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TEDESCHIRUCKS BAND

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IN PERFECT HARMONY

Download The 2016 International Blues Challenge Finalist CD Sampler - Page 64

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SALES & MARKETING USA: IRA LESLIE | [email protected] USA: JILL KETTLES | [email protected]

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July 16 ROCKLAND, ME North Atlantic Blues FestivalAug 13 WAUKESHAU, WI Blues FestivalAug 14 DULUTH, MN Bayfront Blues FestivalAug 17 KANSAS CITY, MO KnuckleheadsAug 18 DENVER, CO Soiled DoveAug 20 COLORADO SPRINGS, CO StargazersMORE DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED SOON!WWW.BLUESCAR AVAN.COM

BLUE SISTERS

NO B! RUF 1229JANE LEE HOOKER

THE ROYAL GOSPEL RUF 1232ROYAL SOUTHERN BROTHERHOOD

BIG DOG RUF 1233ALBERT CASTIGLIA

DEMOLITION DAY RUF 1230HONEY ISLAND SWAMP BAND

CONTENTSJULY 2016

FEATURES 6 TEDESCHI TRUCKS BAND Perfect Harmony by Brian M. Owens 12 ROYAL SOUTHERN BROTHERHOOD Passing Of The Torch by Art Tipaldi

16 THE NIGHTHAWKS44 Years On The Roadby Don Wilcock 18 NICK MOSS BANDBrothers In Bluesby Matt MacDonald 20 MORELAND & ARBUCKLEFire & Energyby M. E. Travaglini 22 DIONBronx Soulby Don Wilcock 24 CHRIS JAMES & PATRICK RYNN Worthy Contributorsby Michael Kinsman

DEPARTMENTS5 RIFF & GROOVES From The Editor-In-Chief by Art Tipaldi

26 DELTA JOURNEYS14 Years Of Cat Headby Roger Stolle

28 AROUND THE WORLDThe Last Waltzesby Bob Margolin

30 BLUES MUSIC STORECD, DVD, and Box Setsby Blues Music Magazine

38 REVIEWSCDs and DVD Reviews

62 BLUES ALIVEThe 37th Blues Music Awards Photo Gallery

61 BLUES NEWSStony Plain, Alligator, & Bear

64 MUSIC SAMPLER TEN16 Songs To Downloadby Various Artist

COVER PHOTOGRAPHY © COURTESY OF TEDESCHI TRUCKS BANDART & POSTERS © JEFF WOODS - ZEN DRAGON GALLERY

CONTENTSJULY 2016

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PUBLISHER: MojoWax Media Inc. PRESIDENT & DESIGN: Jack Sullivan

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Art Tipaldi LEGAL: Eric Hatten

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS Michael Cote / Thomas J. Cullen III /Bill Dahl

