Bootleg Review: NRBQ's Wally, Stu, Lou & the Q! (2000)

Source: My Father’s Place, Hoboken NJ, September 26, 1981

Sound Quality: Very good radio broadcast from WLIR-FM with just a little hollowness to the overall sound but nevertheless a very engaging show, especially considering the vintage.

Cover: Single-sided insert front cover has color shots of the four individual band members; the back cover has a single shot of the band along with tracklist and venue information. A minor caveat, however – the band shows show the current NRBQ line-up that includes guitarist Johnny Spampinato; the guitarist at the time of this performance was Big Al Anderson, who spent nearly 20 years with the band before retiring from the road to become a songwriter in Nashville.

Tracklist: I Want You To Feel Good Too • That’s Neat, That’s Nice • North To Alaska • You Can’t Hide • Michael Row Your Boat Ashore • It Was An Accident • Don’t She Look Good • Feel You Around Me •Wooly Bully • RC Cola & A Moon Pie • Music Goes Round & Round •The Dummy Song • I Want You Bad • Stop In The Name of Love • You Are My Destiny • Little Drummer Boy • Me And The Boys • Shake, Rattle & Roll • Captain Lou • Daddy O • Ridin’ In My Car • Things We Like To Do

Comments: Why aren’t these guys in the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame? After all, they kicked out their first sides in 1969, beating the Hall’s 25-year qualifying mark by a good half-decade. They’ve traveled more miles across the United States than a truck driver’s rubber pillow, and they’ve probably played as many shows as any rock band, anywhere. A slew of records, a cult following, a couple of minor hits – isn’t this what rock music is all about? Screw the Bee Gees, I’ve seen the true face of rock ‘n’ roll and it looks a lot like NRBQ.

My ranting aside, the New Rhythm and Blues Quintet has been a part of the American landscape for so long that it’s easy to take them for granted. A talented touring band with a bag of tricks that ranges from roots-rock to blues, jazz, pop, and beyond, NRBQ is the definition of a cult band. All of which makes it quite surprising that the band doesn’t have a larger presence in the shadowy world of tape trading and bootleggers. Although there are a few NRBQ live shows to be found on tape, Wally, Stu, Lou & the Q! is the first that I’ve found on CD. It’s pretty representative of the band and their capabilities, mixing musical genres like nobody’s business.

The disc includes a few minor NRBQ hits such as “RC Cola & A Moon Pie,” the wonderful “I Want You Bad,” the raucous “Me and The Boys,” and one of the best summer romance songs, “Ridin’ In My Car.” Hanging out with the infamous “Captain” Lou Albano a good half-decade before Cyndi Lauper (he even introduced the band this night), the ‘Q’ immortalized the wrestling legend with their rollicking “Captain Lou.” The entire performance here is assisted by the Whole Wheat Horns, who punctuate each song with an indelible brassy signature.

A time-tested NRBQ crowd-pleaser that is captured here is the tradition of “The Box” in which the band takes audience requests, playing whatever they’re asked to. The results can be quite terrifying, as when the band launches into a dreadful rendition of “Little Drummer Boy” or “Stop In The Name of Love” complete with falsetto vocals. Claiming that they “know every song ever written,” it’s a testimony of the Q’s talents that they can pretty much pull off a performance of anything that the audience asks, some covers coming off better than others.

If Terry Adams, Joey Spampinato, Tom Ardolino, and Al Anderson (most recently Johnny Spampinato) never make it into the hallowed halls of Cleveland’s “mistake on the lake,” they can take solace in the fact that they’ve entertained audiences with style and sincerity for over thirty years. Wally, Stu, Lou & the Q! is a fine documentation of just one of over a thousand nights that NRBQ has rocked the house in some cloudy bar, and a welcome addition to any music lover’s library. (Tendolar Records #TDR-138, 71:40 min)

Originally published by Live! Music Review, 2000

CD Review: Jeff Healey's Heal My Soul (2016)

Canadian blues-rock guitarist Jeff Healey’s death in March 2008 – just a couple weeks before the release of his excellent Mess of Blues album – launched a slow-burning reappraisal of the musician’s career. There have been a slew of posthumous releases since Healey’s tragic death at the tender age of 41 years, most of them live recordings or patchwork quilts of live and studio material. Some albums have been authorized by Healey’s estate (i.e. his wife Cristie), but others have not. Heal My Soul is an estate-authorized collection personally curated by producer Roger Costa, in whose capable hands the guitarist’s legacy has been placed.

