track.
Earl pays tribute to two of his blues mentors on Father’s Day, covering two songs each by the great Otis Rush (“It Takes Time” and “Right Place, Wrong Time”) and Magic Sam (“All Your Love” and “What Have I Done Wrong”). Earl’s stellar fretwork adds a new dimension to the West Side Chicago sound of the original versions. Earl pays tribute to the great B.B. King with “I Need You So Bad,” and flirts with some old-school soul on covers of Brook Benton’s “I’ll Take Care Of You” and Fats Domino’s “Every Night About This Time.” Earl revisits one of his early original songs, “Follow Your Heart,” and adds a pair of new compositions in “Higher Love” and “Father’s Day.”
Much as he has now for a quarter-century, Earl is backed on Father’s Day by his longtime band the Broadcasters – bassist Jim Mouradian, keyboardist Dave Limina, and drummer Lorne Entress. Guitarists Nicholas Tabarias, Tim O’Connor, and Larry Lusignan came into the studio to play alongside Earl, as did the horn section of tenor sax player Mario Perrett and baritone saxophonist Scott Shetler. Fathers’s Day was produced by Earl himself and recorded at Wellspring Sound studio in Acton, Massachusetts.
The album’s packaging includes a photo of Earl’s father reading a newspaper feature about Ronnie and includes a dedication from the guitarist: “this album is made for my beautiful father, and we came to peace in the end. Don’t ever give up on your family and don’t quit until the miracle happens.” An son who has clashed with their father will easily recognize the sentiment, and Father’s Day promises to be a showcase for the sort of energetic, emotional, and textured guitar playing that has earned Ronnie Earl a well-deserved reputation as one of blues music’s most talented players.
She’s one of the brightest and most talented young blues artists coming up in the scene today. On July 10th, 2015 the world will receive further evidence of her talents when Ruf Records releases Wild Heart, the third album from singer, songwriter, and guitarist Samantha Fish.
Produced by Luther Dickinson (North Mississippi Allstars), Wild Heart features an ace backing band including Dickinson on various stringed instruments, drummer Brady Blade, and Memphis session singers Shonetelle Norman-Beatty and Risse Norman. Guitarist Lightnin’ Malcolm and drummer Sharde Thomas also lend their talents in the studio. Fish recorded the album in several distinctive and unique studios, starting at Blade’s studio in Shreveport, Louisiana before moving on to Dickinson’s Zebra Ranch Studios in Hernando, Mississippi. Wild Heart was finished up in Memphis at Willie Mitchell’s famed Royal Studios and the legendary Ardent Studio.
To prepare for Wild Heart, Fish journeyed to Nashville to write with songwriter Jim McCormick, whose songs have been recorded by Trisha Yearwood and Keith Urban. The New Orleans native provided the experience and musical knowledge to allow Fish to fully express herself, and the pair wrote five of the twelve songs on the album, including blues-rock tune “Show Me,” the raucous tale of betrayal “Road Runner,” and the riffish title track. The trip from Louisiana to Mississippi and the Zebra Ranch Studios allowed the young guitarist to experience some flavor of the birthplace of the blues.
In Mississippi she cut a cover of Charley Patton’s “Jim Lee Blues, Part One,” with Hill Country guitarist Lightnin’ Malcolm and drummer Sharde Thomas, granddaughter of Mississippi fife/drum legend Otha Turner. “This session had a whole other vibe to it,” Fish says in a press release for Wild Heart. “The studio is out in the country, no cell service, no distractions. You're just surrounded by nature and guitars.” Fish first met Malcolm when she attended the King Biscuit Blues Festival when she was 17 years old. “Working with Malcolm was a longtime coming as I'd known him since I was a teenager. Hearing hill country blues made me fall in love with blues music and he was one of the first artists who let me jam with him.”
Still in her mid-20s, Fish already has two critically-acclaimed albums under her belt – 2011’s Runaway and 2013’s Black Wind Howlin’ – both produced by bluesman Mike Zito. She was honored with a “Best New Artist Debut” Blues Music Award for Runaway, and she’s shared stages with legends like Buddy Guy and Tab Benoit. Wild Heart is further proof of her talent and dedication to the blues; you expect to hear a lot more from Samantha Fish as the years go by.
There will never be another like him…blues legend Riley “B.B.” King, one of the greatest American musicians and performers in any genre, passed away on Thursday, May 14th, 2015 after a brief illness. King was 89 years old.