Hal Horowitz / Tom Hyslop /Larry Nager Brian M. Owens / Bill Wasserzieher / Don Wilcock

~~~ COLUMNISTS

Bob Margolin / Roger Stolle ~~~

CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Vincent Abbate / Grant Britt / Michael Cala

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Tim Parsons / Phil Reser / Nick DeRiso Pete Sardon / Richard Skelly/Eric Thom

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~~~CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS

Scott Allen / Robert Barclay / Les Gruseck Aigars Lapsa / Pertti Nurmi / Rick Lewis

Joseph A. Rosen / Dusty Scott / Marilyn Stringer Jen Taylor / Susan Thorsen /Mike Shea /

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© 2016 MojoWax Media, Inc.Blues Music Magazine is published quarterly by MojoWax Media,Inc., 1806 7th Avenue West, Bradenton, FL 34205. Periodicals postage is paid at Bradenton,FL and at additional mailing offices. Subscription rates (for 4 issues) are: U.S.— $20/year, Canada &Mexico — $30/year, Overseas — $30/year. U.S.funds only, cash, check on a U.S.bank, or IMO, Visa/MC/AmEx/Discover accepted. Allow six to eight weeks for change of address and new subscriptions to begin. If you need help concerning your subscription, e-mail [email protected] or write to the business address Blues Music Magazine, P.O.Box 1446, Bradenton, FL 34206. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Blues Music Magazine, P.O.Box 1446, Bradenton, FL 34206. Toll Free: 1-855-USBLUES

Ever hear a musician tell about the effect we the crowd have on the performance? Usually it centers on a transfer of energy from musician to crowd and back to musician. And when it’s intense

and palpable, it can carry the musician into never explored musical landscapes. It’s the same reason why musicians love all those “live-in-the-studio” recordings. Energy in the moment. In those very intimate periods of time, the musician never holds up a cell phone to capture the moment. Because he or she knows that’s a feeling that cannot be digitalized. Whether you’re at a sporting event, a music festival, a tiny blues bar, or any family gathering, everyone’s holding up a cell phone to YouTube the moments. Watch the election primaries and all you see in front of each candidate is a flock of hand held, cell cameras. Sometimes there are even artsy thinkers using their cameras to take videos of cameras taking video. It’s all meant to upload and share with the world in the hopes of “going viral” or to relive the occasion at some later date. Problem is, the moment is only the moment. The explosive excitement of a touchdown catch, game-winning shot, walk-off win, last second goal, or hole-in-one cannot be re-felt on a tiny computer screen in the comfort of your home. And sharing it with friends only loses the overwhelming communal response to that split second. And it especially hurts when you have to explain what the feeling was like being there. Same is true for those explosive flashes at a blues show. Nothing compares to the shared experience of the moment when Shemekia Copeland walks a club or festival sharing “Ghetto Child” with no microphone. Remember seeing Rod Piazza walk a bar blasting his harp to “Southern Lady.” Or feeling the roar of an audience joining Ruthie Foster on “Phenomenal Woman.” Or the shared tears when Otis Clay sang “When Hearts Grow Cold.” Did you see Beth Hart at her 2014 Blues Music Award performance? Those were magical moments of shared ecstasy that were captured on the Blues Foundation’s DVD of the event. Great watching, but it can never replace the collective joy that was heavenly during those 10 exquisite minutes. There are hundreds and hundreds of those shared incidents we’ve all been fortunate to behold. Like you, the reader, I have screamed in joy with 50 to 10,000 fans at a note or lick in a blues club or enormous festival. Through the years, I have wiped many tears as singers have laid bare the deepest reaches of their souls and connected with audiences. I have seen last second, game winners and cheered and cried as handicapped marathoners crossed the finish line in Boston. None of my thousands of photos bring back the electricity of the original moment. Those photos do, however, come with what the poet William Wordsworth referred to in his “Tintern Abbey” poem: “When the wild ecstasies shall be matured into a sober pleasure.” A place where the memory offers “healing thoughts” and soothes in its own way. That’s why you and I flip through photos from blues shows decades ago. The excitement might have diminished, but the comfort of the event still remains. Or why a song from our youth brings back a flood of sustaining memories. I’m not suggesting that we put video-type cameras away; I’m simply suggesting that in this social media driven world, we find a way to live in that present, split second moment more than look to live our days digitally. To participate in the shared experience of the moment is a spontaneous joy that can never be replicated. “Let the music keep our spirits high.” Art Tipaldi Editor-In-Chief

Tedeschi

Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi had burgeoning music careers before they met. These days, as

husband and wife and the principals behind The Tedeschi Trucks Band, they’re charting new musical territory that melds blues, R&B, soul, and funk while creating an alluring blues-based pheromone that’s hard to resist. Their latest album, Let Me Get By, finds the couple surrounded by ten of the most powerhouse young musicians of our time. Collectively, this band displays not only their songwriting savvy in the studio, but their preeminent musical prowess, night after night, stage after stage. I caught up with Derek and Susan just before the band was leaving on a tour of Europe, and they talked about their new album, Let Me Get By, and why this exciting collection of players is firing on all cylinders.

BLUES MUSIC MAGAZINE: How is the tour going?

Derek Trucks: Good man. We just did a handful of runs where we were doing multiple nights in theaters. We did the Chicago Theater for a few nights and the Keswick outside of Philly, the Warner in D.C., and then three nights at the Ryman. It was fun. We hadn’t done that many multi-night stands in different places before.

BMM: Were you playing strictly material from the new album, Let Me Get By or a mix?

Derek Trucks: A mix of everything. We played almost every song on the record over the course of the three nights. We

try to vary up the set list from night to night especially if you’re in the same place. We see a lot of familiar faces from one night to the next. We try to make every show, hopefully, quite a bit different.

There’s a lot to choose from. There’s all the records we’ve done with this band, then we dig a little in to Susan’s back catalog, and the same with my group. We did that Mad Dogs & Englishmen thing early in the year, so there was a bunch of tunes from that show that are fun to play.

BMM: What was the initial reason for starting the Tedeschi Trucks Band?

Derek Trucks: I guess from the time I met Susan, I had it in the back of my mind that it would be great to form a band with her. Then it was kind of timing too.

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When we were first together, we were so deep in to our own things at that point, and we were learning how to be married and have kids. We weren’t even thinking about adding to that (laughs). A good eight or ten years into our relationship, I was at the point where I was trying to step away from the Allman Brothers and trying to get down to just one thing. I was of the mindset that when I did that, I was going to start something fresh – even aside from my band. I told Susan that’s what I was thinking of doing, and she was in to it. I was going to make a move one way or the other and do something else.

BMM: So it didn’t have anything to do with staying busy in between Allman Brothers’ tours?

time in the year. Between my solo group, the Clapton thing (at the time), the Allman Brothers, two kids, and a marriage, it was a lot of stuff to juggle. I really wanted to get down to just one or two groups full time.

BMM: At that point, how long had you been in the Allman Brothers Band?

Derek Trucks: I think at that point it was ten years. I ended up staying another five, so it ended up being fifteen total. I felt like when we did the 40th Anniversary, musically there was some amazing stuff, but a lot of that was the guests. There were some amazing shows at that Beacon Theater run. We had Eric Clapton, Levon Helm, and Taj Mahal come in. In a lot of ways, I felt like

Derek Trucks: Oh no. My solo band was on the road close to three hundred days before I joined the Allman Brothers, and when I was with the Allman Brothers we were filling every possible space. We’ve always just been kinda road dogs and that’s what you do.

BMM: Without getting in to the details of it, were there rumblings back then of The Allman Brothers disbanding?

Derek Trucks: I think it was really just me, and it wasn’t necessarily being all that unhappy in it. I’m just cut from that cloth that if you’re not moving forward and doing new things and writing new material and it’s not inspiring you, then you have to shake it up. I think it was that, plus for me, there was only so much

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we wouldn’t top that again. As I said earlier, I’m of that mindset where you want things to end great. I felt like this is a good time to step away. But I get it, for the other guys, I wouldn’t leave something that I started and went forever with. It’s a different mentality for the original members, but for me, I was fully aware that no matter how many shows I did or how many years I played with them, it’s not your baby. They were in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame before I ever stepped on stage with them (laughs). You don’t get that twisted in your head. You’re happy to be a part of it, and it’s an honor. In a lot of ways, I thought we brought it back to at least the level of musical respect it had at one point. That band went through a lot of changes and ups and downs. I think it ended on an extremely high note. That part you’re proud of, but it was always Duane’s band and then Dickie’s band and then something else.

BMM: You and Warren [Haynes] really buoyed the act and brought it back to life. I can see how that 40th Anniversary show would affect you that way.

Derek Trucks: Absolutely, and you know that deep down there’s a finite window when you can really kick the door down and get things done. At this point, I’ve been on the road for 25-26 years. You become a veteran at a young age doing it. I knew I wanted to start a new project with full energy, and you wonder how long you’re going to have the full energy to do everything it takes to do it. With Susan and with me, there’s name recognition, but starting a band from the ground up, you still have to make it happen. You want to make sure you hit that with a full tank of gas (laughs).

BMM: When you came out in 2011 with Revelator, you turned everything upside down with that album. That record was unbelievable.

Derek Trucks: Cool man. It felt really

another thing entirely. It found a home. The first time we played it with Kofi [Burbridge] and the rhythm section, it finished itself.

BMM: It was obvious that you and Susan had a clear idea for this group. How did you handpick the members for the band?

Derek Trucks: It was years of seeing these players perform. I remember seeing J.J. Johnson (drums) playing in a trio with Gary Clark, Jr. They were opening shows for my solo band seven or eight years ago. I remember thinking, “That drummer is bad-ass!” Doyle Bramhall had talked about J.J. too because he had played with him. Kebbi Williams (saxophone) is somebody that Susan and I had both been fans of in and around Atlanta. So yeah, certain people you play with you put in the back of your head and if the opportunity ever comes up, you think, I’d love to see what happens. When we first started, we played with a lot of different people. We definitely had a feel and a thing in mind, but you realize that you can’t force it. It doesn’t work if you’re just doing it on paper (laughs). You have to get people in a room together.

We did a lot of open rehearsals and just having people down at the studio. Just jam sessions where you’re writing and seeing where it goes. We played with a lot of different people and there were a lot of great things that happened, but when you get the right collection of people, it’s instant. The light bulb goes on.

BMM: You’ve managed to keep a big core lineup together since 2010. That’s no small feat. What’s your secret?

Derek Trucks: There’s been a little bit of change over, and that’s just the nature of any band. But yeah, it’s in a really strong place at the moment. We work hard and we gig a lot. The reason you do that is because that’s how you keep a band together. You’re not going to keep twelve people on stage on the road if you’re too

good making that record. There was a lot of excitement inside the band. It was a new group with a lot of great chemistry. The studio was just starting to hum and working with Jim Scott was great. There were a handful of songs on that record

that I think are really going to stand up. I think when you’re making a record, that’s the secret ingredient.

BMM: Were you writing with Susan leading up to Revelator? How did the songs come together for the record?

Derek Trucks: It was a mix of things. Some of them were the band in the studio coming up with things on the fly. There were a few that had been around for a little while, but never really found a home. “Midnight In Harlem” was a tune that Mike Mattison brought the sketches of to my solo band. We had tried it, and it just didn’t mesh yet. When we first got in the studio to write with this band, Mike and I sat down, and I had the guitar pattern that starts the tune. Immediately it became

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scattered and sporadic. Also, the music gets better the more you play. There is a tipping point there that if you’re grinding it too hard, you can lose a little steam, but you don’t learn to trust each other and the E.S.P. doesn’t come out if you don’t gig. It’s a working band that way. The musician’s there now, J.J. Johnson, Tyler Greenwell, Kofi Burbridge, and Tim Lefebvre, those four together, it’s special. Every night on stage, something happens where you have those moments where you say, “We’re lucky to be in a band with that (laughs).” It’s the same with the singers now. Mike [Mattison], Mark [Rivers], and Alecia [Chakour] made it go from two background singers to a small choir. It feels like this massive vocal section. The horn section is in a really great place now too. It’s just a different feel when you have the right personalities in place.

BMM: What was the sentiment going into the new album, Let Me Get By? It feels different than the other two records.

Derek Trucks: It was me stepping away from the Allman Brothers. It was our first time away from a major label. We were really in between labels when we made the record. It was just total freedom in the studio. It was the band getting together before a little tour trying to get some tunes together, and it immediately turned in to a songwriting session. The beauty of being out there, rehearsing in a studio is you can throw up a few mics and all of a sudden you’re making a record.

BMM: Really? It was like that?

Derek Trucks: Yeah. It was very relaxed that way when we started making it. There was no schedule. We just kinda eased in to it. We started listening back to things and then it dawned on us, “Oh, we’re making a record.” Everybody in the band got excited, and any time off that we had scheduled, people were looking to get back down here. We turned all that into band songwriting and recording. The big difference this time around was, we did it all in house.

Everything was written here in the studio with the band and recorded here. In the past, Susan and I worked with outside writers, which was great, but it was really something for the band to write the songs. There was a feeling through this whole session that it was a band record.

BMM: You produced Let Me Get By. Was it your first time producing?

Derek Trucks: With this band, it was the first time that it was just me. For the first two, I co-produced them with Jim Scott.

I definitely wanted to go into the first few records and have somebody else around so it didn’t feel like I was taking the same role as my solo band. Five years into the band, everybody has their roles, and it was time to do it that way. We know the studio now. We know what the band is capable of. I’ve been around Susan long enough to know when there’s more that you can get out of her vocally. Unless you’re around all the time, you’re just not going to fully know. So it was time to self-produce it. In a lot of ways, it was me and the band self-producing.

BMM: Did you play your Gibson SG for most of the songs?

Derek Trucks: Yeah, same guitar and setup generally.

BMM: I heard soul, R&B, funk, and New Orleans influences. You really mixed it up on this record. Did that just happen organically or did you have a plan in mind?

Derek Trucks: There was a sentiment that we were going to be more open

and experimental this time around. At no point were we thinking about how long a tune was or what format it would fit into. We were just going to let this record be what it was. Whatever direction it goes, we’re just going to record it. If anything, we were trying to represent what the group does live a little more honestly as far as all the different places that it goes. In the course of a two or two and a half-hour show, this band hits on a lot of different things. We wanted to represent that, but it really was the tunes. It was the songs that everyone wrote.

BMM: When you come in with a song idea, how does the process work for you to make the songs come to life?

Derek Trucks: All different ways. Really it comes down to me and Susan and Mike Mattison writing the lyrics. The three of us wrote the bulk of the lyrics on the record. We all contribute in different ways.

BMM: What was it like playing with Eric Clapton at his Crossroads Festival?

Derek Trucks: I was on the road with him for about a year before we did the first Crossroads with him. In some ways, the first Crossroads I did was the end of me touring with him. It was cool because it was a bit of a reunion. I was done touring with him and the Crossroads happened a month or two later. I think we’ve done two since, three total, and it’s always


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amazing the collection of people he has showing up and getting hang time with him. He’s a great guy.

BMM: Is that how you met Doyle [Bramhall] or did you know him before?

D e r e k Trucks: I’m pretty sure that’s how I met him. He had worked on one of S u s a n ’ s r e c o r d s b e f o r e . Eric was talking about bringing in a third guitar player, Doyle threw my name in to the hat, and Eric reached out. In a lot of ways, I owe that gig to Doyle. He’s the one that first turned Eric on to our stuff. The first time I really met and hung with Doyle was also the first time I hung with Eric, which was on the J.J. Cale sessions, The Road To Escondido. That was a pretty fateful recording session (laughs).

BMM: You got thrown right in to that one.

Derek Trucks: Yeah. Billy Preston was on that session too. It was over the top.

BMM: As an accomplished slide player, what was it like playing with the late Johnny Winter?

Derek Trucks: Johnny was great. I remember being eleven or twelve and playing a show in Gainesville, Florida, at the Florida Theater. We opened a show for Johnny, and I remember looking side stage and seeing Johnny there checking out the set. He was super sweet, and I got to hang with him afterwards. I had him sign my guitar. I didn’t really see him a lot after that. When we had a chance to see him again at Crossroads, it was awesome. To see him in front of a crowd like that and just throw down, he was on

BMM to Susan Tedeschi: You have come such a long way since playing local clubs in Massachusetts. Did you ever think you’d be where you are now?

Susan Tedeschi: I don’t know really. I don’t think I would be doing all the stuff

that I’ve done, that’s for sure. I thought I would be on the road, I just didn’t know in what capacity.

BMM: Early on, what was it that made you want to put the Te d e s c h i T r u c k s B a n d together?

S u s a n Tedeschi : For one, a great idea is to play with

the best people possible. I’ve always wanted to play with Derek. He’s one of the best guitar players out there. Music wise, we have a lot in common, and there’s a lot of little things he does that I like and that have opened my eyes to a whole other side of music – Indian classical, Pakistani Qawwali music, and world music – things like that. Honestly, I just wanted to be with him more and see him. We were like ships in the night all the time. His bus would go in one direction, and mine in the other. Having children and raising the kids, I felt like I was going one way with the kids, and he was somewhere else. So part of the plan was to do a band together so we could all see each other more.

BMM: Revelator had a very progressive feel to it where Let Me Get By is distinctly different. What was your sentiment going in to this album?

Susan Tedeschi: I think doing it all in house and not having a bunch of people telling us what to do. It was nice to see how a record came together organically with this group without really trying. We didn’t really try hard other than just

fire that day. It was awesome. When I first started playing, those early Johnny Winter records were in heavy rotation. It was a mix of getting to be on stage with one of your idols, but also seeing a guy who is maybe under-appreciated and getting to the end of his road, but really light it up. I was a student, but there was

also a lot of pride watching him whip ass (laughs). That was a highlight for sure.

BMM: When you were a kid, did you ever think you’d be where you are today musically? Playing with the Allmans, being married to Susan and playing around the world?

Derek Trucks: No. We talk about that a lot, me and Susan. You have to pinch yourself sometimes. My dad was a roofer, and my mom was working part time at an elementary school. Lights were getting cut on and off. It was an awesome upbringing (laughs). We would go out to blues clubs on weekends, and it was an amazing thing, but you never thought you’d be traveling the world playing music the way we are, like flying my dad over to the Royal Albert Hall for those Clapton shows. Some of the real legit hangs that we had with B.B. King, me and Susan and our kids, or with Les Paul, it’s just things you would never imagine. You’re never arrogant enough to think they would happen to you (laughs). It’s been a pretty insane run.


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trying to write songs, having a good time and also stretching out a bit more and showing what the band does live. I also really wanted Mike [Mattison] to be singing some lead because he used to be Derek’s main singer, and he also had his own band, Scrapomatic. He’s an amazing singer. He’s one of my favorite singers out there. I just think it helps to show people what the band really is. To have him singing lead on some songs is nice. It’s such a diverse band that can really do anything. I love that this is the first time we didn’t get together with other songwriters. We just got within the band. Kofi helped with “Let Me Get By,” and Tim [Lefebvre] had a lot of great ideas on some of the songs. His bass playing alone really helped define some of the songs. And we even have having J.J. write a song. It was really cool to see everybody have more of a hand in it.

BMM: It makes everybody feel a part of something bigger than themselves.

Susan Tedeschi: Absolutely. I’ve heard the guys say that. They feel like they’re more involved and more a part of it. That’s important. If you’re out there doing this all the time, you want your guys to feel a part of it.

BMM: Since 2010, you’ve kept a large core of your band members intact and that’s a big achievement. You’ve really managed to keep things together.

Susan Tedeschi: Amazingly, they want to be here. We want them here and they want to be here. We’re all having a good time.

BMM: I really dug the tune “Anyhow.” What was the genesis of that song?

Susan Tedeschi: That song came out when Derek was messing around on the guitar. He was turning our daughter

Sophia on to “Jolene,” which is a song that Dolly Parton had done. They were watching a video, and her guitar player at the time was playing a fingerpick style. Derek thought that was really cool. So he took a different chord, learned the picking style from watching the video, and came up with the chords for “Anyhow.” Then Mike, Derek, and I sat down and said, “What are we going to do with this song?” We had an outline, but we really didn’t have a melody or lyrics yet. So we sat down and put some ideas and verses together. The “Anyhow” ideas kinda

came out. I was just saying thoughts that came to my mind. That’s how the chorus came out. The lyrics for the verses came out sitting down with Mike and Derek. We really wrote it out and tried to think of some cool imagery while leaving it up to the interpretation of the listener to decide what it is actually about. It can have a few different meanings, but really at the end of the day, it’s about going in and out of good and bad relationships and learning from life and realizing there are certain people that you would do anything for.

BMM: Has radio latched on to that song?

Susan Tedeschi: Oh yeah. “Anyhow” has been #1 or #2 on four different formats of radio. It’s been on AAA and Americana radio. It’s even been on the Billboard Top 200 since it came out. It’s doing better than any of our other records, solo or combined.

BMM: This album is a broader sounding record. I hear New Orleans, I hear funk, I hear R&B, I hear old

soul. You guys really captured all of them without pigeonholing you in to any one genre.

Susan Tedeschi: Well, thank you. The thing that’s so hard about this band is putting us in a box. People want to stick us in a category, but they don’t know how. I say, “What about just a music category?”

BMM: “Don’t Know What It Means” was really funky and featured a sing-along chorus that was very cool.

Susan Tedeschi: That song is such a fun party tune and so much fun to play. People just start dancing right away because Tim Lefebvre’s bass line on that is so funky. It’s amazing. He did such a great job on that. That song came along from J.J. Johnson, our drummer. He said, “I have this melody.” He got together with Kofi

to put some chords behind it. Then, Mike and I came up with a couple of different scenarios for the chorus. We wrote a bunch of lyrics, presented them to J.J., and asked him what he thought. He said, “Cool. It sounds great.” When we recorded it, we went in and made sure that we had all the basic tracks and that the rhythm section was really happening. Then we said, “Why don’t we get everybody to sing on it?” We had everybody in the band pretty much singing. Everybody is on it. It’s a communal thing. We’re all clapping and


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having a great time. I love that tune. It’s been really fun to play, and I like it because I get to play some guitar on it.

BMM: You added Alecia Chakour on background vocals along with Mark and Mike. That really expanded your vocals didn’t it?