The back story goes like this – during the last few years of the Jeff Healey Band in the late 1990s, the guitarist wrote and recorded up a storm, creating and archiving better than three dozen songs in a blues-rock vein before dropping out of the major label rat-race to pursue his other passion, old-school jazz music. Although thirteen songs from this tsunami of creativity were releases in 2000 as Get Me Some, the rest of the treasure has sat, untouched, in the archive for almost two decades. Costa culled a dozen of Healey’s best performances, restoring and remixing the original master tapes into Heal My Soul. In doing so, Costa removed any period-specific sounds to better emphasize Healey’s enormous talents, the results sometimes shocking but never unpleasing...

Jeff Healey’s Heal My Soul

Although Healey’s softer side may be represented further down the album, Heal My Soul kicks off with the explosive “Daze of the Night,” a blues-metal styled track written with Marti Frederiksen and featuring clamorous rhythms, roaring vocals, and molten licks that would sound perfectly at home on any Clutch LP. Healey fronts a traditional power trio here comprised of his former JHB compatriot Joe Rockman (bass) and drummer Dean Glover, which are featured on most of these songs. Healey’s vox rage surprisingly across the track, his high-flying solos soaring above the same ballpark as, say, Randy Rhodes or Jake E. Lee (both former Ozzy fretburners, BTW). It’s a mighty strong performance, and one that will have you looking at Mr. Healey in an entirely different light.

Costa does a masterful job of arranging the sequencing here to keep things interesting, and the party rolls on with “Moodswing,” written by the Toronto-based songwriting collective known as The Phantoms. The song is a rockin’ bit o’ blues-tinged metal-flake that takes the guitarist out of his comfort zone but proves that Healey could shred the steel strings with the best of them. Rather than the blizzard of notes that boxed a listener’s ears on “Daze of the Night,” Healey’s reading of “Moodswing” proffers a darker ambiance, his screeching solos showing a hint of psychedelic madness that is matched by noisy rhythms and, well…‘moody’ vocals that lean in a blues direction, if you know what I mean...

I Misunderstood

By contrast, “Baby Blue” is the sort of acoustic ballad that helped win Healey a mainstream audience, and he delivers a beautiful performance here, his elegant but subdued fretwork dazzling alongside his rich, multi-tracked vocals and harmonies. Healey does a magnificent job interpreting Richard Thompson’s somber “I Misunderstood,” his vocals dropping into a lower register to mimic the British guitarist’s heartbreaking lyrical voice. Unlike Thompson’s original take, though, which appeared on 1991’s Rumor and Sigh album, Healey channels his own personal emotions through his fingers, bringing an eerie vibe to the guitar lines and making the song his own even while paying tribute to its writer.

“Please,” co-written with fellow six-string maniac Stevie Salas, is another red-hot wildfire, Healey delivering the vocals with a sense of urgency missing among the previous songs. His bluesy, hard-rocking performance shows that he missed his calling – although we blues fans have long respected Healey’s six-string talents, he could have jumped into the hard rock/metal fray and become a true “Guitar God,” putting suckers like Joe Satriani and Steve Vai to shame with the soulfulness inherent in his playing. That said, “Please” is a helluva song, a wall-to-wall sonic assault that will leave you gasping for air and hungry for more.

All The Saints

Firmly back on familiar ground, “Temptation” is the sort of Delta-bred blues jam that Healey has always excelled at; the performance here is pumped up on steroids, with jagged guitar licks reverberating off the kudzu vine while crashing drumbeats capture the rhythms of the swamp these deep blues were born in. Again, this is Jeff Healey as you’ve seldom heard him before, his stunning guitarplay a revelation, slyly mixing hard-times blues with sharp-edged hard rock to create a truly dangerous sound. Although there’s still a familiar six-string Sturm und Drang running as an undercurrent beneath the poppier “Kiss The Ground You Walk On,” the song’s vocal harmonies and plaintive vocals could have earned Healey a 1990s-era radio hit if it had been released.  