Born in 1925 on a plantation near Itta Bena, King considered nearby Indianola his hometown, and that’s where The B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center, a museum dedicated to the bluesman, is located. The son of sharecroppers, as a youth B.B. picked cotton and sang in the church. Depending on who’s telling the story, King either bought or was gifted his first guitar by his cousin Bukka White, a blues legend in his own right.
Beale Street Blues Boy
In 1946, King moved to Memphis, but he returned to Mississippi for a couple of years, moving to West Memphis, Arkansas in 1948. The young musician performed on Sonny Boy Williamson’s radio program on KWEM in West Memphis, developing an audience that he took with him when he began a program of his own on Memphis radio station WDIA. King was so popular that he became a station DJ under the name “Beale Street Blues Boy,” which was later shortened to “Blues Boy” before he just became “B.B.”
King recorded his first sides for Nashville’s Bullet Records in 1949 before signing with the Bahari Brothers’ RPM Records label in Los Angeles. King’s career began to flourish while with RPM, the guitarist scoring his first R&B chart hit in 1952 with “Three O’Clock Blues.” From there, King was off to the races, reeling off a string of hits throughout the 1950s including songs like “Woke Up This Morning,” “Sweet Little Angel,” “You Know I Love You,” “Every Day I Have The Blues,” and many others. King toured constantly, racking up in excess of 300 dates a year, a grueling schedule that he’d pursue for decades.
A Legacy of Quality
When the popularity of blues music began to wane with African-American audiences in the 1960s, King found newfound fame with young white rock fans, and he was the opening act for the Rolling Stones’ 1969 tour. He signed with ABC-Paramount Records in 1962, which would later be bought out by MCA Records, which later became Geffen Records…King essentially recorded with the same company for better than 60 years. Although King had released a number of albums while with RPM/Modern Records during the early 1960s, some of which were compilations of singles, the guitarist hit his stride for ABC-Paramount later in the decade, establishing a legacy of quality that would characterize King’s career until the end.
Beginning with 1965’s classic Live At The Regal and running well into the 1970s, King created a run of classic albums, many of them live recordings, that stand as some of the best blues albums, ever – 1969’s Live & Well and Completely Well; 1970’s Indianola Mississippi Seeds (which included Joe Walsh and Leon Russell); 1971’s Live In Cook County Jail and B.B. King In London (with Ringo Starr, Peter Green, and members of Humble Pie and Spooky Tooth); 1972's L.A. Midnight and Guess Who, and many others – King was nothing if not prolific. In 1974, King recorded the first of two albums with his former valet, Bobby “Blue” Bland, Together For The First Time…Live hitting #2 on the Billboard magazine R&B chart and #43 on the mainstream albums chart. A sequel of sorts was released two years later, Bobby Bland and B.B. King Together Again…Live performing nearly as well on the charts.
Late Career Triumphs
As the decade of the 1970s rolled to a close, King’s prolific recording output began to slow down. He released but five albums during the 1980s (compared with nine the previous decade), and six albums during the ‘90s, but recordings like Deuces Wild and Blues on The Bayou kept his popularity high, and he continued to tour better than nine months each year. King performed and recorded with a number of other artists though the years – U2, Dr. John, Eric Clapton, Cyndi Lauper, and many others, and he also made guest appearances on a number of TV shows, including The Cosby Show, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, Sesame Street, Married…With Children, and Touched By An Angel. He also appeared in films like Blues Brothers 2000 and Spies Like Us.
King reached the pinnacle of his career in 2000 with the release of Riding With The King. Recorded with friend and guitarist Eric Clapton, the album earned King one of his many Grammy™ Awards. Certified Double Platinum™ for over two million sold, the album was also his highest-charting, peaking at number three. King released his 42nd and final studio album, One Kind Favor, in 2008. Produced by T-Bone Burnett, it was considered a late career triumph, and it earned King both a Grammy™ and a Blues Music Award. He continued to tour heavily (100+ nights annually) until illness forced him off the road in late 2014.
B.B. King’s Accolades
The list of accolades and honors provided King is too lengthy to recount here. The guitarist was inducted into the Blues Hall of Fame in 1980, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1987, and the Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame in 2014. King won his first Grammy™ Award in 1970 for his classic song “The Thrill Is Gone,” and would go on to earn 15 more Grammys. He won so many W.C. Handy/Blues Music Awards through the years (15 in all from 39 nominations) that The Blues Foundation’s “Blues Entertainer of the Year” award was renamed the “B.B. King Entertainer of the Year” award. In 2012, King had the opportunity to perform at the White House for President Obama.