Susan Tedeschi: It really has and live especially because we added her after the fact. We made the record, and then we put her on as we were finishing it up. She wasn’t in it from the beginning of the making of the record, but she really adds a lot. Now it sounds like we have a real choir behind us because she has a really beautiful, powerful voice. She’s a very talented musician. She can play all sorts of instruments. Alecia is a huge upgrade for us. It’s also great having more women in the band, having her and Elizabeth Lea now. It’s really awesome. They’re both super sweet girls who know how to be on the road and know how to be around twenty men. That really helps, and it really balances it out a bit. It’s nice to be in a band with so many great musicians. Everybody’s listening to each other, and to have a few women in there now, it’s really great for me. I’m not the only woman anymore, so I enjoy it.

BMM: Who sings lead on the song, “Right On Time?”

Susan Tedeschi: That’s Mike singing lead, and then I sing it as a duet with him on the second verse. That’s one of my favorite tracks on the record. I was going to write with Derek and Mike that day, but they had already started on the song. They were in a room in our house jamming and making stuff up. They sounded great. I was just going to leave them to it. They wrote that beautiful song in just a couple of hours.

BMM: I couldn’t help but hear that whole New Orleans vibe with the horns in there.

Susan Tedeschi: Yeah, yeah, and you should hear Elizabeth and Ephraim play that live. It sounds so great. It’s great to see the horn section getting along so well and being really productive lately. The three of them really work well together, and they’re not afraid to keeping working at it. It’s an exciting band.

BMM: “Crying Over You” and then the “Swamp Raga” thing is completely wild. Does Mike sing lead on that song?

BMM: Before we close tell us a good B.B. King story.

Susan Tedeschi: Oh man, there are so many. One time we were on the road, and my band was opening for him in Switzerland at the Montreaux Jazz Festival. He said, “Susan, I want you to sit in with me tonight. Do you want to come out?” I said, “Sure, okay.” So I’m standing side stage at the end of the night and he says, “My favorite guitar player in the world is here tonight, and I’m going to have him come out.” I knew it wasn’t me so I’m looking around to see who’s on the side of the stage, and it’s George Benson. I knew that was one of B.B.’s favorite guitar players. So he says, “I’m going to invite some friends out. George, Susan...” I was, Holy shit, I’m going out on stage with George Benson and B.B. King? I can die now. When I got out there, I looked and he had George Duke on piano. I thought, “What is happening?” That was a life moment for me where I had to pinch myself the entire time. B.B. is just one of those guys. He was always down to earth, and he always made you feel completely comfortable. Years later, B.B. was playing Royal Albert Hall, and they asked if Derek and I would sit in and play. They had other guests and B.B. was up there. They were trying to produce it a certain way. They were telling him what songs to do and how to do the show and that just didn’t work for B.B. He had to do it at his pace. He liked to talk to the audience and do the songs that he was feeling. So Derek said, “B, just do what you do.” He had met Derek a bunch of times at that point, but had never heard him play. So we’re up on stage watching B.B. and I ran back to do something in the dressing room. I heard Derek yelling for me, “Come up here, he’s calling for us.” It was 45 minutes earlier than we were supposed to be on stage. I think he just got nervous and wanted us up there. So Derek gets me and we’re up there with B.B. He starts telling stories and he’s really comfortable now and we start playing together. We did “You Are My Sunshine” and then he had Derek play. The first time he heard him he basically almost screamed. He said, “Oh my goodness. People do you hear that? That’s what guitar is supposed to sound like. That’s how you tell a story.” He was hearing Derek for the first time playing live with him at Royal Albert Hall. He was so enamored with him. He said, “Now I know why Susan married you. I would marry you too.” He loved him from then on.

Susan Tedeschi: Yes, Mike is singing lead on that. Mike wrote most of that. Derek and I helped him a little bit, but Mike wrote a big chunk of that. I loved that we put strings on that too. That sounds really cool, and it was something new for us.

BMM: Then you went in to this wild solo instrumental ending, where it quiets down and then gets right back in your face with a George Harrison vibe on the next track, “Hear Me.” How did you develop the segue in to “Hear Me?”

Susan Tedeschi: Yeah, that’s a beautiful song. That one is interesting. Originally, it was just Derek and Doyle playing two acoustics together. Then we built tracks around that by adding bass and drums.

BMM: When I hear you sing you remind me of Bonnie Raitt. You’re right there with Bonnie.

Susan Tedeschi: I always get, “How do you sound like Janis Joplin and Bonnie Raitt?” When I was younger, I use to do the Janis thing a little more, but then I went from Janis and learned about Etta James and Aretha Franklin and developed in a different way. Honestly, Bonnie, I can see that. Her birthday is the day before mine. She’s exactly twenty-one years older than me. We both have a lot of similar influences. We both loved all the old blues guys, and they were really sweet and some how loved us back. We do have a lot in common and I just adore her. She is a sweet, sweet woman.

BMM: Are you still playing your Fender Telecaster?

Susan Tedeschi: I do. I play a Telecaster, but I also play a Strat. I play my birth year Strat. Derek bought it for me for my birthday a couple of years ago. He said, “What do you want?” I said, “I want my birth year Strat. A 1970 with a rosewood neck.” He got it for me. It’s beautiful, and I love it and play it every day. The original Telecaster that I use to play all the time, I’ve taken off the road. I don’t want all the signatures to come off because it has John Lee Hooker and B.B. King and they’re all gone now. I’m sentimental about that.

BMM: That’s a museum piece now.

Susan Tedeschi: It is. It’s got my whole life on there.


Since its birth in 2012, the Royal Southern Brotherhood’s success has been focused on its virtuoso

musical performances and tough, meaningful songs. The bar has been elevated with a fresh band make-up and the release of The New Gospel. The last story I wrote about the Royal Southern Brotherhood (RSB) ended with founding member Cyril Neville comparing the band to a satisfying gumbo. He noted that the right roux makes soup into gumbo. Now in 2016, with three new members, Neville explains the current success of this current incarnation. “I always make the gumbo analogy that as long as the roux of the gumbo is correct, the rest of the ingredients don’t matter because the roux is what makes the gumbo.” What is the roux of the RSB? “It’s the songs,” Neville continues. “There is the musical content, the lyrical content, and in the middle of that is your intent, what you feel your purpose is. Whatever the configuration was, as far as the men making the music and playing the songs, the mission of the band has never changed.” What has changed over these four years is the band’s personal.


in January 2014 and got an e-mail from them asking if I was interested. I planned from January to October, then went on the October 2014 Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise with the band. Mike and I split the sets. He would play the majority of the first set, and I would play some at the end. As the cruise progressed, we swapped roles, and I’d play the majority of the set and he sat in at the end. That was the passing of the torch.” A little more than a year later and Vaughan, son of Jimmie Vaughan, replaced Devon Allman. “It was timing. At first it was to get together and write with Cyril Neville. That’s a name that goes right back to when I was a kid. We had Meters’ records in the house from the get go. They were coming out to the Sub Creek Saloon where my parents were hanging out in the old days. Another important connection was that Art Neville wrote ‘Six Strings Down’ when Stevie went down. It was on my dad’s first solo record after Stevie died. “They were looking for another guitar player, and I was looking for something. I went to Houston and sat in with them. I learned a couple of songs Cyril gave me, and he said be ready to come up and sit in.”

Changes in essential personal would doom most bands, not this one. This current incarnation features founding members Cyril Neville and Yonrico Scott. The double guitar attack centers around Bart Walker, who replaced Mike Zito in October 2014, and Tyrone Vaughan, who replaced Devon Allman in April 2015, while the rhythm section is centered by the band’s new bassist Darryl Phillips, who replaced Charlie Wooten in January 2016. In this age of social media, band vacancies are not posted on Fabebook or advertised for in Billboard: “Guitarist Wanted for Established World Touring Band. Must have outrageous chops.” Rather it is decidedly old school, either through word of mouth or personal relationships. In 2014, as Zito was looking to focus on his solo career, the talk centered around Nashville guitarist Walker. “I opened for them when they played their very first gate at the Rockin’ Bowl in New Orleans in January 2012,” said Walker. “At that point I had won the Albert King Most Promising Guitarist Award at the 2012 International Blues Challenge in Memphis. “I’d just come off a cruise ship

Royal Southern Brotherhood

THE PASSING OF THE TORCHby Art Tipaldi

Walker remembers that night with a smile. “Cyril kept calling him ‘neph,’ like he was his nephew. ‘My little ‘neph Tyrone’s gonna sit in.’ So we all thought this little black dud was gonna sit in, and he shows up.”

Imagine replacing not one, but two guitars. For Vaughan and Walker, the fit was immediate. They agree it happened during the recording of the first song for 2015’s critically acclaimed Don’t Look Back. Now after sharing the stage touring over the world for well over 100 dates and recording the current record, The Gospel Truth, Walker and Vaughan have a total appreciation of each other’s strengths. In fact, they’ll even finish each other’s riffs and sentences. “We both have this ability to make you forget about the most amazing guitar solo the other one just played,” says Vaughan. “I can play the solo of my life and die tomorrow happy and Bart’s gonna make you forget about it within the first couple of bars. Then he’ll do something amazing, and …” “He’ll strangle it,” says Walker. “We have the ability to pass things back-and-forth like Pippen and Jordan. I can be in the middle of a thing and just give a nod and everybody’s still looking at me, but the sound’s coming from over there.” “I play a blues-rock style. That fits and works in this band. But if you want to stretch the spectrum of music, Bart can cover so much ground,” says Vaughan. “The kid can play all styles. It’s incredible to see him give what every song needs every time.” “What I really love about this band,” says Walker, “is that I get to step out, and I get to do me, but I also get to step back and make Tyrone and Cyril sound better when they do their thing. That’s my job, to get out-of-the-way and make them sound as awesome as I can make them sound. “When your DNA starts meshing


is when it’s really cool,” says Walker. “The fun part of playing together is that you become each other. I’ll start playing like him, and Tyrone will start stretching himself out. That’s when you really start to become musical brothers.” That’s the main focus of the band’s roux, to become musical brothers. “It’s a blessing when it comes to making transitions that you can find people who fit perfectly and you weren’t even looking for them,” says Neville. “It’s like Bart and Tyrone were hiding in plain sight. So there is no break in the forward motion. This reminds me of the Neville Brothers because even though things kept changing, the gumbo stayed the same. “Whatever the configuration was, as far as the men making the music and playing the songs, the mission of the band has never changed. The proof was that on the first day we recorded four really hip songs together. The whole atmosphere in the studio was to make each song stand on its own so that

when this new record is played from the beginning to the end there are no fillers.” The studio experience came with a new set of challenges; it was the introduction of new bassist Darrel Phillips to the band. Phillips is from Austin and has been a friend of Vaughan’s for over 20 years. He was also a member of Sister 7 contributing on three records during a ten year run. “It was probably most interesting because I hadn’t met these guys yet, and my first job was to make a record,” says Phillips. “We walked in not really knowing what we were gonna do. I was getting songs the night before. We get there and within a few bars, there’s the song.” Adding a different voice on bass can play havoc with the longtime rhythm section of Neville and Scott. “I’ve always said that a bass player and drummer are the bottom brothers,” laughs Scott. “In my career, I’ve been blessed to have played with a lot of really good, solid bass players. I like a real solid foundation, simple, four-string fat, traditional James Jamerson sound. “We get in the studio, and he pulls out a six-string. The first thing he

plays was just solid. Bart and I looked at each other with smiles. He processes the information, and he understands the role of our instrument as a foundation player. He’s solid. He already gets it before I even say it.” From there, The Royal Gospel came to life. For the band’s legions of fans around the world, this CD represents the birth of a bold new Royal Southern Brotherhood, a band not afraid to speak its mind with timely songs whose messages reflect the world this band sees every day. “The title, The Royal Gospel, addresses some of the subject matter in the songs,” says Neville. “The whole record is geared towards making a joyful noise, but while we’re partying, we still need to be thinking about what’s going on around us. It covers what we’ve seen in our travels over the last few years, and what we’ve lived personally as citizens of the world. We have one song, ‘Stand Up,’ where the basic music is Gospel revival with an everybody stand up, church feel, but the subject matter is about today.” In addition to “Stand Up,” songs like “I’ve Seen Enough To Know,” “Land Of Broken Hearts,” “Hooked On Plastic,” “Can’t Waste Time,” “Coming Home,” “Everybody Pays Some Dues,” or Pop Staple’s “I Wonder Why” are songs written or chosen to voice the Royal Southern Brotherhood’s concerned social activism. “That’s what’s always been true about the blues. It’s always been about storytelling about actual things

that actually happened to people,” says Neville. “The whole mystic of the band and the whole spirit of the band is now bigger then even the five guys who are in the band now,” says Scott. “So we have to make sure that everything we do from this point on has the integrity and spirit of the band.”AL

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How is Nighthawks band leader Mark Wenner going to know when it’s time to quit?

“I’ll probably fall over before (that happens),” he says with more truth than sarcasm.

For most of its 44 years The Nighthawks have been together they’ve been called “the world’s best bar band.” Their alumni include such illustrious blues artists as Warren Haynes, Jimmy Thackery, and Jimmy Hall. Their current lineup includes bass player Johnny Castle originally from a DC ‘60s band called Crank and guitarist Paul Bell, both with the group for 12 years, and Jimmy Thackery alumnus drummer Mark Stutso for seven.

Long known for their hybrid sound and dismissed by blues police the world over, they have consistently served

up a wonderfully aggressive and scrappy mongrel bite that handles everything from Muddy Waters standards to raucous rockabilly. Their most recent CD Back Porch Party includes Patsy Cline’s country classic “Walking After Midnight” right next to Ike Turner’s “Matchbox,” Muddy Waters’ “Rollin’ Stone,” and five originals. Wenner chuckles that after 44 years the record company now calls the group “legendary,” and their publicist refers to their sound as “seminal roots music.” Wenner simply labels what they do as blues and roots rock.

In 2011 they won their first Blues Music Award for Last Train To Bluesville, an album of blues classics recorded in two hours at the Sirius/XM studios in Washington, DC. “It was a bizarre fluke,” says Wenner, “dealing with the powers that be and the blues police and all

these other people telling me, ‘You gotta do original songs, and you can’t just do those old songs that everybody’s sung before.’ All these industry rules that were being imposed basically on a traditional form that I always thought the whole idea was you’re carrying on a tradition. Muddy Waters was singing Robert Johnson songs, you know? It’s like it changed it a little bit, but he’s imitating. He goes “Kind Hearted Woman,” and he goes up to falsetto just like Robert Johnson did.

“I listen to people who say, ‘You gotta spend $100,000 to get an album that people are going to listen to and you gotta overdub and multi-track and blah,blah, blah.’ So, Bill Wax (at Sirius/XM Bluesville channel) heard that we were doing this. So we come in and plug in a couple of these songs, and we walked in there at 11 in the morning, and

The Nighthawksby Don Wilcock

44 Years On The Road

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“Now, I’ve got this little Korean that kicks my ass twice a week, and then when I’m on the road I do pushups in my room, all kinds of stuff. People say, ‘Oh, you’re in great shape.’ This is true of a lot of people that have that kind of surgery. I’m really good with my diet, and now I sneak off to Five Guys once in a while. I like it. You know?”

Unlike so many rock bands that continue for years, but become performing juke boxes resurrecting their greatest hits from decades ago, Wenner has methodically built the Nighthawks’ name with an ever changing cadre of musicians who have strengthened the band’s repertoire from mostly covers to a viable recording band whose originals are often as good or better than their classic blues and rock covers. The name itself now is a valuable cache.

The Art Institute of Chicago describes Edward Hopper’s 1942 painting Nighthawks as being “inspired by a restaurant on New York’s Greenwich

Avenue where two streets meet, but the image – with its carefully constructed composition and lack of narrative – has a timeless, universal quality that transcends its particular locale.” While Mark Wenner says it’s purely coincidence that his band has the same name as this iconic painting, the description of this stark, gritty painting could be used to describe the band The Nighthawks. Wenner says he did not take the name from that painting.

“The name of the band was just a great name. I mean there was a little bit of the fact that Robert Nighthawk had used it and that scored us a big influence with Muddy and Pinetop. When Muddy sang on “Open All Night:” “they have a beautiful name, they are the Nighthawks,” he didn’t say we were any good. We (just) have a great name. (Robert) Nighthawk was a great influence on Muddy. Muddy admired Nighthawk, a slightly previous generation and certainly an incredible slide player.

by 1 o’clock we had cut the whole album. We just kept going. It was like no one said stop. I don’t know if in the back of my head I knew I was going to try and do that or not, but I had a bunch of songs I wanted to try.

Their underrated follow-up, 444, their first under their own label Eller Soul, is eclectic and good timey timeless. “And of course with Back Porch we pushed the parameters even more.” Released in 2015, Back Porch Party was done acoustic in front of a group of 20 friends. “There’s something about just showing off in front of people and friends and being in the performance mode rather than the studio mode,” says Wenner. These three albums prove that the band has graduated from bar band to a consummate professional unit that can do whatever they want and to hell with the blues police.

So, will they know when it’s time to quit? What a stupid question. Have you ever known a seminal blues road warrior to turn in his gun and holster? That said, Wenner came precariously close to “falling over” in 2012. “We were humping the gear across this parking lot,” Wenner recalls, “and I just sat down and I go, (simulated heavy breathing). Paul said, ‘Are you alright?’ ‘Oh, yeah. I’ll be fine. I’m just catching my breath.’ There were plenty of red flags that no one was really seeing, especially me.” Wenner ended up having a five-way heart bypass. It barely slowed him down. “In a month I was out sitting in with my own band. They were out playing with Tommy Lepson as the Tommyhawks, and I started showing up and sitting in in a month and in six months I went back to work.

“I remember we were playing this parking lot out at the Harley shop out in the sun, and I said, ‘Oh, this might be a tough one.’ And I hired an extra guy, a friend of mine, to play second guitar and be able to jump in and do some material in case I needed to sit down, and he was the one that got woozy. ‘I don’t feel good.’ I said, ‘Well, you’re not wearing a hat, you dumb shit.’ We were playing out in the parking lot on Memorial Day, and he didn’t drink enough water, but I couldn’t wait to play again.”

Liver disease didn’t stop Howlin’Wolf. Muddy Waters died with his boots on, and B.B. King and Bo Diddley both continued performing with diabetes. If anything, Wenner says he’s stronger than before the operation. “I’ve got better vocal range, more harp power. I had no idea how fucked up I was. I apparently had a heart attack that I missed. Might have slept through it or something.

“The name actually came into my full consciousness because I had a ‘58 VW bus. It wasn’t a bus. It was a truck, had no windows. It was painted flat green with flat black fogging and was sitting under a street light, and my buddy says, ‘Ah, there it is, the Nighthawk,’ and the big light bulb lit up. I was searching for a name for the band. We’d actually played a gig under the name Magic Duck and the Blue Goose. We were calling our drummer Magic Duck at the time. Obviously that wasn’t a permanent name.“Then I started calling myself The Nighthawk for a short period of time. I actually have a card that says The Nighthawk, harmonica, blues, and beyond or something. It has no phone number because I was living out of my car at the time, but I remember we were doing the let’s name the band discussion one day, and I said, ‘Well, what about the Nighthawks,’ just throwing it out there. They’re going, ‘Oh, you asshole. You know, what an egotist,’ and then, ‘Oh, yeah, it’ll work.’ Oh, ok, and there we were.”

The logo of a bird in flight is almost as striking to blues fans as the Harley Davidson logo is to bikers. “We had an earlier logo on the cover of Rock ‘n Roll (1974) that my old girlfriend did. She’s actually selling shirts with that old logo on it now, but the (logo) started to look like a run over chicken. That wasn’t the image we were looking for. So there was a graphic artist around. She was I think the girlfriend of the guy from Adelphi Records (The Nighthawks’ first label).

“We just sort of threw the ball in her court and said, ‘Give us a logo.’ And she came up with this really cool logo that I have tattooed on me with wings curved down on either side which I thought was pretty cool, and it actually makes a better tattoo, but, No, no. The wings should be up. So the poor girl drew it about four different ways with the wings up, and then we picked one, but it obviously seems to work. You’ll see them no matter where you go. There they are. And my t-shirt guy goes, ‘Everybody else I do, they have a shirt for every season. I have to recut your stencil every once in a while because they got worn out.’”

So, time to quit? No, no, no. “We were playing with Hubert Sumlin a bunch when he was dragging that oxygen thing around. He’d get up out of his chair and tangle his own oxygen cord up. ‘Why don’t you just stay home, dude?’ But he didn’t want to stay home. He wanted to play.”

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Nick Moss’ twelfth release, From The Root To The Fruit, is an ambitious, 27 track, double length

effort a year in the making that ranges from the traditional blues that fills Disc 1 (The Root) to the wide ranging Disc 2 (The Fruit). The idea of the album, according to Moss, is “to show how the blues goes hand in hand with almost all modern styles of music, because modern and contemporary music sprang from the blues.” Moss, a veteran guitarist/bassist who, in his early days on the scene, worked closely with many of the greats – most notably Willie “Big Eyes” Smith Buddy Scott, and Jimmy Rogers – has been expanding his style over the last years and albums. Beyond that, at this point in his career, he is now wholeheartedly taking on the role for his band that Smith, Scott, and Rogers once played for him: that of blues mentor.

Nick Moss: With this album, my goal was to take this young group of guys that I have now in my band who I have been grooming for the last couple of years to learn how to play blues correctly, play blues with passion, and play it and give it the justice and the respect it deserves

because that’s where I come from. Each one of these guys has a different background. And then there’s Michael Ledbetter, whose life was opera for eight solid years before he seriously got into the blues. After sitting in with the Kilborn Alley Blues Band one night, he was approached by Kate Moss (Nick’s wife), who offered to get him up on-stage with her husband the next night at Rosa’s Lounge.

Michael Ledbetter: He let me sit in with him on-stage, and we built a friendship from there. For about a year, he was trying to get me jobs with other bands, but nobody was biting, really, just because I was kind of an unknown person. So, I ended up doing some background vocals on his album Here I Am.

Nick Moss: We were slowly becoming friends then. He was hanging around in the studio and just kind of watching things and I said, “Hey, man. You want to sing some background vocals for me?” The first song that we did was a song called “It’ll Turn Around” which is my favorite song on the record. On the first pass, he was kind of nervous and I walked

in there and I said, “No, no, no, man. Just go to town. Just go gospel, man.” And he goes, “Okay, man! I got you now!” And the very next take, he killed it. I sat there in the control booth, and I looked at my engineer and I’m like, “Holy shit, man! Now I’ve got to hire this guy.” because I’ll never be able to do this live because I wouldn’t want to because it sounds too good now and I can’t do that. He’s definitely a strong enough vocalist to have his own opinions about things, but he’s also a smart enough young man to take suggestion and take direction. Since then, Ledbetter has steadily moved from the background. On 2014’s Time Ain’t Free and this latest release, he splits the lead vocals with Moss and, in addition to writing songs, also plays excellent rhythm guitar, something he’s surprisingly new at.

Michael Ledbetter: I was nervous. Very nervous. You know, my first gig with Nick was Chicago Blues Fest, so it’s the lion’s den, pretty much. And I had to learn Here I Am in probably about a week and a half. Nick and I ended up finding out that we only lived about two miles from each other, so I would go over to his house – he gave me his entire collection of blues

Brothers In Blues. . .

Nick Moss Band


music. And I’d say, “How do you play this? and how do you play that?” He’d show me, and we’d go over it, over and over and over again. I’d go home, and I would just not stop because I knew that I was going to be on-stage with this guy on a regular basis. So I better not mess this up. In the small Connecticut town of Collinsville, the band plays to a two-thirds capacity audience. On the road for about a week, they’re making their way through the Northeast. On the bandstand, Moss frequently glances around, following what’s happening around him as these songs become living, breathing organisms different from the recordings, different from the night before in Londonderry, NH, different from what will be played the next night in Burlington, VT.