With sparse instrumentation and Healey’s filigree guitar, “All The Saints” is a hauntingly beautiful performance that places the spotlight on the guitarist’s expressive vocals, which are often overshadowed by his instrumental prowess. The guitar strum is elevated by Healey’s imaginative playing, his emotional vox offering a window to the singer’s soul. Rhythm guitarist Phillip Sayce joins in on “Put The Shoe On The Other Foot,” a funky, strutting bit of R&B swagger that evinces no little energy but lots of instrumental chops. Heal My Soul closes out with the surprising “It’s The Last Time,” a twang-tinged slice of pop-country that dresses up the blues in Nashville finery to fine effect. Healey’s fluid guitar lines bridge the gap between Hank Williams and Robert Johnson, channeling the sad-eyed ghosts of love-gone-wrong in what should have been another massive radio hit for the star-crossed artist.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Because Jeff Healey dabbled in so many musical idioms – pop, rock, blues, old timey jazz – his handful of recordings tend to run the gamut of style and expression. Heal My Soul provides a little of something for almost every Healey fan, no matter what genre and era of the guitarist’s work you may adore. The album offers up a few pleasant surprises and a lot that’s comfortably familiar, with Healey’s charismatic presence, wonderful guitar tone, and timeless talent dominating the grooves. Most of all, the album captures Healey playing as he wanted to play, without label or management interference, the guitarist clearly reveling in the sheer joy of the songs.

If Heal My Soul ends up being the last of Healey’s posthumous releases, he’ll have gone out on a high note; if not, it’s certainly one hell of a collection that displays the man’s enormous – and often overlooked talents – in the very best light. There’s literally nothing I don’t like here, and that’s the highest praise I can give. Grade: A+ (Provogue Records, released March 25, 2016)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Jeff Healey's Heal My Soul

Ritchie Blackmore & Rainbow Boston 1981 live set

Here’s a gem you may have overlooked in your misguided haste to grab a copy of the new Punky Meadows CD! Purple Pyramid Records, a Cleopatra Records imprint, released Boston 1981 – a scorching live set by Ritchie Blackmore and Rainbow – on May 13th, 2016 on CD and vinyl. Touring in support of the then brand-new Difficult To Cure album, which introduced new Rainbow vocalist Joe Lynn Turner, the band performed at the Orpheum Theatre in Boston in July 1981. Although the show has been frequently bootlegged, and has been swapped between fans online for years, this is the performance’s first legitimate album release.

Boston 1981 is available as a CD packaged in a mini-LP wallet, or as a gatefold double-album set on colored vinyl (your choice of red, blue, or green) with a stitched-in 20-page booklet. The set list for the show is truly electrifying, offering up both classic Rainbow tunes like “Man On The Silver Mountain” and “Love Live Rock n’ Roll” as well as new material like the Beethoven-derived “Difficult To Cure,” a cover of songwriter Russ Ballard’s “I Surrender,” and the Blackmore/Roger Glover original “Spotlight Kid.” In a nod towards his legendary former band (with whom he’d reunite in 1984), Blackmore provides a lively performance of Deep Purple’s “Smoke On The Water.”

Yes, hardcore Rainbow fans tend to sneer at the band’s 1980s-era releases, Blackmore trying to make bank with a more radio-friendly sound similar to Foreigner, who were burning up the charts at the time. And yes, nobody (not even Graham Bonnet) could fill Ronnie James Dio’s enormous shoes, but in ’81 RJD was slumming with Sabbath, so Joe Lynn was recruited halfway through Difficult To Cure to pick up the microphone chores. Still, Rainbow was a pretty raucous outfit throughout the ‘80s, and Boston 1981 captures them on a good night, kicking out the jams with the set list shown below. Ignore at your own risk…

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Rainbow's Boston 1981

Rainbow's Boston 1981 track list:
1. Spotlight Kid
2. Love's No Friend
3. I Surrender
4. Man On The Silver Mountain
5. Catch The Rainbow
6. Can't Happen Here
7. Lost In Hollywood
8. Difficult To Cure
9. Long Live Rock N' Roll
10. Smoke On The Water

The Blues reviews Rollin' 'n' Tumblin'

Our friends across the pond at The Blues magazine reviewed the Reverend's new book Rollin' 'n' Tumblin' in their April issue. Writer Henry Yates (full disclosure - I write album reviews for the publication and Henry is my editor) says that the book is a "reminder of the witty, readable, knowledgeable style that has made him a star in these pages." Check out the review, embedded as a JPG below (just click to make larger) and then run down to your local Barnes & Noble store to pick up a copy of The Blues...