While King’s death was not totally unexpected – he’d been hospitalized for dehydration and fatigue in October, and had battled diabetes and high blood pressure for decades – it still comes as a great loss for the blues community. One thing that stands out as people share their memories of King on social media – is his warmth, kindness, and geniality – which are as legendary as his music. B.B. King inspired a legion of rock and blues musicians and he thrilled several generations of fans. King was the greatest ambassador for the blues that the music has ever enjoyed. King’s legacy is as large as any artist of the 20th century, and his influence will continue to be felt for years.
Thirty-plus years after his death, the great Muddy Waters remains the undisputed King of Chicago Blues. Sure, Buddy Guy may be his heir apparent, but with a wealth of Waters’ back catalog CDs and DVDs remaining in print for new listeners to discover, and with new treasures from the archive trickling out each year, it’s going to be hard – if not impossible – for anybody to claim Waters’ throne anytime soon…
Legacy Recording will be adding another priceless gem to the Waters’ treasure chest on April 21st, 2015 when they reissue Soundstage: Blues Summit In Chicago, 1974 on DVD for the very first time. Credited to “Muddy Waters and Friends,” the DVD documents a July 1964 concert by Waters and a few friends that would be broadcast as the first episode of Soundstage, a beloved live concert series that was broadcast by PBS stations around the country for 13 seasons during the late 1970s and early-to-mid-1980s (and was resurrected for more episodes in the early ‘00s).
Waters by himself is a potent onstage presence, especially with a band at the time that included talents like guitarists Bob Margolin and Luther “Snake Boy” Johnson, bassist Calvin “Fuzz” Jones, pianist Pinetop Perkins, and drummer Willie “Big Eyes” Smith. Among the heavy “friends” appearing with Waters are fellow Chicago blues giants Koko Taylor and Willie Dixon; guitarists Michael Bloomfield, Nick Gravenites, and Johnny Winter; former Waters’ band harp player (and solo star) Junior Wells; and pianist Dr. John, among others. Together, these storied musicians put on a hell of a show (the full DVD tracklist can be found below).
“This first edition of our Soundstage series definitely stands the test of time,” says Soundstage producer Ken Ehrlich in a press release for the DVD. “The same greatness that these blues legends like Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, Junior Wells and Koko Taylor showed in this iconic gathering of blues greats continues to influence current generations of blues players and fans. The only difference is that now, 40 years later, the other artists on the show like Johnny Winter, Mike Bloomfield, Dr. John and Buddy Miles have now achieved similar legendary status as those first generation blues artists they came to honor back in 1974.”
Soundstage: Blues Summit In Chicago, 1974 tracklisting:
Muddy Waters – “Blow Wind Blow”
Muddy Waters – “Long Distance Call”
Junior Wells & Nick Gravenites – “Messin’ With The Kid”
Junior Wells – “Stop Breaking Down”
Muddy Waters – “Mannish Boy”
Willie Dixon & Koko Taylor – “Wang Dang Doodle”
Johnny Winter – “Walking Through The Park”
Muddy Waters & Willie Dixon – “Hootchie Kootchie Man”
Dr. John – “Sugar Sweet”
Muddy Waters – “Got My Mojo Workin’”
Roots ‘n’ blues veterans the Nighthawks are a respected brand with a long and storied history behind the name. Formed in 1972 by singer/harp player Mark Wenner and guitarist Jimmy Thackery, the band was part of a thriving early 1970s Washington D.C. music scene that included talents like Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton. Through the years, the band has released better than 20 albums and rotated through a number of musicians, but they’ve always been led by Wenner’s undeniable vision and love of music.
Some 40+ years later, the band is still rockin’ and earning new fans around the world. On April 21st, 2015 the Nighthawks will be throwing a Back Porch Party with the release of their latest EllerSoul Records album, and we're all invited! Following up on their critically-acclaimed 2014 album 444, the Nighthawks – frontman Wenner, guitarist Paul Bell, bassist Johnny Castle, and drummer Mark Stutso – have put together another fine set of blues, soul, and rock ‘n’ roll with a bit of twang and R&B thrown in for good measure.