Nick Moss: The one thing that I definitely learned – especially in Chicago blues – is when it’s played right and it’s played correctly, there is almost a chaos, like a chaotic feel, where it almost sounds like the piano player’s soloing over the guitar player and the harmonica player’s soloing over the piano player. But when it’s being done correctly, and you hear it, they’re completely just dancing and interweaving in and out of each other and staying out of each other’s way. And that’s the beauty of that music is learning how to use your ears and complement what the guy next to you is doing. There’s definitely a communication going on on-stage with good bands. And you know when you’re seeing a good band when you can hear the conversation going on between the musicians. I don’t know if you noticed, but I’m constantly turning towards the guys in the band and giving little directions here and there. Or I’m turning to listen

to see what Taylor [Streiff] the piano player is doing so I can play something underneath. Or when I hear Nick [Fane] walking a bass line, I’m thinking, “Oh, I’m gonna play something in between what he’s playing there. Or I’m answering Michael’s vocals.”

Michael Ledbetter: Since I’ve been in the band, he has my voice, which is more like a blues voice, but it’s a soul voice with some gospel in there as well. He’s able to bring in some more styles that he wasn’t able to before because I don’t think he really had a vocalist like myself. So, the songs on the new album, like “Breathe Easy,” we were able to write that together and it’s a soul ballad. He didn’t do a lot of those before.

In February, Moss and Ledbetter were invited to participate in the Leadbelly concert tribute in New York City. There, they performed “How Long” and “C.C. Rider” while once more answering the question: How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Michael Ledbetter: Practice! Practice! Practice! (laughing) Oh, man. It was another kind of beast. It really was. Something that made it really, really nerve wracking was right before we went on-stage, the promoter grabbed me by the shoulder and said, (low, serious voice) “There are no more seats.” (laughs), and I didn’t know that it was a sold out show. They were turning people back at the door. So it was nerve wracking, but it was more fun. In comparison, I’d say I was definitely more nervous at Chicago Blues Fest. Late in the Collinsville gig,

Moss stops, as he often does, to talk to the audience. He announces that he will be joining them so that he, too, can appreciate the band as a spectator. Unslinging his guitar, he steps down into the shadows and takes a nearby seat at an empty table and watches the rest of the group, with Ledbetter singing, power their way through the last few tunes of the night.

Nick Moss: It baffles me sometimes. We’re out here playing, and some nights we play to a full house, and some nights we play to a half empty house, and it baffles me sometimes, when we play to empty seats, when I’ve got a guy like him next to me. I’ve had some great musicians throughout the years play with me, but the band that I have now, is one of the funnest bands I’ve ever played with. It baffles me because I want, like, fuckin’ thousands of people to hear what these guys are doing. Not just for myself but for these guys because they deserve it. You know, what you saw tonight, man, we had a pretty good crowd. It wasn’t a great crowd, but it was pretty good. But, I know bands that would see a crowd like that and just lay down. But these guys would never do that. These guys would never lay down. The gear is loaded, hotel rooms are checked into, calls home are made, late night fast food is eaten. Another night, another town, another road, another room, another gig. This time around, Carnegie Hall isn’t on the tour schedule. But, when it gets right down to it, it doesn’t really matter.

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Here are some clown questions one shouldn’t ask Mssrs. Moreland and Arbuckle: “How’s Oz?”

They’re from Kansas, get it? Or “Where’s your bass player?” They almost never perform live with one. But “When’s the new record coming out?” is one they like answering: It’s out! As of May 6, on Alligator Records. “Because Hound Dog Taylor was a massive influence on us,” and the fact that he was Bruce Iglauer’s first act on that label, they’re “really excited to be working with them. There’s a special place in our hearts for Alligator. We feel good about working with Bruce.” Dustin Arbuckle and Aaron Moreland have earned it, having played together for about 14 years after meeting at an open mic. Initially, they were an acoustic duo. “We very much began as a straight-up guitar, harmonica Mississippi blues act,” relates the thick-bearded Arbuckle, the more loquacious and, at 34 years of age, younger of the two. Moreland, seven years his senior, also bearded, seems quieter, reflective, befitting the holder of three college degrees. “We eventually started playing electric. Our first electric band actually had a bass player and a drummer. We called ourselves the Kingsnakes” – not to be confused with the multitude of other bands who adopt reptilian monikers. Funk, soul, and heavy rock were in the mix along with traditional blues. “We kind of worked a little bit jam-oriented.” They went to the lineup they have now – guitar, harmonica, drums – in late 2005. Son House, Mississippi Fred McDowell, and Charley Patton were some of the blues lions whose approach M&A honors. “We were really heavily focused on the Mississippi blues sound and the early Chicago kind of blues, Howlin’ Wolf, Elmore James, and electrified versions of Charley Patton and Mississippi Fred McDowell. We still do play a lot of that. You don’t really need a bass if your guitar player has the right approach, the right style. Thing was, we couldn’t find a bass player that was really interested in playing that music. When we parted ways with our last one, it was, ‘Well, you know, let’s just forge on.’ The Jellyroll Kings did it. Ten years later, we’re still doing it.”

And evolving? But they are ever open to “new things” musically, Arbuckle reminds. “As we moved forward, we’ve grown individually and collectively as musicians [and] we’ve been able to incorporate more of our influences” into their own style. “With each record we’ve done,

we’ve focused on developing the songs a little bit more as well. In our earlier days, we had a very ‘write it and rip it’ kind of attitude.”

“Now,” Arbuckle continues, “we definitely spend a lot more time refining the songs both musically and lyrically. Our songs have more parts to them now. Before, [you’d hear] a lot of ‘trancy’ one-chord, North Mississippi Hill Country blues stuff. If you listen to the songs from [the new release] Promised Land Or Bust or our last one, 7 Cities, you’ll definitely hear songs that are more arranged. We’ve made an effort to have choruses and a defined hook, the sort of things that go beyond the energy of the song, beyond the vibe of the song. “We’ve really made a strong effort, especially on these last couple of records, to make sure our songs are really well crafted. And we feel like we’ve accomplished that. Hopefully, our audience will say the same thing (and) they’ll dig the new stuff as much as we do.”

How does that happen for you, songwriting? “It can vary from song to song,” Arbuckle offers. “Most of the time, Aaron

will come up with some sort of guitar riff. Then we’ll start jamming on that; from there, I’ll write some lyrics. A good example of the process on this record would be ‘Mount Comfort.’ It’s a tune that I actually had to write. The lyrics and the melody line to the verses were rolling around in my head for months. When we finally could get together and start working on writing some tunes, I just sang it to the guys in a rehearsal. They listened to where the melody was going, figured out what key I was in, and the song was built around the vocal line. Which does not happen very often. And ‘Take Me With You (When You Go),’ Kendall [Newby, the drummer] actually had the idea for the main guitar riff in the verse. Then Aaron and I collaborated on the lyrics and the tricky outro. But for the most part, Aaron comes up with the musical framework for the songs, and I end up writing most of the lyrics.”

But what about the bass? They do record with bass players. Live, Arbuckle mans the bass on a few songs, like the new release’s “Take Me With You (When You Go),” “Woman Down In Arkansas,” and “When The Lights Are Burning Low.” “I’ll just play those three pieces live. I’m still a better

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harmonica player than I am a bass player,” he laughs. “Playing bass and singing at the same time is, frankly, very difficult. There’s not a lot of Paul McCartneys out there.” Blessed with a voice evocative of Geoff Muldaur’s and John Nemeth’s, Arbuckle sings lead. He says the Muldaur comparison actually has been made by others. “Which is funny because I never listened to the guy when I started. I’ve heard John [Nemeth] several times. We know each other. Again, it’s not a situation where I heard him when I was coming up or anything like that. It’s just interesting that we have similar approaches. We’re probably both influenced by some of the same guys. I think John is one of the best singers, certainly one of my favorites on the modern blues scene. He’s really outstanding.”

What about that harp playing? Dustin plays Joe Spiers customized Hohner Marine Band or Special Play harps. But “I don’t play much chromatic. I’ve experimented with it; it’s something I need to work on in the interest of becoming a better harp player. I love Little Walter’s chromatic playing, and Kim Wilson is great. There are a lot of great chromatic players out there, but

it’s not something I’ve gravitated to as much as the diatonic harp. That isn’t to say there would be no application for it in our music because I think there could be.”

What about Aaron and his guitars? Without having to employ a bass guitarist on a regular basis, “Aaron was freer to do more things. He plays finger style, no pick, so he can thump out a bass line while he’s taking care of melody lines,” Arbuckle says. “I’ve always thought Aaron’s guitar style was unique and really cool. Now he’s able to focus on a different part of his guitar playing; [like] single-string lead guitar in a way that he hasn’t been able to for the past several years. So he has really evolved in a way that’s really fun to see and to hear. On the new record, you definitely hear him doing some killer lead guitar work.” In performance, “Aaron usually has the cigar box and two other six-string guitars,” says his partner. “He’ll have some standard tunings, some open G, some open D, so he can swap out without having to re-tune.” Moreland says he plays an assortment of guitars, mostly Gibsons. On the new release, “I play a cigar box guitar on ‘Mean And Evil,’ he relates. “I

play regular guitar more than cigar box. If you would come see a live show, if it was an hour show, I’d probably get out the cigar box guitar maybe four or five times.” As for the brand of cigar, “I have very little input into that,” Aaron explains. “My friend, who makes them for me, built one quite some time ago. He’s built me five or six since. The box does make a difference. Some sound better than others, like the wood on certain regular guitars. They have to be wooden [boxes], though. He made me one out of a Cojimar box, which is a really pretty one with no paper on it. A lot of them are covered with labels like that, but it didn’t sound as good. It was harsher. “Not sure what the magic is to it, but the box does matter. Partagas [cigar box] is one of my real good ones. Punch as well.” Ironically, happily, “No, not at all,” he replies when asked if he smokes cigars. “Tobacco makes me sick. If I were to put tobacco into my body, I’d be if not throwing up, feeling like total crap within 30 seconds.”

Besides your extensive touring, stateside and overseas, how do you get your music out there? “The biggest thing it seems is to get songs is to get your songs licensed,” says Arbuckle. It could be in movies, or TV show, or commercials, but that seems to be how the biggest hits out there become hits.” And they have had some success with that. “A few years ago,” Arbuckle recalls, “there was an episode of ‘Sons Of Anarchy’ that had one of our tunes in it. So that’s probably the biggest thing [that’s happened] as far as licensing. That was ‘18 Counties.’ From our Flood record. It was a pretty big deal. It’s nice to see the royalties keep come in. Not a ton of money,” he laughs, “but it’s helpful.”

So how do you regard Moreland & Arbuckle these days? “In a lot of ways, we kind of think of ourselves as a roots band, because we have elements of a lot of varieties of music in what we do,” says Arbuckle. They embrace “really heavy traditional blues influences” but country, old-school rock, and modern rock elements as well. “Fire and energy were really a big part of what we did,” Dustin laughs. “And they still are.” Endless, renewable energy, it seems.

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E-mail: [email protected]

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Dion admits to being shocked when he went to CBGB’s, ground zero for the punk movement in the ‘70s. “I started

talking to guys that were songwriters, and….” He hesitates. “Then you get with people from the ‘50s, and they look at you like you’re a teen idol.”

And he was. Hits like “The Wanderer,” “Runaround Sue,” and “Teenager In Love” put him on tour Buddy Holly, and when Lou Reed inducted him into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989, he uncommonly gushed, “Dion could do all the turns, stretch those syllables so effortlessly, soar so high he could reach the sky and dance there among the stars forever. What a voice – that had absorbed and transmogrified all these influences into his own soul, as the wine turns into blood, a voice that stood on its own remarkably and unmistakably from New York – Bronx Soul. It was the kind of voice you never forget.”

Dion recorded his first blues album, Bronx In Blue, in 2006, half a century after his first rock and roll hits. “I cut it in two days, and when I was driving home, I put it in my truck and I’m listening to it, and I’m saying, ‘Oh, my God! This is who I am. This is it. This stuff comes right from the center of it. I don’t have to think about this, you know?’ And I love music like that.”

If the blues police couldn’t get beyond his image as an aging teen novelty, “Bronx Poem” on Dion’s third blues CD Tank Full Of Blues nailed him as the real deal. “I look at the blues as the naked cry of the human heart, longing to be in union with God,” he says today after releasing New York Is My Home. This new album is so eclectic that it highlights his 60-year musical evolution from mentor Lightnin’ Hopkins’ “Katie Mae” and the doo-wop of “I Ain’t For It” to the title cut, a love ballad for The Big Apple recorded with Paul Simon.

“These (blues) guys I just love. It fascinates me the way they write, especially Lightnin’ Hopkins: ‘I try to give that woman everything in the world she needs. She walks around like she has oil wells in her back yard. You never hear that girl whining about these times being hard. ‘Come on! Come on! Where are you gonna get a freakin’ lyric like that? My God!”

Dion was the first genuine rocker to sign with Columbia Records in 1963. It took the behemoth label almost a decade to realize that rock and roll wasn’t just an indie fad, and he was the artist that made them blink. He had a million-selling hit with them in “Ruby, Baby” and ultimately walked away from a long term contract with the label that in the ‘60s was huge money.

“When I was recording for Columbia (circa 1963), I was sitting on a piano stool with Aretha Franklin. We were both being produced by Bob Mersey, and

he was an old timer, so he was making her do Jolson songs, and had me do Jolson songs. The piano was right near the door, and I was doing ‘Drip Drop’ and ‘Ruby Baby,’ and John Hammond (Columbia’s star A&R man and father to John Hammond, the blues singer) called me in his office, and he said, ‘You have a flair for the blues,’ and he gave me some Furry Lewis and Leroy Carr records, Then he showed me the Robert Johnson album, and he said, ‘This thing sold 25,000 albums by word of mouth.’ He was smiling from ear to ear. I went. ‘Wow!’ Meanwhile I’d just sold a million records with ‘Ruby Baby.’” Today, Dion has a huge four-by-five-foot painting he made of Robert Johnson hanging in his den. Most people see Robert Johnson as a mythic folk character who sold his soul to the devil at the crossroads. Dion’s painting portrays him as a multi-dimensional real person, rather than a caricature – an issue Dion knows a lot about first-hand. And the crossroads are represented as a Christian cross as much as they are the blues highway intersection.

“I wanted to paint something because the legacy was that this guy sold his soul to the devil, and I’m thinking, well, the song doesn’t say that. The song says, ‘I fell down on my knees. I asked the Lord, help me if you please.’

“I said, ‘God never walked away from anybody that needed help. Never!’ It’s impossibility. It’s impossible. Closed case.’ So, I said, ‘I’m gonna do a painting that resonates with that song.’ So, I drew the crossroads, and I made it the cross, and the city, and I in some ethereal way put some roots guys playing trumpet and horn and sax and just scenes from the Mississippi. There’s a whole bunch of stuff there. It’s a mixed medium thing.”

Like Buddy Holly, Dion was an anomaly in that he wrote his own songs at a time when other young singers like Elvis, Ricky Nelson, and Bobby Darin were groomed to deliver songs written for them. Also, from the start, Dion had a style that turned doo wop phrasing into an art that was as heavily nuanced as the scatting of his jazz forbearers Ella Fitzgerald and Cab Calloway.

“Visionary Heart” on New York Is My Home is written from the point of view of a deceased Buddy Holly speaking to Dion’s listeners from heaven. Dion, a devout Catholic, was told by a priest in Italy that his “relationship” with the dead, specifically his father, could continue in “conversations” after he’d passed. It helped Dion who had a contentious relationship with his dad come to peace about his internal struggle with unresolved paternal issues.

Dion is still haunted by his narrowly missing death in the fatal plane crash that killed Buddy Holly in 1959. Although he won the coin toss to take the private plane to Clear Lake, Iowa, that day, Dion could not justify the $35 charge for the flight. The lyrics in “Visionary Heart” are the words of Buddy Holly channeled from one of Dion’s “conversations” with his deceased fellow teen idol. In the song he quotes Buddy Holly saying: “Our dreams might not mean much to the world/But they mean the world to us/They’ll take it to the children/On a road cold and long/They’ll take us all to sleep each night/With an old Hank Williams song.”

Dion’s dad would take his young son to museums and point out to him the difference between Salvadore Dali whom he referred to as a “draftsman” and Van Gogh, the impressionist. “He couldn’t wait to get the paint on the canvas. He’d squeeze it out of the tubes because he wanted to capture something. When it comes like communicating a lyric, I love impressionists. I always have.”

As a veteran music journalist I always look for artists who carry a thread – a continuity from my childhood through to old age. It doesn’t have to reflect a prescient maturity, but a fundamental life theme song. Dion does that. He is fundamentally the same person at 76 that he was at five. Dylan has said of him: “In his voice he tells the untold story in the seemingly secret language. How else do you explain the soulfulness of ‘Teenager In Love?’ An unknowing ear would say it’s a song about youthful claptrap, but it’s not, not any more than Tampa Red’s ‘Let Me Play With Your Poodle’ is not about dogs. You can hear it in his haunted voice – street corner hokum sure, but also barrelhouse blues, the honky-tonk world – even the most sophisticated crooner in the most articulate way – it’s all there to put a spell on you.”

Dion is consistently honest. “I’ve always loved music where you could feel the person behind the music. You know there’s a person there. And to me, that’s like an extra verse to every song somebody else sang. If somebody else sang it, it wouldn’t do anything, but from that person, you could hear something.”

Dion thought John Hammond was crazy extolling the virtues of an artist who only sold 25,000 albums to his own millions. After he heard Robert Johnson, however, he got it. “I always say I’ve met a few geniuses in my life. I never met him, but my definition of a genius is someone in a particular field (who makes) the difference between what they’re doing and what everyone else is doing, and there’s definitely a distance with Robert Johnson and his contemporaries. There’s something very special about what he did.”


Musicians who wait around for their big break often are left just sitting around. Guitarist-singer

Chris James and bassist Patrick Rynn were having none of that as they sought, in 1990, to become part of Chicago’s blues scene. “We were practicing all day, every day, and going out every single night to hear or play music,” says Rynn, a Toledo, Ohio, native who met James shortly after arriving in Chicago. “Chris was very intent that we play the music the right way, and that meant some hard-core and intense practicing. He took me from a very raw blues musician to one that really understood the music.” The two shared a passion that sprouted from the development of electric Chicago blues from the 1950s. From the outset, they were intent of building on that tradition. They came from different backgrounds. James, a San Diegan, was a wunderkind student of jazz and blues. Rynn was a classically trained bassist who happened upon blues and found his passion. On chilly Chicago nights, they would go to jams or blues clubs, hoping for the opportunity to play with more experienced bluesmen and hone their knowledge of the music. They played with and learned from Detroit Junior, Lefty Dizz, Johnny Littlejohn, and Dave and Louis Myers among others. Eventually they would hook up with the touring bands of Sam Lay and Jody Williams, hold down a weekly gig at Kingston Mines, and establish themselves as one of the most vibrant Chicago blues bands today with a string of four successful CDs. Their latest CD, Trouble Don’t Last was released in 2015 on VizzTone. Their simple goal has always been to be worthy contributors to the legacy of blues, but that hasn’t always been a easy road. They knew that being sidemen was their ticket into the

inner circle of Chicago blues, but that also undermined their ability to be an independent band. Music always intrigued James. At the age of 4, he would hear music on the radio or television and go over to his mother’s piano and start playing it note for note. Music was cherished in his San Diego home. His grandparents used to jitterbug to the Joe Liggins band at a nearby club and the family’s collection of 78s by Count Basie, King Cole Trio, and others were stored respectfully in their dining room liquor cabinet. At the age of nine, he’d heard Bo Diddley’s “Before You Accuse Me,”

which had a dramatic impact on him. By 11 he was playing blues on piano. About that time, he heard a BBC documentary that featured Muddy Waters doing “I Just Want To Make Love To You.” “It had Little Walter playing chromatic harmonica,” James recalls. “I didn’t even now what a chromatic harmonica was, but I went out of my mind over the sound of it and said ‘OK, I want to be a harmonica player.’” At 13, he joined San Diego bluesman Tomcat Courtney’s band as a harmonica player. When the band’s bass player quit, Courtney handed him a

bass and told him to learn it and come back next week. He was now the band’s bass player. He eventually took up guitar, studied jazz, and made his way back to the blues. He was playing a small club in San Diego when het met bluesman Bobby Rush, who was playing across the street. “He told me that if I really wanted to play blues, I needed to go to Chicago,” James says, adding that he needed no further encouragement. Rynn came to music from a different direction. Trained as a classical bass player, he’d purchased a cassette tape on a whim at a University of Toledo

bookstore sale that rocked his world. As soon as he heard the opening of “Dust My Broom,” he knew that Elmore James was onto something more exciting than any music he’d heard. He went on to play some harmonica and then bass for veteran bluesmen Art and Roman Griswold in Toledo, but it was a chance opportunity to play bass behind harmonica player Junior Wells that instilled in him new confidence. “That night really changed my life,” Rynn says. “Junior invited me to Chicago to be his guest at the Chicago Blues Festival two weeks later, and I jumped at the chance.” His Chicago trip reinforced his idea to move to Chicago. Once there, he made

the rounds of nighttime jams, working days at Guitar Center where he was the only person who had an interest in the blues. One afternoon, he was called to the phone and while on it he heard some fierce blues being played just a few feet away. “I told the caller, I had to go and hung up on him,” Rynn says. “I heard the best, most authentic down-home country blues that I’d only heard on record. When he saw the guitarist, his jaw dropped. “It was Chris,” he says. “We’d crossed paths a couple of times in

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clubs, and I don’t think either of us liked the other very much. But this changed everything.” The pair began comparing notes, listening and talking music for hours. James was more musically sophisticated, so when they first sat down to play it was more like a teacher-student relationship. By this time, Rynn had ideas of becoming a blues guitarist, but when he played for James, James remarked that he played guitar like a bass player. “I said, ‘That’s because I’m a bass player,’” Rynn recalls. The two became inseparable. Spending as much time as they could together, they sat in with musicians, got a few sideman gigs, and toiled away the afternoons playing the blues. “Chicago blues is the art of ensemble playing,” James says. “It goes back to the Aces, who really were the architects of the modern blues band. If you don’t respect that, you’re on shaky ground.” Brothers Dave and Louis Myers founded the Aces with Junior Wells in the early 1950s, later adding Fred Below on drums. It became known for being able to seamlessly back any Chicago bluesman. “This music is very important to me,” James continues. “Every kind of modern music we have now comes from the blues, and I wanted to make sure that if I played it, I was being respectful to the music. It was never about just playing solos; it was about how a band works together. That’s the way it’s always been in Chicago.” Several months into their Chicago stay, they attended a tribute to harp great Little Walter at Rosa’s nightclub. Standouts such as the Myers brothers, Billy Boy Arnold, Sunnyland Slim, and David “Honeyboy” Edwards were commanding the bandstand. But the old-timers invited James and Rynn to set in as the night grew long. One of those in attendance was

Sam Lay, the drummer and signer who already had spent nearly four decades working with the cream of Chicago’s blues royalty: Howlin’ Wolf, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, and Muddy Waters. He snapped to attention when he heard the two young men on the bandstand. “I knew immediately that I wanted these guys in my band,” Lay recalls. “It was obvious they knew what they were doing.” Weeks later, Lay called James and offered them a gig. James told Rynn they had four hours to get ready for a week trip to Atlanta, and they were ready when Lay pulled up in his station wagon.