"Most importantly, he has great taste, putting 

Rollin' 'n' Tumblin' at the top of the shopping list the next time you head out to the record store."

CD Review: Otis Taylor's Double V (2004)

Contemporary blues artists mostly tend to fall into one of two categories. There are those who are strictly bound by tradition, following either the Delta or Chicago school of thought, with their individual and inevitable limitations. Then there are those who genuflect at the altar of Stevie Ray, guitar heroes and wannabes channeling the spirit of Jimi through endless blooze-rock exercises. Otis Taylor, on the other hand, falls into neither category. A unique and exciting artist following his own muse, Taylor infuses his music with life and energy, odd instrumentation and rhythmic meter supporting his intelligent lyrics.

Otis Taylor sounds like no bluesman you’ve ever heard before. Perhaps it’s because Taylor spent almost 20 years outside of the music industry, or maybe it’s because his musical education includes liberal doses of both rock 'n' roll (he played with Tommy Bolin back in the day) and folk (courtesy of the Denver Folklore Center). His songs blend elements of blues, traditional folk, and rock music with erudite lyrics that often offer edgy social commentary or historical morality tales recreated for a modern audience. The resulting mix is invigorating, Taylor’s imaginative and sometimes-reckless instrumentation satisfying your soul while his brilliant, thought-provoking wordplay massages your brain.

Otis Taylor's Double V

Double V is Taylor’s second album for indie blues/jazz specialists Telarc and his sixth effort since ending his self-imposed exile from music. The album is not entirely unlike previous award-winning efforts such as White African or Respect The Dead, although it is a bit more ambitious. With Double V, Taylor forsakes the potent band that he’s used since returning to music. Using sparse instrumentation on Double V to highlight each song’s vocals and lyrics, Taylor’s mix of guitar, banjo, and mandolin is supported by his daughter Cassie’s steady bass rhythm and augmented by the odd horn or cello. Each song on Double V is thus provided its own canvas, at times stark and at other times quite beautiful.

It’s his songwriting on which Taylor has built his well-deserved reputation, and Double V meet the high standard set by his earlier work. “Please Come Home Before It Rains” offers an upbeat soundtrack as a sailor reads a letter from his wife and reminisces of the things that he’s seen and the family that he misses. “Mama’s Selling Heroin” is semi-autobiographical, dark instrumentation and haunting vocals underlining the story of Taylor’s mother, serving as an allegory for the pain and heartbreak that drugs have brought to the African-American community.

The ravages of poverty are explored on “Plastic Spoon,” an elderly couple forced to choose between medicine and food, opting for cheap dog chow to save money. Taylor tackles domestic abuse with “505 Train,” homelessness with “Reindeer Meat” and the slavery-like imprisonment of African-Americans under the U.S. justice system with “Sounds Of Attica.”

The Reverend's Bottom Line

Lest you think that Double V is overly dour and depressing, Taylor ends the album with the uplifting “Buy Myself Some Freedom.” Sung in an ethereal whisper by daughter Cassie, this tale of a young girl searching for a better life is filled with hope and dignity. It’s a fitting end to a solid collection of songs that present reality as a minefield of tragedy, emotion and triumph over adversity.

Even as it veers from tradition, Double V further cements Taylor’s reputation as a great, groundbreaking bluesman of keen insight and considerable vision. By redefining the sound of the blues, Taylor is also extending the tradition beyond its Delta roots and into the 21st century. (Alt.Culture.Guide, 2004)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Otis Taylor's Double V

CD Review: Steve Miller Band's New York 1976: The Classic Broadcast (2016)

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductee Steve Miller – an honor long overdue in my estimation – has been part of the American musical firmament since the late 1960s. Steve Miller Band albums like 1968’s Sailor, 1969’s Brave New World, and 1970’s Number 5 resonated with young FM radio listeners on the strength of Miller’s stellar fretwork and the band’s psychedelic-tinged blues-rock sound. Although Miller stumbled, commercially and critically, with his early ‘70s releases, he found a new world to conquer beginning with his 1973 album The Joker.