Back Porch Party was recorded “live and acoustic” in the studio, the band running through a dozen songs that include five originals as well as covers of classic tunes by Muddy Waters, Lightnin’ Slim, Willie Dixon, Ike Turner, and Jimmy Rogers. A couple of performances defy expectations, even for a band as flexible as the Nighthawks – their own version of “Down In The Hole,” better known as the theme from the acclaimed HBO series The Wire, and the Patsy Cline gem “Walkin’ After Midnight.”
As for the band’s return to an unplugged album so soon after the overwhelming critical success of the Blues Music Award-winning 2010 album Last Train To Bluesville, Mark Wenner explains the decision in a press release for the new album. “Although the band mostly continues its amplified style, they are quick to take advantage of situations that warrant the acoustic format,” says Wenner.
“Having enjoyed both the sound and father/son team of engineers in Montrose Studio in Richmond, Virginia, and mixing some acoustic numbers into the material on our 444 album, it seemed like the perfect place for another unplugged recording. The band and EllerSoul execs also invited a small group of sympathetic listeners in for the recording session. The resulting totally live performance was captured by Bruce and Adrian Olsen and quickly mixed into this presentation of a truly fun event, a Back Porch Party.”
Of course, the band will be touring in support of the new album – after all, the Nighthawks are a gang that lives on the road – and we have the initial slate of tour dates below. Buy the CD from Amazon.com: The Nighthawks' Back Porch Party
If you’re one of those That Devil Music readers that enjoys some tasty roots ‘n’ blues guitar (and, if you’re not, what are you doing here?) circle the date of May 5th on your handy Blues Images calendar. Stony Plain Records has announced May 5, 2015 as the release date for Guitar Heroes, an exciting live recording that features the talents of four acclaimed “Telecaster Masters” – James Burton, Albert Lee, Amos Garrett, and David Wilcox – who bring their collective magic to eleven classic songs.
Guitar Heroes was recorded during a one-time special performance by the four legendary musicians at the Vancouver Island MusicFest in July 2013. Backing these incredible six-string talents were members of Lee’s regular touring band: keyboardist/vocalist Jon Greathouse, bassist Will MacGregor, and drummer Jason Harrison Smith. The eleven performances documented by Guitar Heroes are presented exactly as they happened, with no editing, overdubs, or studio gimmicks – just some old friends pickin’ on an inspired mix of blues, rockabilly, and rock ‘n’ roll tunes.
The four Telecaster Masters showcased by Guitar Heroes have credentials as impressive as any musician you’ll ever hear, and nearly 200 years combined experience on the stage and in the studio. James Burton spent 11 years backing Rickie Nelson, and another eight years with Elvis Presley, and has played with everybody from Dale Hawkins (that’s him on the classic “Susie Q”), Gram Parsons, Merle Haggard, Jerry Lee Lewis, and even Nashville’s own Threk Michaels. British-born Albert Lee was a founding member of Head, Hands and Feet during the early 1970s before launching a career as a gun for hire, playing on the road and on recordings by folks like Emmylou Harris, Eric Clapton, Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings, and Rodney Crowell as well as recording better than 20 critically-acclaimed solo albums.
Amos Garrett is a vastly underrated guitarist who performed with Ian & Sylvia’s Great Speckled Bird, Paul Butterfield’s Better Days, Doug Sahm, Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur (yup, that's him on “Midnight At The Oasis”), Jerry Garcia and others, as well as pursuing an acclaimed solo career. Canada’s David Wilcox isn’t as well known as his peers, but is one of his country’s most influential roots music guitarists, singers, and songwriters with a string of hits who has also played with Great Speckled Bird and Maria Muldaur.
Guitar Heroes will be released on both CD and on 180-gram vinyl LP with a download card; check out the full track list below.
Guitar Heroes CD track listing:
1. That's All Right (Mama) 2. Susie Q 3. Sleep Walk 4. Leave My Woman Alone 5. You're The One 6. Comin' Home Baby 7. Flip, Flop and Fly 8. Only the Young 9. Polk Salad Annie 10. Bad Apple 11. Country Boy
David Wilcox, James Burton, Amos Garrett & Albert Lee, photo by Holger Petersen
The night before the Blues Music Awards ceremony, the Blues Hall of Fame inducted musicians Elvin Bishop, Eddy Clearwater, Jimmy Johnson, John Mayall, and the Memphis Jug Band along with Malaco Records partners Tommy Couch Sr. and Wolf Stephenson, all worthy and influential members of the blues music community. We have a complete list of 2016 Blues Music Award winners below.