“They were great to play with,” Lay recalls. “I didn’t have to teach them anything. They were ready for anything I wanted to do, and that’s a very difficult thing to find in young musicians. In fact, I’m sure they taught me as much as I did them.” Their one-week trip became five years of road gigs with Lay. James credits Lay with teaching him to be a professional and offering him the chance to hone his skills as a front man. In each night’s set, Lay and James would share vocal duties. “Sam was the king of dynamics.

He’ll bring the music down to whisper and then just explode. He’d trust us to know what he was doing. “Wolf taught Sam how to be a professional. He was 25 years older than Sam, and now Sam was teaching us, and we were 25 years younger than him. There’s a direct connection there.” After four years, harmonica player Rob Stone joined the band, and he’d spend the next 20 years collaborating with James and Rynn. Finally settled back in Chicago in 1995, James and Rynn landed a weekly gig at Kingston Mines. Pioneering guitarist Jody Williams began to stop in and play

with them. In 2001, he would take them on the road with him. “I can’t remember anything they couldn’t do,” says Williams, a member of the Blues Hall of Fame. “They were very serious and did their homework. I’d get back if I could.” Again they were delayed in pursuit of their ultimate goal. It wasn’t until 2008 when their Stop An Think About It CD was released that they felt they had hit paydirt. “Our goal is to play good music,” James says. “We wanted to reach the point that we could play with anyone. We wanted to play with them for the first time, and you wouldn’t even know it was the first time. Not everyone can do that, but that’s always been what

we wanted to do. I think we have reached that point.”

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delTa journeys 14 Years Of Cat Head

by Roger Stolle

On July 24th, my Cat Head Delta Blues & Folk Art store in downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi,

celebrated 14 years of serving the blues world. During that time, I’ve welcomed hundreds of thousands of blues fans and tourists to “Mississippi’s Blues Store.” Now, as then, Cat Head’s mission is not “to sell merchandise” per se, though it does need to sell enough to both survive and fund its various film, music, writing, and festival projects. No, the Cat Head mission is still to “organize and promote the blues from within.” In other words, pull together the blues scene here enough that we can then promote it to the universe in such a meaningful way that the world will visit – allowing us to deliver on the promise of a “Mississippi blues experience.” If you doubt Clarksdale’s ability to provide such an experience, please check out my Music Calendar web page at www.cathead.biz which features 7 nights of live blues every week. (Today’s re-vigorated Clarksdale also has two blues museums, a dozen festival and plenty of interesting places to eat, shop and stay.) That’s the positive change I’ve seen in the past 14 years. But what about the music industry itself? What kind of change have we seen there? [Insert soap box here, y’all.]

THE RISE AND FALL OF PHYSICAL PRODUCT.When I opened my doors in 2002, the music industry was a vastly different landscape than it is today. Remember cassettes and VHS videotapes? People were still buying them, though in smaller

quantities every year. Vinyl? Well, we still called that category “LPs” or just plain “records,” but regardless of the nomenclature, few customers were buying and fewer labels were pressing them. The CD was still king, but the crown had already cracked. MP3s were said to be the future, though a battle was raging regarding free versus paid downloads. In fact, around the time I

opened my Cat Head store, the cost of multiple lawsuits bankrupted the major offender of the era – the original Napster (which had around 80 million registered users at its peak). Outspoken entertainer Jay Z would later sum it up this way: “People really feel like music is free but will pay $6 for water.” He said this, of course, at the launch of a new subscription service – the next “new way” of retailing music – where you essentially rent songs for a listen but don’t own them. To give you an idea of the growth in streaming versus buying music, between 2013 and 2014,

streaming increased by a stunning 54% according to Nielson. Meanwhile, CD sales dropped (another) 15% and even paid digital downloads dropped 13%. Vinyl sales increased by 50% but still only made up 6% of total physical music. Vinyl’s “comeback” is still early to judge. Some articles have already suggested a slowdown in vinyl’s sales potential, but it is conceivable that the rise of vinyl may in some small way bring more young fans

to blues and roots music genres as they seek to build a diverse record collection. Anecdotally, I can tell you that many (if not most) of my recent vinyl customers at Cat Head are what I would call “young.” According to Digital Music News earlier this year, millennials are actually 60% more likely to buy vinyl records than the general population. Whereas younger shoppers used to often walk out of Cat Head with a T-shirt instead of a “obsolete” CD, now, they may well walk out with a T-shirt and a vinyl record – one that I personally recommended from my store’s already curated collection,

one that may well lead to a lifelong love of blues. Still, at Cat Head, the main gateway to new blues fans is still the very portable, durable, and relatively affordable CD. That’s how most of my customers add blues to their collections.

BUT HOW DO I PLAY MY NEW BLUES CD?Half of our day-to-day tourist customers in Clarksdale may be music fans – hence their musical road-trip through our region – but are new to blues. “If I were going to buy one blues CD, what should I get?” or “What’s

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your favorite blues CD?” are common, everyday questions at Cat Head. If I answer correctly, we might add one more long-time blues fan to the mix – one who will support live shows and buy recordings for years to come. He or she may even hand down the passion to a

next generation. If I answer wrong, then it may be the only blues CD they ever buy. The challenge? If they don’t have a way to play a CD on their once-in-a-lifetime road-trip through Mississippi blues country or a way to add it to their iTunes when they get home, then they may never even ask the question. Yup. As if normal free market pressures weren’t enough, I am now seeing blues tourists who want to buy a blues CD, but don’t because the rental car they picked up in Memphis or New Orleans doesn’t have a CD player, or their new MacBook Air doesn’t have a disc drive. (Rental companies are trying to save a nickel. Apple is trying to force iTunes sales.) It may well be that a lack of interest in the CD itself won’t be the final nail in the coffin for the compact disc. It may be a lack of some way to play it. You may say, “Yeah, but that customer can still stream it, right?” Sure, if they are already interested in blues and already know which blues release to get. I view a record store like I view a doctor’s office. You go there to hear from an expert who will prescribe something to make your life better. As a Doctor of Bluesology (or minimally, a Nurse Practitioner), I can tell you that a large percentage of my visiting customers

don’t own any blues CDs – yet. If they don’t pick one up on their road-trip through the American Music Triangle, then they may not – ever.

HOW ELSE HAS TECHNOLOGY AFFECTED BLUES?

The 1990s saw the rise of Pro Tools (allowing recording engineers to cut ‘n paste notes), and the 2000s saw the rise of Auto-Tune (allowing them to “fix” a singer’s pitch). At the same time, TV shows like American Idol and its imitators began trumpeting musical perfection over feeling and cultural connection. Think this isn’t disturbing for blues fans? What if icons from Charley Patton to Pinetop Perkins,

Howlin’ Wolf to Jimi Hendrix weren’t judged “perfect enough” as singers to make records? Imagine not having their music. Imagine not having the musicians their recordings influenced. Then, imagine seeing them live, in-concert – except they’re really not. Think it can’t happen in the world of blues? Well, it can. A couple years ago in Memphis, I judged a blues challenge where one of the solo competitors used

a foot pedal to play back various pre-recorded rhythms and riffs as he sang and played guitar over the top. Then, just last year, for a big “Christmas Blues Show” held at our historic auditorium in Clarksdale, Mississippi, three of the six soul-blues acts sang over backing tracks with no band in sight. (The worst thing was that 90% of the audience actually seemed to prefer this karaoked-blues over the actual live bands that performed. Crazy.)

WHAT’S THE MESSAGE HERE?Let’s not let the Musical Industrial Complex control what we consume or how we consume it. A lot has changed over the past 14 years, and a lot more will change over the next 14. My hope is that we all continue to support live and recorded blues music, especially the indie label and culturally-connected variety. That means we all need to pay cover charges (with no

complaints) and buy what product our budgets allow, preferably at our friendly neighborhood record store or directly from the artist at a show. And always tip, tip, tip the band! Oh, and remember that every time you play an album at a party, every time you buy someone a gift, every time you post something on social media, it is an opportunity to introduce someone else to the blues. Become a Doctor of Bluesology. Thanks for an amazing 14 years of blues adventures at Cat Head store. Here’s to the future. Long live the blues.


around THe worldby Bob MargolinThe Lasting Waltzes

It’s both a time twist and a victory over time to perform in the original Last Waltz concert in 1976 and then in

the 2016 tribute concert in New Orleans during Jazzfest. Forty years, same music, different players except me. Generations of music lovers appreciate the Martin Scorsese concert film of The Band, five geniuses who were magical together, and their famous and talented friends. The music is so powerful that live tribute shows draw large audiences. My story of the original concert and the latest epic tribute.is not just “Bob around rock stars.” There is a flowing undercurrent of blues feeling and blues music in me and my Last Waltz experience, then and now. In 1975 bluesman Paul Butterfield and Levon Helm from The Band produced the Muddy Waters Woodstock Album. It was Muddy’s last album for Chess Records and won a Grammy. There was no blues category then — it won for “Ethnic and Folk Music.” Muddy brought me on guitar and Pinetop Perkins on piano from his road band to give him a familiar foundation to combine with Levon’s musician choices. In hindsight, the album has its own down home mojo, a Levon trademark, and should be appreciated along with the albums Muddy did with Johnny Winter the next few years. ‘70s road story: Muddy recorded Hard Again in October 1976. I asked producer Johnny Winter if he knew Eric Clapton. I knew Delta Blues icon Robert Johnson was important in both their lives, mine and Muddy’s too. Johnny said he didn’t know Eric but a few years before, someone with a British accent called him and said he was Eric. Johnny didn’t believe it and hung up. The next month I met Eric at the Last Waltz and told him Muddy had just recorded with Johnny. Eric said he had tried to call Johnny once but Johnny didn’t believe it was him and hung up. Levon invited Muddy to appear at The Last Waltz concert in November

1976. I learned years later that Muddy was almost cut from the show but Levon fought for him and prevailed. Muddy brought me and Pinetop again, but on our song only one camera was rolling, zooming in and out. Because I was standing next to Muddy, I was in every frame. Pinetop was heard but not seen. From the night of the concert on, Muddy’s kick-ass performance of “Mannish Boy” is considered a highlight if not show-stealer.

The power of blues music performed strongly by one of its legends shown brightly along with The Band’s and their other guests’ more well-known songs. Because this is Muddy’s most visible performance ever, it’s considered a career peak for him. It did indeed showcase Muddy’s aggressive, sex-charged singing. But Muddy’s ultimate electric slide guitar was not in “Mannish Boy” or the other concert-only song, “Caledonia.” That song featured shared vocals with Pinetop, Garth Hudson on accordion and guitar solos by me and Robbie Robertson. The Last Waltz film is my most visible performance too, regardless of anything I did with Muddy or in my solo career since 1980 or my new album that’s doing well today. I’m not complaining, just laughing and shaking my head. That’s showbiz. That’s also the blues.

At the original concert and the big hotel jam after, I noticed the famous musicians who loved blues music hung out together. They were nice to me because I was with Muddy and had brought a cool blues guitar and they must have liked what they heard me play. At about 7 am after everyone jammed and partied all night, I started to leave but Bob Dylan appeared and said, “I thought we were going to play together.” I stayed. We

had Levon on drums, Dr. John on piano, Ron Wood on bass, Paul Butterfield on harp, and me and Eric Clapton on guitars. Dylan sang Robert Johnson songs in his signature vocal style. It certainly was an honor to jam on blues with these accomplished musicians. I snuck a look at them watching me play a solo. I fully appreciated it in the moment. At 27, I thought my whole Last Waltz experience was once-in-a-lifetime.On two smaller tributes a few years ago, and again recently, I found that it wasn’t. As one of the surviving musicians who was in the original concert and film, I was invited to participate in the 2016 concert at the Saenger Theater in New Orleans. One night sold out in minutes and a second show was added. As Muddy sang in his 1950 song “Louisiana Blues,” “Let’s go back to New Orleans, boys!”

ALL PHO

TOG

RAPH

Y © C

OU

RTESY O

F BOB M

ARG

OLIN

1976 — Robbie Robertson, Muddy Waters, Bob Margolin, and Paul Butterfield


And Little Walter answered, “Aw take me witcha man when you go!” Time twists.

The musical directors of the 2016 Last Waltz were right for the job: guitarist/singer Warren Haynes and producer/multi-instrumentalist Don Was. They

assembled a stellar band and guests: Country Music star Jamey Johnson, keyboard wizard John Medeski, iconic singer Michael McDonald, Lukas Nelson singing one night, Smoky Greenwell on blues harp. Also featured were New Orleans legends George Porter Jr. on bass, Ivan and Cyril Neville, Terence Higgins on drums, and Bonerama founder Mark Mullins led a horn section playing charts that Allen Toussaint wrote for the original concert. It was big fun to play and hang out with my old friend Dave Malone from The Radiators. They had rehearsed the complex songs from the original Last Waltz and when I arrived the day before the first show, they were close to ready. I was to lead and sing Muddy’s “Mannish Boy” and it only took one brief run-through to prepare for that simple song which depends on attitude and a spirited band to be powerful. I also shared vocals and guitars with Warren on “Further On Up The Road,” a Bobby Blue Bland classic that Eric Clapton had performed with The Band in 1976. As I packed my guitar after I rehearsed, something stopped me from leaving as sure as Bob Dylan kept me from leaving the after-show jam in 1976. I had the opportunity to listen to today’s great players going over this music that means so much to me. I love the Last Waltz music for itself. Though I had traveled hard from home and went right to the rehearsal, I was entranced to hear these songs done live right in front of me by great

musicians — again. You can’t get that with an iPhone. I stayed four more hours to savor this until I began to fall asleep from exhaustion. At the theater the next day, sound check was a final run-through with tweaks. Unlike the original concert, the musicians had

teleprompters and discreet iPads for lyrics and arrangements. Frankly, it was an advantage for me to perform a song I had played with and without Muddy since 1973. Muddy’s 1976 Last Waltz “Mannish Boy” was strong but I had seen him do even more lively performances of it at our gigs. In 2016 I took inspiration from those. Nobody could reproduce Muddy’s voice or personal power, he took those with him. But I could deliver my best with the great big band and the audience in the moment. We got the crowd on its feet both nights. I sincerely thank Muddy, the 1976 and 2016 musicians and a New Orleans turnout that was ready to rock. Aj Gross, promoter of the Big Blues Bender, shot a video of my Friday night performance that captured the spirit and got a few thousand views on Facebook before the second night even started. Might I get to be a “Mannish Boy” again at the Bender?

At the New Orleans Waltz, I realized I am now five years older than Muddy was when he played at the original show. My road now is to write and perform new songs from my own life along with older original songs and favorites that I love to cover. It’s an honor and pleasure to play my version of Muddy’s music sometimes, for myself, for an audience, and because Muddy would want me to. At the 2016 Last Waltz, all of this was in my heart, my blues, and my performance.

My Road brings a fresh focus for Margolin both

musically and lyrically.

My Road reveals who I am today, musically and very

personally. Each song takes a surprising turn from the others and my previous

music.

My Road is my ride through modern challenges, the ironies and lessons of

aging, achieving true love, mourning, my band’s

distinctive signature sound, a childhood epiphany, my

seven years in Muddy Waters’ band, and

exploring the darkest sides of life with friends who have

been there.”

www.BobMargolin.com

Terence Higgins, Don Was, Warren Haynes, Bob, Jamey Johnson, Michael McDonald


Blues Music StoreBonus Issue With Every Purchase! CALL TOLL FREE: 1-855-US BLUES

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Alligator Records - 45th Anniversary“Alligator always delivers the excitement of discovery with these collections” - Blues Music Magazine Order the 2 CD set today: Only $20

Stony Plain - 40 Years “40 Years Of Stony Plain, a fine collection of roots ‘n’ blues from the visionary Stony Plains Records.” - Blues Music Magazine Order the 3 CD set today: Only $25

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Mavis Staples - Livin’ On A High Note “What the music of heaven must sound like” - Blues Music Magazine Order the CD today: Only $16


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Albert Castiglia - Big Dog“He’s still that hard driving guitarist. But he’s one who also has some pretty cool things to say.” - Blues Music Magazine Order the CD today: Only $18

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PAGE 49

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Cd revIewsVARIOUS ARTISTS40 Years Of Stony PlainStony Plain Records

Celebrating a milestone anniversary this year, Canada’s Stony Plain

Records has released 40 Years Of Stony Plain, a budget-priced three-disc set offering up a heady stew of roots ‘n’ blues music. The album’s CDs are arranged by theme, disc one focusing on singers and songwriters. The 16 tracks offer an eclectic smorgasbord of talented tunesmiths and songsters, including performances by such diverse Canadian and American artists as Ian Tyson, Corb Lund, Eric Bibb, Steve Earle, and Rodney Crowell. Linden’s album-opening “No More Cheap Wine” is a gem, a slice of blue-eyed soul akin to John Hiatt. Celtic folk band Spirit of the West deliver a joyful ditty in “The Crawl,” a tale of a raucous night on the town, while Emmylou Harris’s live “Where Will I Be” displays the full measure of her magical, charismatic vocals. Doug Sahm lived in Canada during the late 1980s, recording two albums for Stony Plain; his “Louis Riel” is a wonderful mix of Tex-Mex and Zydeco styles. Stony Plain has done right well with guitar pickers and a pair of songs – “That’s All Right (Mama)” and “Flying Home” – justify the label’s faith. The former is a stellar performance by the all-star combo of guitarists James Burton, Albert Lee, Amos Garrett, and David Wilcox, the latter showcases the “New Guitar Summit” of Jay Geils, Duke Robillard, and Gerry Beaudoin swinging through “Flying Home,” a breezy Lionel Hampton classic. Disc two’s 19 tracks spotlight blues, R&B, and jazz, featuring a wealth of talent including Ruthie Foster, Paul Reddick, Billy Boy Arnold, Rory Block, and Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne. Joe Louis Walker’s “Eyes Like A Cat” is much jazzier than his current work, revealing a different facet of Walker’s much

jazzier than his current work, revealing a different facet of Walker’s talent by placing him in a big band setting. Guitarist Ronnie Earl’s talents are unparalleled, his cover of Otis Rush’s “It Takes Time” ratcheting up the blues with vocals by Michael Ledbetter. Maria Muldaur’s take on the traditional “Soul Of Man” is a powerful duet with the great Taj Mahal, and Long John Baldry’s cover of Leadbelly’s “Midnight Special” is a treasure. The late Jeff Healey’s reading of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Hong Kong Blues” is a curious mix of ragtime and Asian flavors featuring his elegant fretwork, while Jim Byrne’s “Wrapped Up, Tied Up” allows his soulful vocals to soar above a jazzy, big band romp. Disc three offers a dozen rare, previously unreleased tracks from Duke Robillard, Maria Muldaur, Eric Bibb, Bob Carpenter, and the Mississippi Sheiks’ Sam Chatmon. Robillard and band’s livewire instrumental cover of Amy Winehouse’s “Rehab” re-frames it as classic Stax soul, while Muldaur’s cover of Memphis Minnie’s “In My Girlish Days” is smooth as silk. The album ends with Walter ‘Shakey’ Horton’s icy “Shakey’s Edmonton Blues,” a blues instrumental so bleak it’ll send shivers down your spine. Four decades of great music flies by in a few hours while playing 40 Years Of Stony Plain, a fine collection of roots ‘n’ blues from the visionary Stony Plains Records.– Rev. Keith A. Gordon

his love for a fabled American art form into a cause first, and a livelihood second. When Delmark Records, the other illustrious Chicago-based blues label that Iglauer then worked for, wouldn’t fund a recording of Hound Dog Taylor & the Houserockers, Iglauer did. Perhaps Delmark owner Bob Koester thought Taylor’s raucous, teeth-rattling, slide guitar-based music was too rock ‘n’ roll? Well, to Iglauer’s ears it was the bottled essence of some of the most intense stuff that went down in the Windy City’s West Side neighborhood clubs. He felt the world needed to be able to pop the cork on it and drink in its liberating rhythms. So, he bet the farm (actually the rented inner-city flat) on Taylor and took to the road hawking his infectious music from the trunk of a car. That Taylor album marked the 1971 birth of Alligator Records. Iglauer had nerves of steel back then, and he still does, not only surviving in a music industry that eats its own, but challenging it and winning, for an astounding near-half century. He learned to take risks, and roll with the changes, like any successful business owner. Where another label may remain strictly, admirably linear, Alligator zigzags inside, outside, and around the box, recording artists such as JJ Grey & Mofro, who use the blues as a base to jump into the funky end of the Southern swampy jam band pool. And Lee Rocker, originally of the Stray Cats, who still slaps a bass fiddle and rocks with glee. They’re both here on Alligator’s highly entertaining 45th Anniversary Collection along with Anders Osborne dragging a thick, psych-infused New Orleans groove, and Kansas’ Moreland & Arbuckle on a rubbery heartland blues-rocker. But among the almost 300 Alligator albums, there’s plenty of real-deal, from both the old-school and the new bloods. Early Alligator-nurtured artists Albert Collins, Son Seals, Luther Allison, and Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials sizzle and blaze; Carey and Lurrie Bell light up the parlor; and Shemekia Copeland, Toronzo Cannon, and Selwyn Birchwood carry the torch. The Holmes Brothers take it to the church; a latter-day Roomful Of Blues swings slow and toughly; and Marcia Ball entertains and amuses while seriously tickling the ivories, Gulf Coast style. Other special moments arrive via the great James Cotton barreling

-----------------------------VARIOUS ARTISTSAlligator Records 45th AnniversaryAlligator Records

Bright-eyed and bushy-haired sixty-eight year-old Bruce Iglauer may be

the truest bluesman in the United States. And he doesn’t write songs, sing, or play a single note. Iglauer’s in the business of the blues. Long a resident of Chicago, the blues’ northern mecca, he’s channeled


down the tracks with the also-great Darrell Nulisch singing, a scorcher from the sadly departed hulk of a blues man, Michael “Iron Man” Burks, and a preview of the should-be legendary soul singer and harp player Curtis Salgado’s new album. Of course, no Alligator collection would be complete without an explosion by Hound Dog Taylor and his barroom wrecking crew. Pick any place to hit play among the 37 songs on these two CD’s and always find variety, flair, and hunger. Alligator always delivers the excitement of discovery with these collections. After all, that’s Mr. Iglauer’s cause. Bring the artists and/or their estates wider recognition and prosperity while bringing the fans all kinds of music they can genuinely rock the house with.– Tom Clarke

Instead of calling out to legions of name musical guests, Staples then added her distinguished touring band as the confident backbone throughout. The result, as the title suggests, is a collection of joyous songs that are as uplifting as they are revealing. “Take Us Back” opens the disc featuring all the classic elements of a Mavis Staples’ arrangement – Rick Holmstrom’s dark, tremolo guitar, Donny Gerrard and Vicki Randle’s sympathetic background vocals, and the dense rhythm section of Jeff Turmes (bass) and Stephen Hodges (drums) – wrapped around her advice to appreciate life in the moment. The same band, with producer Ward donning an acoustic guitar, follows Staples on Harper’s “Love And Trust.” At 76 years old, Staples continues to vocalize elegant emotions. Her plush delivery of “If It’s A Light” and “Dedicated” perfectly illustrate. Staples’ rocks the disc with “High Note” and funky soul on the horn laden “Tomorrow.” Never one to stray too far from her Civil Rights roots, Staples’ powerful “Action” recalls the dark times in a segregated South and shines a light on the faith needed to set freedom in motion in the times leading up to the Civil Rights Movement. Later, Staples and Gerrard address today’s conflicts with on target rhetorical questions on “History, Now.” On Nick Cave’s “Jesus, Lay Down Beside Me,” Gerrard and Randle offer the congregational responses to Staples’ delicate calls. The CD closes with “MLK Song,” its most poignant track. Ward took the words of Dr. King, added only his acoustic guitar and Staples’ weathered voice testifyin’ to Dr. King’s words of a peaceful humanity. One need only hear the elegant class Mavis Staples brings to every syllable she vocalizes to realize what the music of heaven must sound like.– Art Tipaldi

-----------------------------BONNIE RAITTDig In DeepRedwing

It’s good to see Bonnie Raitt topping album sales charts with Dig In Deep,

even if the charts are Billboard’s “minor” ones for blues and folk. She also deserves gratitude for providing a real musical moment with the B.B. King tribute amid all the rap/hip-hop posturing that filled three hours of the Grammy Awards show. Raitt still knows how to fire-up the high burners after 46 years in the music biz.