With The Joker, Miller began evolving beyond his early psych-blues sound towards a more radio-friendly, rock-oriented direction with that incorporated pop melodies hung on brilliant, guitar-centric instrumentation. Gone were the extended blues jams that bogged down his 1971 album Rock Love; in their place were lively tunes like a jaunty cover of “Your Cash Ain’t Nothin’ But Trash” and the chart-topping title track, which pushed The Joker album to number two on its way to Platinum™ sales status. Miller continued to pursue a similar formula for much of the next decade, albums like 1976’s Fly Like An Eagle, 1977’s Book of Dreams, and 1981’s Abracadabra yielding classic rock hits like “Take The Money And Run” and “Jet Airliner” that still receive steady airplay to this day.

Steve Miller Band’s New York 1976: The Classic Broadcast

Thanks to the eccentricities of international copyright law, an abundance of “live” classic rock albums are currently being released on CD; many of which use in-studio performances or FM radio broadcasts as their source material. Sonic Boom Records has built a cottage industry on these “copyright protection gap” releases, the Steve Miller Band’s New York 1976: The Classic Broadcast one of the best titles in the label’s catalog.

Touring in support of his Fly Like An Eagle album, Miller and band – which at the time included second guitarist David Denny, bassist Lonnie Turner, keyboardist Byron Allred, drummer Gary Mallaber, and harp player Norton Buffalo – landed in the Beacon Theatre in May 1976 to perform for a live radio broadcast as part of the syndicated King Biscuit Flower Hour. Although this performance was previously released on CD as the second disc of the King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents The Steve Miller Band set, it’s been out of print for over a decade and is well worth reissuing.

The Joker

If you’re a Steve Miller fan who missed this performance on CD the first time around, you need to cough up the shekels for this reissue ‘cause you missed a hell of a show. Miller opens with an unusual reading of “The Joker,” the band laying down a reggae-styled rhythm behind Miller’s jazzy, laid-back vocals. It’s an odd interpretation of the song (or at least one that I hadn’t heard before), but its languid pace and infectious rhythms are somewhat fitting to the material. Miller pays tribute to his friend and former bandmate Boz Scaggs (who left to launch his own successful solo career) with a sultry cover of Scaggs’ “Baby’s Callin’ Me Home,” from the Children of the Future album.

The song is definitely of its time, trippy with elements of jazz and blues, with Allred’s keyboards and Buffalo’s nuanced harp providing a nice counterpoint to Miller’s subdued guitarplay. “Mercury Blues,” from Fly Like An Eagle, is a cover of the 1948 K.C. Douglas song that offers plenty of Buffalo’s raging harp, Miller’s low-slung guitar licks, and as funky a groove as you would have found in ‘76. Another track from that album, “Wild Mountain Honey,” offers a more whimsical performance, the fan favorite riding on gossamer wings of shimmering guitar notes, mesmerizing keyboard runs, and exotic percussion, with a little raga-inspired fretwork creeping in at the edges near the end.

Fly Like An Eagle

Miller, of course, performs “Fly Like An Eagle,” the hit introduced with its familiar guitar riff before swimming upstream with a dreamy, acid-drenched performance not unlike “Wild Mountain Honey,” but with more vigor and a radio-friendly energy. Miller’s elegant guitar playing is all over the map, incorporating blues and rock with a jazzy undercurrent to create a trippy miasma behind the song’s bare-bones melody. By contrast, the twangy, up-tempo “Going To The Country” (from Number 5) is pure, Grade A hippie-daze country funk, Miller's “back to the land” lyrics supported by an energetic arrangement, Allred’s joyful piano-pounding, and the guitarist’s lively chicken-pickin’.