Dig In Deep is her 17th album since she debuted in 1970. Raitt’s early releases for Warner-Reprise settled the question, once and for all, whether a young woman, and a pale one with freckles at that, could rock the house on slide guitar instead of following the Joni Mitchell/Judy Collins/Joan Baez folksinger route. Raitt made serious guitar noise. And she proved she had serious staying power. When Warner dropped her for diminished sales, she roared back with her best-selling album ever, Nick Of Time, moving five million copies on Capitol.

This new release isn’t the fireball that Nick was, but Raitt still has all her instrumental chops intact, especially

-----------------------------MAVIS STAPLESLivin’ On A High NoteAnti-Records

There are few voices in the world compelling enough to turn heads.

Mavis Staples has that voice. Born in the church, raised in a family rooted in the blues of the Delta, matured in the Civil Rights movement, and broadcast nationally by Stax Records, Staples is the voice of a people. As a teen, she displayed a deeply elegant voice that conveyed her earnest testimony. Today, that voice has developed a throaty rasp that channels inspiration even in Staples’ quietist hum. For this CD, Staples chooses a dozen songs written specifically for Staples by some of contemporary music’s brightest names, Ben Harper, Nick Cave, Neko Case, Justin Vernon, Benjamin Booker, tune-Yards, Valerie June, Charity Rose Thielen, and M. Ward, who also produced the record.

-----------------------------

on the ballsy “The Comin’ Round Is Going Through,” a direct message aimed at fat-cat/wannabe politicos. Her vocal range seems a bit more limited these days – she sounds raspier at times, especially on the opening “Unintended Consequence of Love” – but by the second song, “Need You Tonight,” she is delivering prime Raitt material, a fair amount of it either self-written or collaborations.

If there’s nothing as definitive as her classic cover of Chris Smither’s “Love Me Like a Man,” there are some close ones. “I Knew” and “All Alone With Something To Say” seem radio-ready for regular airplay, along with her rave-up of the Cesar Rosas/T Bone Burnett tune “Shakin’ Shakin’ Shakes.” Raitt ends the 12-track, 52-minute disc with something of a departure, a slow number about busted relationships called “The Ones We Couldn’t Be.” She plays piano accompanied only by a subtle use of strings. It’s one of her own compositions and as good a goodbye song as you are likely to hear.– Bill Wasserzieher


Tedeschi Trucks Band Let Me Get By Fantasy

Ever since The Allman Brothers Band retired, guitarist Derek Trucks for the

first time gave his all to Tedeschi Trucks Band, and it really shows. Well before the close of 2015, my mind was made up that Let Me Get By would take best album in several possible 2016 contests. When the final note of the powerfully exquisite “In Every Heart” quiets the room, you can’t help but kick the whole thing right back up again. One after another, songs galvanize the room with adventure, yet so very effortlessly please the ear. Something new seems to jump out in each, every time. It may be a typically extraordinary Derek Trucks’ guitar solo that materializes in the most subtle of ways. Or, an inflection by his wife, Susan Tedeschi, who perfectly balances the grit and the grace when it comes to soul and blues singing (she’s also a damn fine guitar shredder). But, it could also be a crafty turn of phrase, or one of the matchless vocal harmonies and blasts of brass. Possibly just the way a rhythm turns. This, their third studio set, flawlessly documents the TTB sound – fomented by so many commanding sounds of the past. A dozen strong, this livewire outfit cut the album in the room at Swamp Raga, the feel of it thriving with love and cross-cultural camaraderie, not to mention the Jacksonville marsh that the Trucks family studio sits at the edge of. Check the chorus of frogs at the outset of the mystical instrumental named for the locale (fans of the old Derek Trucks Band will love this piece), and the handclapping at the coda of the dramatic R&B tune, “Right On Time.” They’re charmingly natural signs of life and togetherness. Plenty of jamming made the cut, with the flute-led interlude in the otherwise Motown swing of “I Want More,” standing out. Tedeschi sounds the most at ease, and yet potent, than she ever has, fully developed now into one of the premier vocalists of our time. There’s whimsy and big hooks in the opening

rocker, “Anyhow,” but steadfast purpose as well. Weighty issues in the lyrics are offset by light touches, from determination in the infectious, organ pumped title song, to togetherness in “Hear Me,” which absolutely defines contemporary soul. Despite the inspirations, originality prevails. But, anyone who’s seen the band perform knows that covering their heroes with zest constitutes a big part of their show. Those who shelled out the extra five bucks for the Deluxe Edition got their money’s worth by the inclusion of three songs from the band’s 2015 residency at New York’s Beacon Theater. Tedeschi especially tears it up during their blistering take on Bobby “Blue” Bland’s “I Pity The Fool.” Reenergizing the soul revue music of Joe Cocker’s Mad Dogs & Englishmen and Delaney & Bonnie (Bramlett) and Friends has become custom for TTB. The Delaney & Bonnie offshoot, Eric Clapton’s Derek & The Dominos, befits their program particularly well, especially given Trucks was named for that band. The Dominos’ freewheeling “Keep On Growing” is spot-on and wonderful live rock and roll. Also among the bonus tracks, David Bowie’s “Oh You Pretty Thing,” recorded just prior to the legendary artist’s death, comes off at once dainty and muscular, if not eerie. Someone from their camp once told me that Derek and Susan considered calling their band Swamp Family. Cartoon overtones and stylistic limitations aside, the handle would have been appropriate. But make no mistake – Tedeschi and Trucks lead the way. I urge any fan of great music to follow them.– Tom Clarke

Blues Music Magazine readers. They are adroitly backed by harmonica ace and producer Little Mike (Markowitz), and his fellow New Yorkers, guitarist Tony O Melio, bassist Brad Vickers, and drummer Mike Anderson. Perkins toured on occasion with Little Mike after he left the Legendary Blues Band. Subsequently, Little Mike produced Perkins’ first solo album (After Hours) on Blind Pig in 1988. There is a genuine level of comfort and familiarity that shines throughout the proceedings as everyone seems to be enjoying themselves. Perkins is the featured vocalist on seven of the ten tunes. Rogers doesn’t join the band until the fourth song. He is the featured vocalist on only “Big Boss Man,” and his originals “All In My Sleep” and “The Last Time,” but does trade licks and solos with Melio and Perkins for the rest of the set. Perkins, for the most part, seems to be in charge, leading the band through up-tempo finger-snappers like his exuberant original “For You My Love”, Eddie Vinson’s signature tune “Kidney Stew,” some early rock with “High Heel Sneakers,” and “Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie” (attributed here to Perkins but originally recorded in 1928 by the mysterious and tragic Pinetop Smith). Perkins detours to the dark side on “Goin’ Down Slow” (mistitled as “Had My Fun”). It’s a loose and amiable scene with Perkins and Rogers providing intros, commentaries, and some bantering. There is ample soloing by Perkins, Rogers, Tony O, and Little Mike. Kudos especially to Little Mike for his soulful harp playing. Whether warbling like Sonny Boy II or slashing like Little Walter, it is one of the album’s selling points, especially for harmonica fans. – Thomas J. Cullen III

-----------------------------PINETOP PERKINS AND JIMMY ROGERS WITH LITTLE MIKE AND THE TORNADOESGenuine Blues LegendsELROB Records

Recorded live in front of an enthusiastic audience at the Grand Auditorium in

Ellsworth, Maine, in May, 1988, these particular GBLs need no introduction to

MIGHTY SAM McCLAIN AND KNUT REIERSRUDTears Of The WorldACT

Mighty Sam McClain was both a traditionalist and an innovator – one

of the last few progenitors of pure,

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red-clay soul singing (who cut his first R&B chart hit in the mid-‘60s) and a musical fusionist who pursued his own visionary blend of blues, soul, R&B, funk, and gospel within the singer-songwriter’s art. Shamefully underappreciated and unrewarded with a BMA, McClain died from cancer and its complications in June 2015, despite the imagination, scope, and volume of his work. This album, as much a celebration of friendship as a freethinking soul-blues gem, was his final collaboration with Norwegian producer/guitarist/songwriter Knut Reiersrud. Also ignored in the current round of BMA nominations, it recently won the Spellemannprisen – Norway’s version of a Grammy – for best blues album of 2015. McClain and Reiersrud met and bonded during their work on the brilliant 2010 album Scent Of Reunion: Love Duets Across Civilizations, featuring McClain and Iranian vocalist Mahsa Vahdat. The cross-cultural intelligence of the project telegraphs itself, and the music’s raw beauty spoke volumes. Tears Of The World is a more straightforward but equally untempered affair. McClain and Reiersrud, who is an exceptional blues guitarist with a large vocabulary of tones, riffs, and compositional twists that freely borrow hues of classic country and pop music, head for the soul along three routes. Some selections revisit McClain’s catalog of past recordings. His new rendition of Carlene Carter’s “Too Proud” takes on bright new flourishes, including Reiersrud’s church-informed slide guitar and chiming bells, but is powered by the same simmering emotions he summoned in his first recording of the full-blooded, diary-like tale. New tunes, like the Reiersrud co-writes “Apples (Don’t Fall Far From The Tree)” and “Jewels” flash back to the golden era of soul, when giants of songwriting like Jerry Ragovoy and Dan Penn seemingly tossed off brilliant tunes for the likes of Howard Tate, Aretha Franklin, and James Carr. They’re actually that good – and smartly buoyed by Reiersrud’s crafty arrangements, including horns and female backing voices. The third route takes some intriguing twists in the pursuit of chestnuts. Joe Foreman’s obscure 1968 “Please Mr. Foreman” gets a predictably beefy retro treatment, but the magic happens – as it often did in McClain’s own albums – when surprises arrive. The biggest is McClain’s and Reiersrud’s duet reworking of the 1956 Doris Day hit “Que Sera, Sera.” The sweet-but-dark pop confection becomes a triumph of

soul introspection and testification, with McClain offering the latter in soaring, full-throttle form. We’re likely to be hearing more from McClain, since he left two unreleased albums behind. But for now, Tears Of The World serves as a winning, autobiographical memoriam of the depth and power of his art.– Ted Drozdowski

Of A Man” is a splendid launch for this 11-song, 42-minute collection. Same holds true for Lucinda Williams’ contributions, one works well, the other not quite so. But wholeheartedly satisfying are Tedeschi-Trucks’ “Keep Your Lamp Trimmed And Burning,” the Cowboy Junkies’ “Jesus Is Coming Soon,” which counterpoints Margo Timmins’ vocal with a sampling of Blind Willie’s own voice), a typically fine Blind Boys of Alabama interpretation of “Mother’s Children Have A Hard Time,” a sweeting reading of “Bye And Bye I’m Going To See The King” from North Mississippian Dickinson accompanied by Otha Turner’s descendants on fife and drum, and in the biggest surprise: A solo performance of “Let Your Light Shine On Me” by former Lone Justice singer Marie McKee, multi-tracking herself on guitar, piano, organ, and percussion. It alone is worth the price.– Bill Wasserzieher

-----------------------------VARIOUS ARTISTSGod Don’t Never Change: The Songs Of Blind Willie Johnson Alligator

A tribute album, a good one at least, is a boon to all. A deserving artist gets

celebrated, the record label(s) for whom he or she labored has an opportunity to reissue back catalog, the musicians who contribute are able to align themselves with someone they presumably respect and maybe they reach new listeners who like what they hear and will then buy the contributing artists’ own recordings. The only drawback is that the supply of those worthy of being celebrated is about tapped out. Or to put it another way, I stopped counting Jimi Hendrix tributes after the first six – and that was in the previous century. But a new one honoring Blind Willie Johnson deserves to be celebrated. Put together by Jeffrey Gaskill and released by Alligator, God Don’t Never Change brings together widely diverse artists to perform the songs of gospel/blues singer who was born in Pendleton, Texas, in 1897, and died a four-hour drive away in Beaumont, Texas, in 1945. Offering covers of his songs are, in the order they appear, Tom Waits, Lucinda Williams, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Cowboy Junkies, Blind Boys of Alabama, Sinead O’Connor, Luther Dickinson with the Rising Star Fife & Drum Band, Maria McKee, Rickie Lee Jones, and Waits and Williams each coming back for second appearances. Do all the tracks work? Darn near. Anvil-like percussion doesn’t help Waits’ mumble-growl of “John The Revelator,” but his version of “The Soul

KEB’ MO’Live That Hot Pink Blues AlbumKind Of Blue Music

Since we first met in May of 1994, I have seen Keb’ Mo’ perform as a solo

guitarist, in a duo, with a full band, and, for the past three years, in this multi-talented quartet. Whatever the arrangement, Keb’ has always satisfied his legions of fans with a smart mixture of older favorites and current trendy originals. Culled from a variety of venues during Keb’s 2015 tour, the two-disc set includes 16 songs and almost 80 minutes of tunes accurately capturing the most recent Keb’ Mo’ live experience. Supporting him is his crack touring unit of Casey Wasner (drums), Stan Sargeant (bass), and Michael B. Hicks (keyboards). There is also the Nashville String Orchestra septet supporting Keb’ on the three songs chosen from Nashville. The instrumental depth offered by the orchestra on “Life Is Beautiful,” “Come On Back,” and “More Than One Way Home” uplifts these originals into newfound reflections. Keb’ reprises three tunes from his eponymous 1994 debut. He opens

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with “Tell Everybody I Know” and moves to “She Just Wants To Dance,” a crowd pleaser for over 20 years of touring. He ends with the beautifully written “City Boy,” the minor key lament of every city dweller. As a simple duet between Keb’s guitar and Hicks’ lush piano, it’s easy to feel empathy for every person’s search for a home where freedom is prized. In between, the images Keb’ summons on “Henry,” written in tribute to Henry St. Clair Fredericks, aka Taj Mahal, recall a rural South when African-Americans sharecropped and the blues was in the air. Playing in this stripped down quartet gives Keb’ the opportunity to challenge himself as the band’s sole guitarist. As such, his solos have developed into coherent colorings that amplify each song’s mood or theme. Case in point, the eight and a half minutes of “Dangerous Mood.” Three minutes after Keb’s slow blues opening solo, he finesses a two-minute, single string solo that reinforces the song’s hot attitude. Three songs from his 2014 Grammy-nominated, Blues Music Award winning BluesAmericana record are the honky tonk “The Old Me Better,” his funky “The Worst Is Yet To Come,” and his blues-meets-church “Somebody Hurt You.” Don’t miss his six minute take on “The Door,” where each band member is given the opportunity to sing the chorus. Because his lyrics create an immediate singer-listener bond in each of his songs, Keb’ has his finger firmly on the psychic pulse of these modern times. These live songs will reach people in that same way.– Art Tipaldi

aural journey from Detroit to Portland, Oregon, and you will be pleasantly rewarded with 11 original Salgado tunes that are capped off with Johnny “Guitar” Watson’s “Hook Me Up” to complete the dozen cuts. You will be listening to a soulful singer, songwriter, and harp player who has earned BMA awards for Soul Blues Artist of the Year in 2010, 2012, and 2013. He also received the BMA as B.B. King Entertainer of the Year in 2013 as well! Any of our readers who have had the pleasure to see him perform live can attest to the validity of these achievements. Salgado also had a hand in the horn arrangements and assembled a group of fine musicians that included Johnny Lee Schell and Terry Robb on guitars, Mike Finnigan on organ, Tony Braunagel on drums, and a dozen others who contributed on various tunes. The beat on the songs should have you moving with Salgado’s groove. One outstanding cut, “Healing Love,” exhibits Salgado’s plea and subsequent salvation of love with the meter, rhythm, and passionate vocal that should make Van Morrision envious. The songs appear autobiographical and Salgado’s emphasis on certain words and phrases include the listener in his inner circle. He has so adroitly distilled the best of the Motown soul, horn punctuations, and swinging grooves with his own brand that makes this CD so listenable. There is even a satisfying reggae beat in the tune “Simple Enough.” Another gem is a lovely duet between Salgado and singer Danielle Schnebelen in the slow, soulful “Is There Something I Should Know,” one of the longest cuts on the CD. If you are a fan of Curtis Salgado, this is an essential and worthy addition to your library. If you aren’t familiar with Salgado’s work, this is a great record to start.– Pete Sardon

In blues terms, Texas meets California meets Chicago. That’s

how frontman Mark Hummel describes his collaboration with fellow blues heavyweights Little Charlie Baty, Anson Funderburgh, Wes Starr, and R.W. Grigsby. With that much talent in the studio, one of two things might be a likely outcome: they might step all over each other or they might put together a smooth and polished album of the music they’ve been pleasing listeners with for many years. The answer can be heard in the first two tracks. Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown’s “Midnight Hour” starts things off with Hummel singing but laying out on harmonica to give Baty and Funderburgh some space to allow their contrasting guitar styles to be heard next to each other and also to establish themselves for the remaining thirteen tracks. The second tune, Billy Boy Arnold’s “Here’s My Picture,” starts and finishes as a percussive rumba while seamlessly sliding into a shuffle for Hummel’s midpoint harp solo as Jim Pugh’s piano jangles over, under, and around. They’re all tight and loose at the same time and this doesn’t change as they put together this blues concoction. Within the context of the group, everyone shines; if any of these musicians and regional styles are appealing, then this album should be, too. Hummel himself brings four songs to the party; among them, he touches down in Texas with “Lucky Kewpie Doll” and closes things out with the dirge like “End Of The World”. Along with his originals, R.W. Grigsby’s financial crash lament “Detroit Blues” sounds about as Jimmy Reed in structure and content as a non-Jimmy Reed tune can sound. Hummel also revisits “Georgia Slop,” a tune from 1994’s Feel Like Rockin’. Listening to both back to back, this latest rendition, sporting a horn section, sounds richer and freer and launches him into a compact, whoop-ass harmonica solo near its end. Contrasting with these styles are other more toned down tracks such as Mose Allison’s “Stop This World,” in which Starr’s brush work and Pugh’s understated organ frame the call and response between Hummel’s chromatic soloing and Funderburgh’s guitar fills. Pick any track on this CD and similar observations can be made. Texas meets California meets Chicago. In blues terms, maybe not so easy to bring off cleanly. Evidence to the contrary submitted and received.– Matt MacDonald

-----------------------------CURTIS SALGADOThe Beautiful LowdownAlligator Records

Woody Allen crafted a wonderful movie about a jazz guitarist in

his Sweet & Lowdown film, but Curtis Salgado has outshone Allen in his uplifting latest Alligator release, The Beautiful Lowdown. Take a 2,388 mile

MARK HUMMEL’S GOLDEN STATE LONE STAR REVUEGolden State Lone Star Blues Revue Electro-Fi Records

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TINSLEY ELLISRed Clay SoulHeartfixer Music

Red Clay Soul is an almost perfect description of what Tinsley Ellis has

been doing his whole career. Almost perfect though, because on cuts like the opener, “All I Think About,” Ellis’ scalding guitar takes it out of soul and drops it right in rock and roll’s lap. It sounds like Leon Russell from the Mad Dogs and Englishmen days. That’s not Russell on the keys though, it’s Kevin McKendree, longtime stalwart of Delbert McClinton’s stellar road band, and producer or co/producer of every studio record Ellis has done since ‘97’s Fire It Up. “I ain’t much, but I’m all I think about,” Ellis bellows in Russell’s voice, tearing off chunks of redhot licks, Freddie King style. Delbert McClinton’s not guesting on this release, but it sure sounds like him singing on “Givin’ You Up,” a tune Ellis wrote over a decade ago with the Wood Brothers’ Oliver Wood on guitar and vocals. The melody pays homage to Delbert’s “Givin’ It Up For Your Love” as well. But there’s nothing wrong with a Delbert tribute tune, especially when it’s done as well as Ellis does, punctuated by some fine laid back harp by Ellis as well as some jangly Duane Allman-esque guitar spurring it on and McKendree tinkling along the spaces. Ellis incorporates Robert Cray’s mellow soul sound on “Anything But Go” with some ‘70s style soul guitar. “Party Of One” gets down to the wee hour blues, last set, peering bleary-eyed through a veil of cigarette smoke to see if there’s anybody still left in the club. “Paging Mr. Bitter, party of one,” Ellis calls out, but there’s no reply, only the lonely echo of his guitar off the walls of the empty room. Since his debut in ‘81 with harpist Chicago Bob Nelson as The Heartfixers, Ellis has put out 19 albums of soul-soaked blues dug out of the Georgia clay he calls home. Now the only thing left of the Heartfxers is his record label of the same name, and the soul that Ellis carries with him, dispensing remedies for

the heart as well as the soul, one gig at a time.– Grant Britt

Gibbons, but here it transcends the blues-rock genre, blazing keyboards and foot-shuffling percussion providing a high-energy counterpoint to Gibbons’ scorching guitar. Gibbons expands his musical palette on Perfectamundo, allowing his guitar greater freedom to soar while exploring different tones and textures with his lyrics and singing. As such, Perfectamundo is an engaging, and entertaining – if surprising – solo debut from the legendary blues-rock guitarist.– Rev. Keith A. Gordon

-----------------------------BILLY GIBBONS AND THE BFG’SPerfectamundoConcord Records

For nearly half a century, Billy Gibbons has fronted ZZ Top, that ‘little ol’ band

from Texas.’ If only for acclaimed albums like Rio Grande Mud, Tres Hombres, and Deguello, Gibbons’ place in the big book of blues-rock history would be assured. So why, this late in his career, would Gibbons deem it necessary to record a solo album like Perfectamundo? Gibbons has often brought his fascination with other genres of music to experiments with his longtime band, and he’s been interested in Latin and Afro-Cuban music for some time, once studying percussion with Mambo legend Tito Puente. Dominated by Afro-Cuban rhythms and other Latin music influences, Perfectamundo was recorded to provide Gibbons with a way to get his groove on without being kneecapped by the obvious restrictions of playing with a trio. Gibbons put together a multi-cultural band, The BFG’s, for this ‘solo debut,’ allowing him to flesh out his trademark sound, providing room for the guitarist to explore fresh creative turf. ZZ Top fans picking up a copy of Perfectamundo expecting a reprise of “La Grange” or “Sharp Dressed Man” are going to be surprised – not kindly, perhaps – by Gibbons’ solo experiment. But Gibbons’ bold, ballsy fusion of sultry rhythms and his blues roots works more often than not here, the five-piece band and Gibbons’ Latin influences serving as a blank canvas on which the guitarist can paint as he wishes. The album-opening cover of Slim Harpo’s “Got Love If You Want It” is a perfect example of the experiment done right, Gibbons’ breathless, subdued vocals complimented by colorful rhythms and his own spicy fretwork. A bawdy story-song, “Pickin’ Up Chicks On Dowling Street” is the sort of thing that one would expect from vintage

-----------------------------NICK MOSSFrom The Root To The FruitBlue Bella Records

In the Boy Scouts you are taught that moss is found on the north side of

a tree. In the blues, you can find the sounds of the Nick Moss Band all over the South side of Chicago! In his latest generous 27-song, double CD, From The Root To The Fruit, Moss wrote 16 of the songs and his talented blues vocalist, Michael Ledbetter, penned nine with Elmore James’ “Long Tall Woman” and the traditional “Serves Me Right” completing the song list. CD 1 is titled Roots and each of the 14 songs seems to snag a perfect rendering of the various Chicago blues sounds that were so prevalent in the ‘50s and ‘60s. Moss’ guitar is versatile and provides the right blues punch to accentuate the lyrics. On the title track, “From The Root To The Fruit,” he also provides the vocals as well as a very good harmonica accompaniment. Vocalist Ledbetter also plays rhythm guitar on some songs and guest artist Jason Ricci blows harp on “The Woman I Love.” Other Moss bandmates include Nick Fane playing bass with aplomb, Taylor Streiff on keys, and Patrick Seals on drums. I did not want the first CD to end as its pure South Side Chicago sound had me wishing it were even longer than its 53 minutes. The second CD (77 minutes) titled Fruits took a different turn and really showed the versatility of Ledbetter’s


soulful vocals and the tightness of the Nick Moss Band. Guest guitarist David Hildago from Los Lobos added his mark on “Free Will.” More than half of the songs are over five minutes in length with the longest cut, “Serves Me Right (Space Jam)” clocking in just under ten minutes. The Nick Moss Band is really tight and exudes a timelessness that will make this double CD a blues favorite even twenty years from now. Nick’s wife, Kate Moss, designed the packaging, and the interesting cover by Pat Moriarity appears to in the style of R. Crumb. Let’s see, two CDs of great blues that will play for over two hours – what’s not to like?– Pete Sardon

mid-tempo riff, vaguely bringing to mind the Allman Brothers. The album’s closing track, “Somehow,” also acoustic but not quite as promising, makes me wonder if Castiglia tapped into his days as a social worker to help it along. The change of pace that he offers with both of these is welcome. Where everything on Big Dog really seems to come together is on “Where The Devil Makes His Deals.” Throughout the album, there are recurring elements that work just fine – Castiglia’s electric guitar, rough singing, and written lyrics, Mike Zito’s guitar and backing vocals, Lewis Stephens’ organ, and Johnny Sansone’s harp playing on a couple of tracks – but it’s on this tune that all of these jell to form a song of compelling imagery and dark thoughts wrapped in a swampy, rhythmic drive. So, with this album, Albert Castiglia doesn’t have to worry: he’s still that hard driving guitarist. But he’s one who also has some pretty cool things to say.– Matt MacDonald

Wenner, Sugar Ray Norcia, Mark Hummel, Steve Guyger, Li’l Ronnie Owens, Kurt Crandall, Andrew Alli, and Bob Corritore, the last on decades-old recordings with Jimmy Rogers and Robert Lockwood, Jr. The profits from sales are said to go to the Blues Foundation and its Hart Fund, which assists musicians in financial distress. Most of the playing on Blues For Big Walter is predictably solid. Some of the harp-sters echo Big Walter’s style in their own manner of playing; others are just being themselves. My own taste leans toward Mark Wenner’s work on “Worried Life” and “Walking By Myself,” Steve Guyger’s versions of “If It Ain’t Me” (supported by a Finnish ensemble) and “Little Boy Blue” (backed by just guitarist Rich Yescalis), and album producer Li’l Ronnie Owens’ “We’re Gonna Move To Kansas City,” “Need My Baby,” and his album-closing live version of “Think Big” from a 2009 show.

Also Sugar Ray Norica and his Bluetones clock in with an 18:47 medley that takes listeners through “That Ain’t It,” “Walter’s Boogie,” “Everybody’s Fishing,” “I Don’t Get Around Much,” and finishes with “Blueberry Hill.” Talk about a tour de force, one harp man honoring another.– Bill Wasserzieher

ALBERT CASTIGLIABig Dog Ruf Records

At first glance, Albert Castiglia comes across as the hard driving electric

blues guitarist: lots of licks, lots of loud, lots of gritty vocals blasted right at you. On this album, his seventh release, there’s definitely a good amount of that happening, but that’s not all. Of the eleven tracks on Big Dog, six are either written or co-written by him and they prove to be some of its strongest. Looking at the track listings, “Get Your Ass In The Van” and “What The Hell Was I Thinking” first brought a grin to my face with the hope that they would somehow live up to their titles. Happily, they both do, with the first using an Elmore James guitar riff and low-fi sound to deliver an amped up Delta feel while the second’s lyrics express sentiments shared and uttered throughout history by the huddled masses of the ill advised and hung over. While these tunes safely fall into the category of what might be expected from Castiglia, he also breaks up Big Dog with a couple of acoustic flavored songs that are more of a noticeable departure from the rest of what he does here. Although “Let’s Make Love In The Morning” might look like another aggressively titled tune, it doesn’t sound that way at all, with its lyrics of promise and shared escape, combined with its

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-----------------------------VARIOUS ARTISTSBlues For Big WalterEller Soul

The Walters, Little and Big, were the harmonica kings of Chicago back

in the day. People tend to talk about Little Walter Jacobs more now, mostly because his recordings for Chess have always been available, but Big Walter Horton also has his advocates, despite his recordings being harder to find. Some authorities, including the late Willie Dixon, think Big Walter was the better artist, the one with the fatter tone and able to hang onto a single note longer. Dixon, in various interviews, even claimed that Big Walter taught Little Walter reed tricks and filled in for him in the studio when the diminutive one didn’t have the right stuff. Maybe, maybe not. Long story short, Big Walter, who died in 1981, is the honored subject of a new, 16-song collection featuring a variety of more recent harp players. The lineup features Kim Wilson, Mark

-----------------------------MIGHTY MIKE SCHERMERBlues In Good HandsVizzTone

Veteran guitarist/vocalist Mike Schermer relocated to Austin from

Northern California in 2009 and has been touring regularly with Marcia Ball since. Even though this is his sixth album, he has been nominated for a 2016 BMA in the Best New Artist category. On this self-produced baker’s dozen of originals, Schermer aptly demonstrates that he is one mighty fine songwriter, one whom other artists may want to consider covering (as did his friend Tommy Castro with the splendid “My Big Sister’s Radio”). Schermer’s main influences are Nawlins R&B, Southern soul, and Chicago blues with some jazz, reggae, and funk in the mix. His vocals are clear


and confident with a tinge of twangy grittiness while his wiry guitar playing is crisp, stinging, and uncluttered. The rollicking “Baby Don’t Stop” and “Barkin’ Up The Wrong Tree” (with Marcia Ball on piano), and the slinky “Most People” and “Hear You Call Him Baby” affirm his affinity for infectious Louisiana music. Favorites among the blues tunes are the Jimmy Reed-like jangler with weary vocals “Wait-On-Me Woman” and the Bo Diddley meets Slim Harpo thumper “Take My Hand”; both tunes feature Greg Izor’s raucous harmonica. The title track is an autobiographical country-soul ballad that pays homage to Albert Collins, Hubert Sumlin, and Jr. Walker. The rhythm section of drummer Paul Revelli and bassist Steve Ehrmann perform on most of the tracks; other musicians are drummer Damien Llanes, bassists Johnny Bradley and Keith McArthur, and keyboardists Austin Delone and Tony Stead. Special guests include John Nemeth on harmonica, Tommy Castro on guitar, saxophonists Terry Hanck and Nancy Wright, the aforementioned Ms. Ball, and background vocalists Carolyn Wonderland, Angela Strehli, Vicki Randle, and Shelly King. Blues In Good Hands is a well-crafted exemplar of soulful eclecticism with broad appeal.– Thomas J. Cullen III

Milteau is pure synchronicity. Milteau’s Hohner harmonicas provide a range of sounds from regular, lower tuned and accordion-like tremolo harps that seem to be drawn from inside the deep well of songs that reside in Bibb’s head. In fact, the closing song, “Swimming In A River Of Songs,” sums up Bibb’s inspiration and purpose in life – a most beautiful song that gets better with each repeated listen. Other standouts include: “The Midnight Special,” “Goodnight, Irene” (the number one song in America the year after Lead Belly’s passing and the year before Bibb’s birth), “The House Of The Rising Sun,” and “Bring A Little Water, Sylvie,” with its interplay between the high capoed guitar and lower registered harp. Bibb’s voice is both resonant and authoritative with excellent enunciation and Milteau punctuates and accentuates each song with harmonica phrasing that should make most harp players quiver with delight. In 1964 Lead Belly’s Midnight Special LP was frequently on my hi-fi and to hear these songs revitalized and brought to life by Bibb and Milteau was well worth the half-century wait. Grab your friends, an adult beverage (if you are so inclined), and a comfortable chair and share this historical and pleasant recording with them. I guarantee that they too will want to purchase their own copy of Lead Belly’s Gold. It will be a memorable hour well spent.– Pete Sardon

has since spent decades in the trenches, playing every blues joint, dive bar, and smoky club willing to book his dynamic stage show. Beard has recorded sporadically through the years, but albums like 2001’s Born To Play The Blues and 2005’s Live Wire have won him fans like Tommy Castro and Duke Robillard, two guys that know a thing or two about the blues. Whatever momentum Beard had achieved during the decade hit a wall, though, when the guitarist suffered a mini-stroke that left him partially paralyzed. Relearning the guitar, Beard’s “comeback” album, Eye Of The Witch, released on his own independent Destin Records label, showcases the enormous artistry of a man whose hard-won experience has caused him to fall in love with blues music all over again. Beard dollops spoonfuls of funk and soul into his traditional blues sound on Eye Of The Witch, a mix evident from the first notes of the album-opening “Let The Chips Fall.” Building on a deep groove wide enough to drive a semi-truck through, Beard’s incendiary fretwork pushes the backing rhythm to swing and the horns to sing. Beard’s original “Older Fool” mixes blues and rock while evoking a memory of the Delta. Sharing vocals with his dad Joe, the elder Mr. Beard provides a gruff, powerful counterpoint to his son’s warm, smokier vocals. The Chicago-styled “I’m Free” reminds of Buddy Guy, with icy blasts of horn and a Windy City swing. Beard’s deft fretwork throughout Eye Of The Witch is only half the story, his soulful vocals imbuing the album with an energy and electricity absent a majority of modern blues music. Chris Beard is a bluesman worth your while to discover.– Rev. Keith A. Gordon

-----------------------------ERIC BIBB AND J.J. MILTEAULead Belly’s GoldStony Plain Records

Just shy of an hour in length, this CD by singer/songwriter/guitarist Eric

Bibb and French harmonica player extraordinaire J.J. Milteau treats the wise purchaser to 11 live songs from the Sunset, a Paris Jazz Club. Cuts 12-16 are from the studio and are just as listenable. Taking diamonds from Lead Belly’s oeuvre, Bibb polishes them to a brilliant sparkle with the able virtuosity of J.J. Milteau’s harmonica, Larry Crockett’s drums and percussion, Gilles Michel’s bass lines, and back-up vocals by Big Daddy Wilson and Michael Robinson. The interplay between Bibb and

-----------------------------CHRIS BEARDEye Of The WitchDestin Records

Singer, songwriter, and guitarist Chris Beard is a second generation

bluesman. The son of the great, underrated Joe Beard, the young musician grew up in Rochester, New York, in the long shadow of legendary Delta bluesman Son House. Beard first picked up a guitar at age five and, inspired by friends of his father like Matt “Guitar” Murphy and Buddy Guy, was fronting his own R&B bands as a teenager. Beard

-----------------------------SHAUN MURPHYIt Won’t Stop RainingVision Wall Records

Shaun Murphy has a long history of making great music and is the heir

apparent to female blues icons Big Mama Thornton, Koko Taylor, and Etta


James by virtue of her impressive range, delightful delivery, and powerful vocals. She is one of the best blue-eyed soul/R&B divas around today and It Won’t Stop Raining is the proof. Totaling 12 tracks and containing mostly funky R&B tunes, Murphy slows it down a notch for a few cuts. On every measure of every song killer vocals, great guitars, Memphis-inspired organ, and a driving rhythm section showcase just how special Ms. Murphy’s talents really are. For funkiness check out the opening song “Spreadin’ The News,” “Happy With The One I Got Now,” “Running Out Of Town,” “Price Of Love,” “Hey Baby (Don’t You Remember Me),” “I Hate The Blues (But The Blues Sure Seems To Love Me),” and the closing cut “Fool For You.” She screams. She wails. She preaches. She broods. She remembers. More traditional and slower tracks like her cover of Denise LaSalle’s 1995 “Your Husband Is Cheatin’ On Us,” “That’s How A Woman Loves,” and “Need Your Love So Bad” are Memphis soul blues at it’s best. For real passion and power listen to “It Won’t Stop Raining,” Backing Ms. Murphy on her eighth release are Kenne Cramer and Shawn Starski on guitars, John Marcus playing bass, Larry Van Loon and John Wallum on keys, and Tom Del Rossi pounding. They are tight, play very well together, and perfectly match Murphy’s stunning vocals and delivery. Passion and power the way it should be done by a stupendous songstress.– A.J.Wachtel

Despite an origin scattered across times, locales, and players – nearly 30 other musicians are credited – the album has a cohesiveness that comes with Gray and Corritore’s singular approach. This is traditional Chicago blues played with style and grace but nothing fancy; it would have sounded at home in a tiny bar 60 years ago. From the get-go, there’s a party vibe to these tracks, with Gray kicking off the set with the Grant Jones “Let’s Get High,” his boogie blues piano driving the rhythm while Corritore adds a playful solo. “Blues Won’t Let Me Take My Rest,” from which the album derives part of its lengthy title, is slow-grooving shuffle that features guitarists Bob Margolin and Johnny Rapp. It’s one of two Gray originals featured here (the other being “I’m Gonna Miss You”). While Gray leads the band on most of these tracks, he takes a backseat to other singers on a handful of songs that feature such blues notables as Robert Lockwood, Jr. (“Ramblin On My Mind”), John Brim (“That Ain’t Right”), Nappy Brown (“Worried Life Blues”), Tail Dragger (“Boogie Woogie Ball”), and Dave Riley (“Ride With Your Daddy Tonight”). The 90-plus-year-old pianist keeps some mighty fine company. As the title of this album suggests, we’ll probably hear from more of those friends on the next batch.– Michael Cote

Memory teamed with veteran guitarist/singer/songwriter JJ Appleton who produced this 11 song set of eight originals and three covers. They are augmented by bassists Neil Heidler (four tracks) and Tim Lefebvre (five tracks). Comparisons to Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee, Cephas & Wiggins, and Ball & Sultan come to mind on this mix of Delta and Piedmont styles with some swamp and folk flourishes. Deft picking, jangling chords, and sinuous slide combine with wailing and chugging harmonica to produce an intricate yet fluid sound. Fans hoping for Ricci’s signature hair-on-fire fulminations are in for a surprise. Ricci’s energy and exuberance abound; his creative fire burns brightly and breezily but never to the point of conflagration. Favorite Appleton originals are the Elmore James-evocative “Leaning Blues” and “At The Wheel Again,” a traveling blues about a “devil’s pawn singing an angel song.” Appleton’s lilting tenor is more suggestive of folk music than deep blues. Ricci contributed a new version of his previously recorded introspection “New Man,” the haunting “Demon Lover,” and a limber-lunged tour de force instrumental “Jason Solo.” He also sings the Rolling Stones’ “Black Limousine,” one of two surprising covers, the other being Gary U.S. Bonds’ “It Ain’t No Use”; Blind Willie Johnson’s immortal “Nobody’s Fault but Mine” is the third cover. Ricci fans will want this as will fans of vibrant acoustic blues.– Thomas J. Cullen III

-----------------------------HENRY GRAY AND BOB CORRITOREBlues Won’t Let Me Take My RestDelta Groove

Pianist Henry Gray spent 12 years performing with Howlin’ Wolf,

beginning in 1956. But the Louisiana native’s relationship with harmonica player Bob Corritore spans nearly twice as long. This 14-track compilation collects performances from a dozen sessions recorded over the past two decades, with only four songs not previously released.

-----------------------------JJ APPLETON & JASON RICCIDirty MemoryOld Boy Network

When harmonica wizard Jason Ricci burst onto the national scene

around the turn of the century (with Big Al & the Heavyweights), harmonica fans were introduced to one of the fieriest and most adventurous players of the last 20 years. After he left Big Al, Ricci formed New Blood and then Mooncat. He was in the national spotlight in 2015 for his guest appearance on Johnny Winter’s Grammy winning Step Back album and for his performance at the induction of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. For Dirty

-----------------------------JORDAN PATTERSONThe Back On Track Recording ProjectFlaming Cheese Records

Promoters take note: Jordan Patterson is back! In 1996, Jordan Patterson

released his debut CD on JSP Records. That record featured an energetic harmonica player and vocalist steeped in traditional blues. The blues world quickly took note and Patterson soon moved from his Canadian home to the bustling D.C. blues scene. He roomed with Nighthawks’ guitarist Pete Kanaras

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and Doug Jay, and he hung out with Mark Wenner. But it was his association with Bobby Parker that became a turning point in Patterson’s career. Touring around the world and opening for many of the biggest acts in the blues exacted a toll and Patterson walked away to become a concert promoter and artist tour management working with Britney Spears, Jack White, Coldplay, Diana Krall, the Black Crows and many others. But in 2014 the blues again reached out to Patterson. This current record Patterson explores the delicate balance between contemporary and traditional blues. On the opening tune, “Favourite Boy,” Patterson’s sonic palate creates the edgy tension one expects in the finest blues-rock. Just when you think the record will be outrageous, over the top music, Patterson expertly delivers the follow-up, “Can We Fall In Love Again,” an evocative, soul-style ballad that easily could become this decade’s first dance tune at upcoming weddings. Patterson’s “You’re My Girl” is more pop then blues, however “Living Without Your Love” features a funkified arrangement supporting Patterson’s hard-edged pleas. Songs like “Don’t Take Me Down” and “Play My Song” give Patterson the opportunity to show-off the harp chops that turned heads 20 years ago. Deep and expressive, Patterson’s chops inject an ultra modern flair. His lowdown “If You’d Help Me Please” is the record’s darkest Chicago-styled blues. Guitarists Darryl Romphf and Bobby Thompson replicate the double guitar styles of the Allman Brothers while Patterson draws low-tones. “Heartbreaker” follows a similar style, ABB guitars leading into Patterson’s melodic harp treatments. I saw Patterson perform at the 2014 Tremblant International Blues Festival in Mont Tremblant and was blown away with his original songs, professional band arrangements, soulful vocals, and a harmonica style born of blues masters, but thoroughly contemporized into an individual artistic expression. With this record, Patterson is poised to re-establish himself as an important voice in the modern blues genre. – Art Tipaldi

HONEY ISLAND SWAMP BANDDemolition DayRuf

Displaced Louisianans Honey Island Swamp Band made a fantastic

fourth album in 2013, folding inspirations like the Radiators, Little Feat, The Allman Brothers Band, The Band, and Widespread Panic even, into their own Gulf Coast concoction. But that was nothing compared to this. In each way Cane Sugar impressed, Demolition Day will blow you away. Produced in New Orleans by the North Mississippi Allstars’ Luther Dickinson, the album celebrates the group’s ten years’ worth of growth by leaps and bounds. Although formed and still based in San Francisco after Katrina damn near literally blew the five not-yet band mates halfway across the country, the spirit of their New Orleans heritage remains fixed in the grooves. But never so much as to prevent a little Haight-Ashbury among all kinds of other things to shine through. In fact, with the very first guitar riffing and piano rolling in the opener “How Do You Feel,” it’s the Rolling Stones that come to mind, not the rolling Mississippi. The album plays incredibly well to the considerable strengths of Chris Mule and Aaron Wilkinson, each a principal songwriter and singer. No one tune by either even remotely sounds like the one before, but they all flow seamlessly. The band, Mule and Wilkinson on guitars, mandolin and harmonica, with bassist Sam Price, drummer Garland Paul, and keys player Trevor Brooks, plays as if joined at the hips. A full horn section and other guests flesh out the songs when appropriate. Even that seemingly lighthearted opener grows into something big and soulful and damn near dramatic. But the album really gets going with “Head High Water Blues,” a narrative that drags the depths of lasting psychological scars about the big storm. Not an easy thing to do with all the good tries out there about that universally-known, but only individually-understood topic. The mournful opening to “No Easy Way” gives way to a fluid, panicky melody

and some striking guitar, all weaving together an insightful reflection on life’s everyday challenges. “Medicated” sets off into retro rock ‘n’ soul territory about a guy that likes to be that way to ponder his ex, and how he screwed it all up and wants it all back. “Through Another Day” should give any Chris Stapleton song a rough but right run for its money, and the insistent beat and NOLA brass in the folky “Katie” make her completely unique and irresistible. But “Devil’s Den,” written by Mule with New Orleans mainstay John Mooney, is a real standout. That spooky acoustic-based blues should be up for some awards by year’s end for its expert arrangement about the various ways people struggle between good and temptation. A solid vision permeates this ultra-fine album. They state at the top of their online bio, “Meet the Honey Island Swamp Band.” Take that advice!– Tom Clarke


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-----------------------------BRAD VICKERS & HIS VESTAPOLITANSThat’s What They SayManHat Tone

On their fifth album veteran NYC singer/songwriter/guitarist Brad

Vickers and His Vestapolitans (drummer Bill Rankin and bassist/fiddler/songwriter/vocalist Margey Peters) continue their mastery of roots music on this esoteric set of 13 originals and two covers. Less than half the tunes are blues. Two covers open the album, Tampa Red’s “Seminole Blues,” a mid-tempo lament about the Florida railroad line that took his lover away featuring a Vickers’ breezy slide solo, and Leadbelly’s slow drag amalgam of swamp and folk, reminiscent of John Mooney, “Don’t You Love Your Daddy No More” with Dixieland jazz flourishes provided by clarinetist Jim Davis. Their affinity for Nawlins R&B is further explored on the rollicking tribute to home cooking with Peters’ cleverly worded “Mama’s Cookin’,” suggestive of Marcia Ball, and the bouncy “The Secret,” evocative of Fats Domino, Huey Smith, and Lloyd Price; both tunes are seasoned by the sax section of Jim Davis


and Matt Cowan who are also heard on the Chuck Berry-meets-the Blasters mash-up “Another Lonesome Road.” The remaining tunes include forays into old timey, bluegrass, traditional country, folk with several tunes featuring banjo, fiddle, and/or mandolin; there’s even some a capella gospel with “Fightin’ (In The Name Of Lord).”

Vickers is an accomplished and versatile guitarist as evidenced by the diverse music herein. Vocally, his overall style is dry, laconic, and unforced, and thus well-suited for the older styles, which gently roll along at a leisurely pace. Devoid of generic blues-rock bombast and werewolf-in-heat vocals, That’s What They Say is a refreshingly mature change of pace and audio treat for big-eared fans.– Thomas J. Cullen III

– usually darkly so – and are good for a chuckle and a finger pop. Two highlights, however, fall into another category. As soon as I saw the song list, I went for the title track. It did not disappoint. Loosely based on a story Bisharat heard while visiting Brazil, this minor tune, with its Spanish guitars, acoustic chromatic, and downtrodden bravado lyrics, jumps out. It’s one of the standouts on the album because of its unusual arrangement and sound. This can also be said for the last, but no less outstanding track. “Justice In My Time” is done with only vocals, chromatic, and bass. Although played at a slow tempo, Bisharat demonstrates outstanding harp fills and breath control reminiscent of some of Sonny Boy Williamson’s work. And, to top it all off, he lays down an outstanding, perfectly timed solo. Bisharat gets his moniker for a reason: throughout the album, he is indeed wielding that big crow. Surprisingly, however, he isn’t flashy with it. Although he splits evenly between amping up and going off the mic, his playing is economical. On a couple of tunes, his harp completely lays out and the 16-hole workout, “Size Matters,” although excellent, isn’t over the top. This style, along with his writing and get-the-job done vocals, is very refreshing, entertaining, and intriguing. Although it took awhile for Big Harp George to arrive, it’s great to be able to hear him now.– Matt MacDonald

to associate the Burnsides with their de facto extended family – other great Hill Country blues performers including Junior Kimbrough, T-Model Ford, and Asie Payton to Jessie Mae Hemphill, Kenny Brown, and musical Hill Country progenitor, the fife and drum master Othar Turner. Cedric and Garry Burnside have played together before, in the Burnside Exploration and Widespread Panic. Now Cedric and Garry are back together in a hot mix with superb Hill Country guitarist Trent Ayers, and their latest release is part of a multi-album series known as the Burnside Project. This CD has been Grammy-nominated and copped a 2016 Blues Music Award for Traditional Blues Album. Descendants Of Hill Country is both a tribute to Hill County antecedents including R.L. and Junior Kimbrough, and also an excellent showcase for the amazingly consistent talent these three men represent. Hill Country music is often known for its strong percussion, monochromatic vocals, and minimal but insistent guitar work. That’s why those who listen to older Hill Country invariably use the word “hypnotic” when describing the prominent percussion, minimalist arrangements, and simple vocals. The opening track, “Born With It,” fits nicely into that niche, worked over by Cedric’s insistent and dynamic drumming, and Ayers’ simple but distinctive string work. By the time the band moves into the third track, “Front Porch,” they’ve added harmony vocals and chord changes that let you know that this isn’t your father’s Hill Country. The next track, “Don’t Shoot The Dice,” is a raucous piece that opens with some on-mike SOT banter and, again, the band decides to continue the harmony singing that began in the last track and that repeats further uphill. “Tell Me What I’m Gonna Do,” with its tight 4/4 time and plaintive vocals, backed by Ayers and Garry Burnside hammering chords and driving bass against Cedric’s percussion, is one of the more emblematic pieces that almost defines the band’s intent. The rest of the tunes on this 13 track CD follow rhythmically and vocally in the footsteps of what came before. While there is a certain “sound” that follows through – one might call it a leitmotif – each track has distinctive lyrics by Cedric, and a guitar-bass-drum ensemble that tells us this is the next generation of Hill Country blues, which has a bit more rock infused into it while maintaining a strong blues sound. While there is a slight veering

-----------------------------BIG HARP GEORGEWash My Horse In Champagne Blues Mountain Records

This is George Bisharat’s second release, and it presents thirteen

originals that, once again, feature his chromatic harp playing while touching on a number of relatively atypical blues topics. Well-deserved nickname notwithstanding, Bisharat’s songwriting is the main strength of this album. A relative latecomer to the blues music scene, he’s lived some and brings his experiences to the table with him when he sits down to write. Yes, there’s a tune about getting run over in a bad relationship, but almost every other track deals with other no less important and emotional subjects. “I Wasn’t Ready” and “Light From Darkness” have their origins in family tragedies, while “Home Stretch” and its promise of lifestyle changes is the musical result of some health news of his own. “What’s Big?” serves as an answer to this question for his son. Although lacking histrionics, these very personal songs succeed musically. Aside from that, however, all is not necessarily serious. Some tunes here, often in the West Coast style, are humorous

-----------------------------CEDRIC BURNSIDE PROJECTDescendants Of Hill CountrySelf-released

The name Burnside in Holly Springs, MS, conjures up not only the great

Mississippi Hill Country bluesman R.L. Burnside, but also the rest of the family, smoking guitarist and R.L.’s son Duwayne Burnside, drummer/multi-instrumentalist Cedric Burnside (R.L.’s grandson), and drummer/vocalist/guitarist Garry Burnside (Cedric’s uncle). At the same time, when thinking Hill Country, it’s not unusual for fans of this often mesmerizing regional music


off from the “traditional” Hill style, the CD is firmly planted in the genre, and under the influence of three superb musicians, tells us that no musical genre can grow if it doesn’t change. These guys pulled a fine change-up on this album, and it’s a CD worth owning.– Michael Cala

predecessor Eric Clapton’s fretwork to pacify the “Clapton-Is-God” fans, as well as playing his deeper, moodier take on the blues. Either way, he’s brilliant, with McVie and Fleetwood equally solid.

But no bones about it, Mayall’s in the spotlight on nearly all of this volume’s 13 tracks, totaling about 73 minutes. But it’s fascinating to hear the embryonic Fleetwood Mac backing him, and typical of Mayall in his long career he gives them room to move behind his voice, organ, and harmonica. Green even steps to the front for his early self-composed instrumental “Greeny.”