The guitarist doesn’t ignore his roots, knocking out a soulful cover of Delta blues legend Robert Johnson’s “Kitchen Blues” that swings with plenty o’ greasy licks, jolts of harp, and shuffling percussion with a hint of boogie-blues rhythm. A powerful performance of “The Window” showcases Miller’s enormous, vastly underrated six-string skills, as well as his strong, soulful vocal abilities, his wavering voice imbuing the song with no little emotion. The song’s haunting instrumentation – led by Miller’s imaginative fretwork – includes Buffalo’s subtle harpwork and some nice drumming by Mallaber. “Song For Our Ancestors” is a five-minute instrumental jam that puts the spotlight on Miller’s talented band, a free-flowing performance that works as both a song as well as a showcase for the individual musicians.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Classic rock fans that only remember Steve Miller from his 1970s and ‘80s-era radio hits have heard but half the story. Miller had a significant career underway (seven albums, four of which charted in the Top 40) before The Joker kicked off a decade of chart hits and Gold and Platinum™ level sales. Miller’s performances during the mid-to-late ‘70s often mixed his earlier, bluesier material with the better-known hits, providing a ‘win-win’ situation for old and new fans alike.

New York 1976 is representative of Miller’s live shows at the time, he and the band seemingly having a great time knocking out a well-balanced set list with broad appeal. The audio quality on CD is pretty good, considering the era, as it was originally recorded and mixed for FM broadcast. Overall, Miller’s New York 1976 is a gem of a recording, a snapshot of the artist in his prime, and a liver-quivering set of songs guaranteed to please even the most diehard Miller fan. (Sonic Boom Records, released January 15, 2016)

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Steve Miller Band's New York 1976

Blues Music Award Winners 2016

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

Stony Plain Records celebrates 40 years!

Our friends at Alligator Records aren’t the only label to achieve a significant milestone in 2016 – Canada’s Stony Plain Records, as fine a roots ‘n’ blues imprint as you’ll find on this spinning green globe – is celebrating four decades in the biz this year with the release of a special three-CD set. On June 3rd, 2016 the label will release 40 Years of Stony Plain, the ambitious compilation offering 35 deep cuts from Stony Plain’s storied history of album releases on two CDs as well as a third, twelve-track disc of rarities and previously-unreleased tracks from the archives.

The three CDs of 40 Years of Stony Plain are broken down by theme, the first disc offering material from singer/songwriters like Colin Linden, Ian Tyson, Doug Sahm, Emmylou Harris, Corb Lund, Steve Earle, and Rodney Crowell, among others. Disc two is comprised of “blues, R&B, gospel, swing, jazz, and even more” with songs by talents like Jeff Healey, Jim Byrnes, Amos Garrett, Ruthie Foster, Joe Louis Walker, Rory Block, and Long John Baldry, to name but a few. The third rarities disc is really juicy, offering rare and/or unreleased performances by the great Duke Robillard, Maria Muldaur, Eric Bibb, and David Wilcox. The set also includes a rare track by legendary blues harpist Walter ‘Shakey’ Horton, performing with Hot Cottage on “Shakey’s Edmonton Blues.”  

“Celebrating Stony Plain’s 40th Anniversary by putting together this specially priced three CD set has been a joy,” label founder and president Holger Petersen states in a press release for 40 Years of Stony Plain. “Not only going back over those years and selecting some of our favorite tracks, but to also dig deeper to find rare and previously unreleased material by old friends Eric Bibb, Duke Robillard, Maria Muldaur, David Wilcox, the late Bob Carpenter, Walter ‘Shakey’ Horton and the legendary Sam Chatmon and His Barbeque Boys from 1979. With extensive notes and packaging, this stunning collection of 47 songs will be a joyful surprise for true music fans everywhere.”

Formed by Petersen in 1976, Stony Plain Records has released over 400 albums to date, earning the Canadian label a handful of Grammy® nominations and a slew of accolades in their home country, including eleven Juno Awards and 20 Maple Blues Awards. The Blues Foundation in Memphis, Tennessee named Stony Plain as the 2014 label of the year, and Holger Petersen as the broadcaster of the year in 2008 for his work over 30 years as the host of the Saturday Night Blues program, broadcast weekly across Canada by CBS Radio. Petersen has also served as the host of the weekly Natch’l Blues program on CKUA radio for 47 years. A true inspiration to roots ‘n’ blues fans worldwide, Holger Petersen’s love of music has benefited us all. Congrats to Stony Plain Records for 40 great years!

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: 40 Years of Stony Plain

Yep Roc remembers pub rock with Eggs Over Easy comp

It’s one of the most overlooked eras of British rock ‘n’ roll. Folded neatly in between the dying embers of the British Invasion and the churlish days of punk rock fury, England’s early-to-mid 1970s pub rock scene nevertheless yielded a wealth of talent in artists like Nick Lowe, Elvis Costello, Ian Dury, and Graham Parker. Still, the short-lived musical phenomena has remained overshadowed by the louder, safety-pinned younger siblings they helped influence.

For anglophiles looking to expand their knowledge of pub rock, I’d heartily recommend John Blaney’s book A Howlin’ Wind, an excellent oral history of the scene that outlines the evolution of pub rock into punk and new wave. In Blaney’s tome you’ll see bands mentioned like Brinsley Schwarz (featuring Lowe and Ian Gomm, as well as talented guitarist Schwarz), Ducks Deluxe (which gave Martin Belmont to the Rumour and Sean Tyla to the Tyla Gang), the 101ers (with future Clash frontman Joe Strummer), and Dr. Feelgood (with the eternal Wilko Johnson), among many others.

While it’s fairly easy to scare up copies of albums by most, if not all of the aforementioned bands, one notable pub rock outfit remains elusive for the avid collector – Eggs Over Easy. Oddly, they were an American band that relocated to the U.K. to pursue fame and fortune. Eggs Over Easy on vinyl or CD is harder to scratch up than hen’s teeth…and you’ll pay through the teeth to buy a copy once you do find something. Yep Roc Records has us pub rock fans covered, though – on June 24th, 2016 the label will release Good ‘n’ Cheap: The Eggs Over Easy Story, a two-disc compilation CD that will also be released as a three-album vinyl set.

Yep Roc’s Good ‘n’ Cheap collects the entire original Eggs Over Easy back catalog, including the Link Wray-produced 1972 debut album on A&M Records from which this set takes its name, as well as the rare 1980 album Fear of Frying, which was originally released on Lee Michaels’ indie Squish Records label. Good ‘n’ Cheap also includes both sides of a lone single released by Buffalo Records, and a previously-unreleased 1971 session recorded at Olympic Studios in London and produced by Animals’ bassist and Jimi Hendrix manager/producer Chas Chandler. The double-CD set includes a 24-page booklet (an eight-page insert in the 3xLP) with rare photos, show flyers, press clippings, and the definitive story of the band written by notable critic Gene Sculatti. 

Eggs Over Easy’s roots as a band date back to late 1960s Berkeley where singer, songwriter, and guitarist Jack O’Hara became friends with singer and keyboardist Austin de Lone. The two formed a duo and, moving to New York (where both were actually from), they became a trio with the addition of keyboardist and guitarist Brien Hopkins. They played clubs in Greenwich Village and around NYC, developing a loyal group of fans that eventually got them noticed by Chandler. The Animals’ bassist brought them to London in 1970 to record at the Olympic with promises of a record deal.

When the whole thing fell apart, rather than going home, Eggs Over Easy convinced the manager of the Kentish Town jazz club the Tally Ho to let them play on the pub’s slowest night. The band’s Monday night gigs soon began drawing big crowds, inspiring fans like Graham Parker and Nick Lowe and pioneering the pub rock scene. Of Eggs Over Easy’s legendary performances, Nick Lowe remembers in a press release for the album, “there were hippies there, skinheads, Rastafarians. I remember, most especially, a Sikh bus driver with a turban on and his bus driver uniform dancing away. It was an unbelievable scene with people hanging off the ceilings. There was this fantastic feeling that you were in on something extraordinary.”

Yep Roc’s Good ‘n’ Cheap collection will help introduce Eggs Over Easy to American rock ‘n’ roll fans, as well as cement the band’s status as pub rock trailblazers. Now if we could just get a Bees Make Honey compilation CD, life would be all peaches ‘n’ cream!

Buy the CD from Amazon.com: Eggs Over Easy's Good 'n' Easy