If you are a fan of early Mayall or of Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, this and its preceding volume are essential listening, as is Mayall and Green’s one full album together, the classic A Hard Road.– Bill Wasserzieher

Moment,” is a love song with elements of the mariachi bands that Richardson learned from his grandmother. Funderburgh adds his guitar to two rocking tracks, “Get Me Back To Texas” and “Tall Pretty Baby,” which offer healthy doses of Richardson’s gorgeous guitar tone and tasty playing. “Triple Lindig” allows the guitarist to exercise some jazz sensibilities while “Here She Comes” packs a jaunty strut and cutting guitar licks. The Texas Horns frame Richardson’s expressive vocal on “Can’t Run From Love,” then join the rhythm section to create a darker mood “Tell Me Do You Love Me.” Richardson reveals his tender side on the ballad “This I Know” before finishing with the title cut, an instrumental that allows him plenty of space for one final showcase of his prodigious guitar skills. By then, it is clear the IBC judges knew what they were doing in 2005. Richardson has put together a striking collection that comes highly recommended!– Mark Thompson

JOHN MAYALL’S BLUESBREAKERSLive in 1967 – Volume TwoForty Below

When I put together a Top-10 list for Blues Music Magazine last year, I

had nine new albums and one previously unreleased vault collection, the latter being a live sampling of John Mayall in 1967 backed by what would become the core of Fleetwood Mac in its hard-core blues days. In a review of that album for this magazine, I noted, “For recordings nearly a half-century old – ones captured when a tape recorder was still a new-fangled thing – their sound is more than acceptable. Listeners can hear just how good Green was so early and how firm a foundation the McVie-Fleetwood pairing could provide.”

Now comes a second volume, and it’s just as good in terms of material and maybe is bit better in that the vintage sound seems slightly more consistent. It’s Mayall and the lads (they were each a bit more than 20 at the time, with John a dozen years older) playing at various London haunts – the Marquee, Klook’s Kleek, the Ram Jam Club – in the spring of that long-gone year. Lyndon Johnson was the U.S. President, Harold Wilson the British PM, and Vietnam the black hole of the decade.

Songs on Volume Two include a what’s-what of the material that drew so many young Brits to American blues. Titles include Sonny Boy Williamson II’s “Your Funeral And My Trial,” B.B. King’s “Sweet Little Angel,” J.B. Lenoir’s “Talk To Your Daughter,” T-Bone Walker’s “Stormy Monday,” Otis Rush’s “Double Trouble,” and even the Lionel Hampton-Dan Burley gem “Ridin’ On The L&N.” Green at the time was still playing in a hybrid fashion, recreating Bluesbreakers

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-----------------------------JONN DEL TORO RICHARDSONTengo BluesVizzTone

At the 2005 International Blues Challenge, guitarist Jonn Del Toro

Richardson received the Albert King Award, which honors the most promising player at the annual event. Over the past decade, he has recorded and toured with the great mandolin player Rich DelGrosso as well as fellow Albert King Award winner Sean Carney, and Diunna Greenleaf. For the first release under his own name, the guitarist enlisted Anson Funderburgh as producer along with a veteran band including Wes Starr on drums, Nick Connoly on keyboards, and Nathan Rowe on upright and electric bass. The opening track, “Behind The Curtain,” places Richardson’s plaintive vocal and fluid guitar work over backing from the Texas Horns – Mark “Kaz” Kazanoff and John Mills on saxophone with Adalberto “Al” Gomez on trumpet. From there the music flows through several hardy shuffles as Richardson pays tribute to his guitar on “I’m Her Man,” followed by more impressive fretwork on “Love If You Want It.” Another tune, “The

-----------------------------JULIE RHODESBound To Meet The Devil Self-release

It helps for a new artist (musician, actor, writer, whatever) to have an interesting

backstory – literally a tale to tell, whether the teller is the artist or someone touting him or her. A good backstory gets an artist out of the pact of wannabes and gives publicists, writers, deejays, etc., something to spout when introducing said new artist. And singer Julie Rhodes has a pretty good story. A little over two years ago, when she was still dishing scoops at a New England ice cream parlor, she attended a show and, from the audience, started singing along with headliner Jonah Tolchin, an Americana artist on the Yep Roc label. He liked what he heard, they talked after the show, and he encouraged her to start writing songs. Now he’s co-produced Rhodes’ debut album, Bound To Meet The Devil. Also he probably helped line up some


of the formidable talent on the 11-song, 40-minute disc, which includes Muscle Shoals legend Spooner Oldham, fiddler Sara Watkins, and pedal steel-man Greg Leisz among the credited side musicians. So what’s Rhodes sound like? She has a big voice, somewhere between raspy and brassy, the sort of throaty sound that works well against Danny Roaman’s hard-edged electric guitar. Tracy Nelson comes to mind as an antecedent, along Toni Price, Angela Strehli, and the other white female blues singers who used to record for Clifford Antone’s label. What’s especially impressive is Rhodes’ phrasing as a vocalist. She’s spot-on on every track, without a hint of novice jitters. Rhodes’ songwriting also seems mature for someone just starting. There’s not a throwaway in the 10 listed songs and one hidden track. “Collector Man” and “Skyscraper Blues” seem especially mature, both tracks getting airtime on various Sirius/XM channels. She’s also brave enough to start a live performance on Public Radio’s Beale Street Caravan with a cover of Son House’s “Grinning In Your Face” (show is archived at http://bealestreetcaravan.com). The cover shot on Bound To Meet The Devil shows her holding a shovel. You’ll probably dig her.– Bill Wasserzieher

the quietest whisper to a thunderous volley, are so tightly constructed that he always strikes a chord in your soul, and his warm vocal delivery compliments what he plays. The record kicks into his shufflin’ gear with “Blues & My Baby,” an earthy, Texas styled organ-guitar shuffle. The meaty organ chordal riffs are Carney playing his rhythm track through a Leslie. The title cut cleverly addresses the old school likes of we aging boomers. Set in a saxy, “Shotgun” groove, Carney cleverly name checks, MapQuest, Twitter, Google, Wikipedia, Blackberries, SMS, Bluetooth, and Iphones. Then, right on cue, “Let Me In” follows with energetic, twangy, old school, rock ‘n’ roll. Carney’s grinding, slow blues “Wrong Side Blues” features Carney’s T-Bone Walker-styled riffs that answer his fast driving, out of control, love metaphor. Like a Ronnie Earl or Duke Robillard, Carney knows exactly how to build a devastating slow blues guitar solo. “Brent’s Groove” follows with a Ronnie Earl-styled instrumental where Carney’s guitar and Carney’s Leslie organ rhythm guitar tracks joust back and forth. Sean Carney is at the forefront of an energetic new crop of musicians who have done their late night homework and have a lot to offer. Like recent IBC standouts Zac Harmon, JP Soars, Fiona Boyes, Eden Brent, Diunna Greenleaf, Eddie Cotton, Mr. Sipp, Trampled Under Foot, Jonn Del Toro Richardson, Selwyn Birchwood, and Jarekus Singleton, Carney, live or on disc, is part of an exciting time for the blues.– Art Tipaldi

that goes beyond excellent with the fiddle skills of these two performers. Both Lousianian Doucet and San Franciscan Rigney are seasoned Cajun fiddlers with Doucet fronting the group BeauSoleil, which won a Grammy for Best Cajun Music, and Rigney leading his group Flambeau in all things Cajun and Zydeco. While Rigney favors an incredible sounding violin from 1879, Doucet’s custom made violins from just last century seem to match his tone. Backing them are Danny Caron on electric and acoutic guitars, Caroline Dahl on lively piano, and Brent Rampone on the lively Cajun two-step drumming. Six other musicians lend their skills to keep things moving. To understand the fever pitch of some of these songs, the artists issue a disclaimer at the end of the liner notes: “No musical instruments were harmed during the production of this album, but not for the lack of trying.” The title song has these twin fiddlers playing so closely that you wish the song would last twice as long. Of the 13 cuts, seven have Doucet’s touch with Rigney taking four others with two J.J. Cale songs, “Last Will And Testament” and “Call Me The Breeze,” with Louis Jordan’s “Early In The Morning” completing the songwriting. Although the various songs are infectious, it is on the instrumentals that highlight the seasoned stringed craft of these two great musicians. There is a synchronicity and bounce to their fiddling that brings a smile of joy to your face as it is so melodic. If you lack any Cajun/Creolo/Zydeco CDs in your collection, Cajun Fandango would be a good place to start.– Pete Sardon

-----------------------------SEAN CARNEYThrowbackNite Owlz Records

In 2007, Sean Carney won first place at the International Blues Challenge in

Memphis, and Carney himself walked off with the Albert King Award for the best guitarist of the weekend. Since then, Carney has been a relentless touring musician here and abroad, has released numerous CDs under his own name, and has authored five volumes of his Blues For A Cure studio jam sessions which raises money for cancer research and screening throughout his home state of Ohio. Throughout these 12 originals, Carney displays a very intelligent and concise style of playing. His solos, from

-----------------------------MICHAEL DOUCET AND TOM RIGNEYCajun FandangoParhelion Records

A “Fandango” is a lively couples dance from Spain, but violinists Michael

Doucet and Tom Rigney have morphed it into a Cajun version that utilizes the French/Cajun language in many of the songs. Once you hit “play” on this CD, you will find yourself tapping your feet and swaying to the lively Cajun swing

-----------------------------NIGEL HALLLadies & Gentlemen...Nigel HallFeel Music

2015 was an outstanding year for male soul singers with excellent releases

by Wee Willie Walker, Leon Bridges, Johnny Rawls, Otis Clay & Billy Price, Jackie Payne, and the Bey-Paule Band. With this auspicious debut, fans can add


singer/songwriter/keyboardist Nigel Hall to the list. Born in 1981, Hall, a native of Washington, D.C., is now based in New Orleans and has worked as a sideman for Warren Haynes and Soulive (among others). There are five originals and five covers. The covers are indicative Hall’s main inspiration: seventies and early eighties soul music that co-mingled funk, jazz, and pop. Only Latimore’s “Let’s Straighten It Out” and Denise LaSalle’s “I Can’t Stand The Rain” are perennially familiar. The other covers are welcome surprises: percolating funk-sway with the Isley Brothers “Lay Away” (featuring Ivan Neville on organ and “Ahmir “?uestlove” Thompson on drums), an exuberant Sly Stone-like dance floor summons penned by jazz vibraphonist Roy Ayers, “Try, Try, Try,” and a duet with Alecia Chakour (of the Warren Haynes and Tedeschi Trucks Bands) on Stanley Clarke & George Duke’s lilting funk-glider “I Just Want To Love You.” The originals “Gimme A Sign” and “Never Gonna Let You Go” are crooning Motown-styled strollers redolent of Raphael Saadiq, the contemporary “old school” soul music master Hall is most comparable to. There are two silky ballads “Too Sweet” and “Call On Me” that showcase Hall’s elastic vocal range and a mix of reggae and funk with “Don’t Change For Me.” Drummer/percussionist Adam Deitch and guitarist/bassist/producer Eric Krasno support Hall throughout and are augmented by a horn section and backing vocalists on various tunes. The album’s only flaw is that it could use a few more tunes. Otherwise, fans of the aforementioned singers will find much to enjoy about Nigel Hall.– Thomas J. Cullen III

of “Gentrification Blues” to the fading chorus and violin of “Hold Up The Light,” this debut from the Bay Area singer/songwriter is a very strong effort. The overriding theme of My Blue Soul is Blues Provocateur #1: relationships and their many foibles. Not including “Ball And Chain,” half a dozen of the tracks here deal with this subject, running the gamut of romantic ups, downs, and in-betweens. If, in fact, these songs were put into a particular order and played straight through, they might make a decent storyboard for a major melodrama and/or a week’s worth of lively Jerry Springer episodes. All are sung in a very take charge kind of way, mixing blues, funk, and soul, with two highlights being the ultra self-assured and ultra catchy “I Can’t Keep” and “He Wouldn’t Let Go” with its confidential yet mundane complaint morphing, very unexpectedly, into an equal parts contrite and self-justifying confession. My Blue Soul doesn’t just spend time maneuvering this minefield. Social awareness is also sprinkled into the first half of the album. These songs deal with both the very small (the minor – unless you live there – neighborhood tensions of gentrification) as well as the very large ideas of “Born To Die,” which ponders an unequal society where death is the great leveler. Their in-your-face delivery – given their subject matter and points of view – sounds just about right. The promo sheet for this album begins with this disclaimer: “She did not start singing in the church choir!!!!!!” That may be the case, but Terrie Odabi definitely has a church voice that is the connecting thread for My Blue Soul. As secular in content as most of the songs here are, this feeling is strengthened by her three backing vocalists, appearing on eight tracks, and by the organ/clavinet/Fender Rhodes which is prevalent throughout. For this reason, it’s very satisfying that the CD concludes – and achieves some degree of resolution – with the uplifting and outright gospel sounding “Hold Up The Light.” They say there’s no second chance at a first impression; Terrie Odabi has made the most of hers.– Matt MacDonald

MORELAND & ARBUCKLEPromised Land Or BustAlligator Records

The hard charging Moreland & Arbuckle band is moving along a

noteworthy career arc. Some 14 years since its inception, the (now) three-piece ensemble has ascended into top tier territory with this new, exciting release. Beginning with the very first track, a hip-shaker called “Take Me With You (When You Go),” they scorch a path to the last one “Why’d She Have To Go (And Let Me Down). However lengthy in title, no song outlasts listener interest, song-craft being the hallmark of their recent material. Taste is another. Their own compositions are interspersed with those of others they admire, great pacing being the result. “Woman Down In Arkansas, ”was written by the late Lee McBee, friend and front man for Mike Morgan and the Crawl. It throbs along in a loping way, Arbuckle’s yearning vocal and sinuous harp carrying the melody wrapped in a low-down aural tapestry. Another contributor, Michael Hosty, provides “Hannah,” a dark tale about someone who’s put a woman with that name deep into the ground beneath an olive tree. Moreland’s gritty slide-guitar runs conjure the audio equivalent of a dank, dark grave. Ryan Taylor, another friend who has his own band in the Dallas area (Oil Boom), furnished “Long Did I Hide It.” Its protagonist hides his sorrow and misery at being, well, himself; the song’s energy belies the sentiment. Another of Taylor’s, “Why’d She Have to Go (and Let Me Down)?” invokes a Little Willie John “Fever”-ish style rhythm and bass intro as it becomes a hybrid jazzy-R&B tune. A great hook and guest pianist Scott Williams help with that. The three-piece Moreland & Arbuckle core is augmented by a few other guest musicians, including bassist Mark Foley, who in daily life is Professor of Double Bass at Wichita State University. His bass, an instrument largely abandoned by M&A on stage, is on six tunes here. Throughout, Dustin Arbuckle

-----------------------------TERRIE ODABIMy Blue SoulSelf-released

Terrie Odabi’s first album, My Blue Soul, contains 13 tracks, a dozen of

which are originals (Big Mama Thronton’s “Ball And Chain” being the only cover). From the building hand drums and calls

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and Aaron Moreland find a place between joy and pathos with beguiling songs and adroit performances — vocal and instrumental. Drummer Kendall Newby displays a nuanced touch that keeps the harp/vocalist Arbuckle and the imaginative guitarist Moreland on the pleasing array of beats heard here, notably the opener, for which he contributed the riff. If these guys come to your hometown, go and hear them. In the meantime, Promised Land will satisfy.– M.E. Travaglini

appearance, adding a dose of his brawny tenor saxophone. “Diving Duck Blues” and “Looking For Love” are from a 2013 gig in Milwaukee with Rickun on harp. The latter cut is a Raven original that closes the show with Moore’s pounding piano solo and Raven’s gutsy playing. Throughout various dates and line-ups, Rev. Raven and the Altar Boys consistently hit listeners with an infectious version of blues music that continues to make them a fan favorite in the upper Midwest and beyond.– Mark Thompson

“Crazy Little Johnny” could have been written for a John Hiatt album with its instrumental hook and yric about a misfit who just never quite got through childhood. We Both Lose” sounds most like the subdudes here, a song dissecting a breakup. Malone’s voice – rich, mellow, clear – coupled with his nuanced delivery and phrasing is perfect. The familiar throbbing introduction to the final track is “Big Brother,” one of Stevie Wonder’s seminal hits. Despite the different instrumentation (slide guitar for harmonica; guitar for keyboards), Malone’s rendition is faithful to Wonder’s politically charged message, mimicking Stevie’s intonation. Especially that. I admit to being over the moon when it comes to the subdudes. Malone is emphatically central to that enterprise. Happily, this disc shows him in an altered but no less winning pose. The songs on Poor Boy are compelling, sophisticated, and superbly performed – the formula for a winning release; and that’s what Tommy Malone has here. Different, indeed.– M.E. Travaglini

-----------------------------REVEREND RAVEN & THE CHAIN SMOKIN’ ALTAR BOYSLive At The Big BullNevermore Records

The band with the best name in the business opens with its veteran

rhythm section of PT Pedersen on bass and Bobby Lee Sellers on drums setting a driving pace on the opening instrumental, “Hot And Heavy,” allowing Danny Moore to give the Hammond organ a wild ride before Westside Andy Linderman on harmonica blows the house down. Not to be overshadowed, Rev. Raven fans the fires with a guitar segment full of dynamic interludes. Other tracks from the 2014 Big Bull Festival in Wausau, WI., include the rapid shuffle “Walking To Chicago,” featuring some of Moore’s fine piano playing. A downhearted Raven original, “Your Didn’t Even Say Goodbye,” finds Linderman using his harp to exorcise the despair. Sellers takes over the vocal on an extended version of “She’s Nineteen Years Old,” then the band tears through “My Life,” a tribute to Raven’s wife with Moore once again displaying the piano skills he once used to back Willie Nelson. Tracks from the 2012 festival include Benny Rickun on harmonica. “Hawaiian Boogie” highlights Raven’s cutting slide work and Rickun’s full, fat harp tone. The leader cries out his blues on “Stomping & Shouting,” which lives up to its name through the band’s rough and tumble rendition. Another high point is a funky take on Bobby Rush’s “Chicken Heads.” Big Al Groth makes his lone

TOMMY MALONEPoor BoyM.C. Records

If the subdudes is the only way you know Tommy Malone, Poor Boy will

surprise. He even said as much in a brief encounter following a subdudes show: “It’s different.” Maybe so, but thankfully, Malone is still smack dab in the middle of the American roots music vein with the eleven songs here, all but one a Tommy Malone creation (or co-creation). Have a listen to “Pretty Girls” with a rhythmic bass intro establishing focus for his poesy : “Pretty pearls on a Southern girl/handed down from another world/picture a woman from the South .... pretty pearls of wisdom spoken .... they’re only pretty pearls.” Longing? Heartbreak? Autobiographical? Dunno, but delicious images. “All Dressed Up,” on the other hand, is just hilarious. After a harmonica and slide guitar intro, Malone sings of a hard-working “southern boy in a union suit/all dressed up/got nowhere to go/put my jammies on.” The protagonist’s destination? He’s going to bed. Now, “Bumblebee” doesn’t need explication with it’s buzzy bumblebee of a slide guitar. Malone sings he’s “a bumblebee/you can’t run from me/‘cause I’m hard to see” and advises, “keep your distance from drunks like me.” There’s the sting. Malone’s excellent imagery shows in this line from “Mineral Girl”: “Diamond eyes and a coal black soul” is how he describes the woman in question.

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-----------------------------MARK NOMAD#9Blue Star Records

On Western Massachusetts based bluesman Mark Nomad’s latest

offering, entitled #9 (signifying his ninth CD release), the journeyman singer-songwriter-slide guitarist shifts between his Gibson electrics and his acoustic resonator guitar to bring you a gritty, pumped up album of bone shakin’ blues rockers and plaintive acoustic anthems. Opening the album with the roar of his Les Paul for the electrically charge “Shrine,” Nomad conjures electric blues heroes like Hendrix, Trout, and Frank Marino for a true rock ‘n’ roll foot stomper. “It’s Time” finds Nomad rockin’ his backporch with contemporary sentiment fueled by his acoustic slide playing and buzzing harmonica work. “Give Your Love 2 Me” sets Nomad back in the electric realm exploring the age-old


question of love while building a musical hook that just won’t quit. Nomad then unveils one of the most prolific acoustic pieces of his career, “DADGAD” resplendent in tone, vibe, and beauty. This is a must-hear listening experience for aficionados of solo acoustic guitar and one of the finest songs Nomad has ever penned. Then just when you think it couldn’t get any better, Nomad hands over a swingin’ jump blues called “What’s A Man To Do?” that cooks from start to finish. You don’t want to miss this one. By this time you realize that #9 is an album of significant stature. “Look Over Yonders Wall” pays tribute to electric slide masters like Muddy Waters and Johnny Winter that set a precedent for all who would follow in their footsteps. This number will rock you to your soul. The introspective, acoustic borne “My Clouds Have Denim Linings” will remind listeners of Jimmy Page’s groundbreaking guitar work on the seminal Led Zeppelin III album. Nomad releases an electric fury on “Valley Of Tears” complete with searing slide guitar work and an infectious hook before ending the album with a reserved blues-rock burner. On “We Gotta Live Together” Nomad suggests the possibility of “living together” with his lady. Again Nomad does what he does best, displaying his blistering prowess on the electric slide guitar while unequivocally burning the song into your psyche. Fans of Mark Nomad will be satisfied with #9 while new listeners will have something stirring to discover.– Brian M. Owens

CD. It is a set of mostly romantic, tender love songs with added doses of passionate heartbreak, swing, and lighthearted fun. Shewell started out singing in a country band, but there is no twang here. Her stint as a country singer may explain her gift for conveying subtle emotion in her voice. She wrote or co-wrote nine of the CD’s ten songs. Whether singing about heartbreak, sex, love, or joy, Shewell’s performances are compelling and convincing. This is not a singer applying her particular vocal style to a collection of songs. These songs spring directly from her heart and soul. The set opens with “Fall,” an upbeat track about falling in love. Next up is the heaviest and most powerful song on the CD, “Suck It Up.” It begins with a melancholy Shewell singing over acoustic slide guitar about her broken heart. Once the band kicks in with a heavy beat, Shewell’s singing is powerful and reminiscent of Etta James’ best songs. For blues purists, “Suck It Up” will be the stand out track on this CD. “Breathe In,” “Boy Like You,” “Simple,” and “Relax To Sleep” are all slower tempo songs which display Shewell’s exceptional songwriting skills and the complexity of her voice. “Afraid Of The Dark” swings hard and showcases Shewell’s pure vocal power. The CD ends with a jazzy version of Tom Waits’ “I Wish I Was In New Orleans.” I had the pleasure of hearing Shewell perform live this past April. She maintained the subtlety of her voice while adding weight and power. She closed with a moving solo version of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” For blues fans who can appreciate a singer whose voice conveys delicate beauty, emotional depth, and bursts of power, Eryn Shewell is your gal.– Raymond T. Proetto

record this solid slab of old school Chicago blues comprised of eight covers and three originals. Performing on guitar and on harmonica (two tracks), Burgin is backed by a quartet of Northern California stalwarts: harpist Aki Kumar, bassist Vance Ehlers, drummer June Core (currently with Charlie Musselwhite), and engineer Kid Andersen on guitar (and probably organ on a few tracks). Years of playing the clubs with the likes of Jimmy Burns, Sam Lay, Tail Dragger, and Jimmie Lee Robinson’s Ice Cream Men, as well as fronting his own bands, led to Burgin’s vast repertoire as evidenced by his choice of mainly less familiar covers (except for “House Of The Rising Sun,” performed as a jazz instrumental, and Otis Rush’s seminal soul-blues “Homework,” which was popularized by J. Geils Band). Burgin is a capable and versatile vocalist with a dry, laid-back approach and a limited range. The most surprising covers are Hip Linkchain’s funky twister “Cold Chills” and Robert Lockwood Jr.’s shuffling “The Western Horizon” with slight echos of “Dust My Broom.” His originals are the set-opening shuffle “Love Me Like I Want It” suggestive of Magic Sam, an homage to the lesser known harmonica ace Big John Wrencher (aka “One Arm John”) who was a long time Maxwell Street performer, and a frenetic rumba-rock instrumental “Havana Rock” that features Kumar’s brawniest harp playing. Kumar’s mellow chromatic provides a lush cushion for Burgin’s pin-prick fills on T-Bone Walker’s loping “She’s A Hit.” Unpretentious old school Chicago blues are in good hands with Johnny Burgin.– Thomas J. Cullen III

-----------------------------ERYN SHEWELLEryn ShewellRewbie Music

Now for something completely different. A blues singer with an

impressive vocal range, the talent to express emotional nuance, and the power to belt it out with authority! Eryn Shewell’s singing style can be described as simply beautiful with power to spare. This is definitely not a traditional blues

-----------------------------ROCKIN’ JOHNNY BURGINGreetings From Greaseland, CaliforniaWest Tone

Chicago-based Mississippi native Johnny Burgin traveled to Kid

Andersen’s Greaseland Studios to

-----------------------------TOO SLIM AND THE TAILDRAGGERSBlood MoonUnderworld Records

Tim Langford, aka Too Slim, is a prolific singer/guitarist/songwriter, releasing

20 albums over the past 30 years. In that time, Langford has sold over 100,000 records and received a Blues Music Award nomination for Rock Blues Album


of the Year with Joe Bonamassa, George Thorogood, and Warren Haynes in 2012. That’s great company! Langford is one of those dedicated musicians who continue to remain true to his inspirations. And this cat can play! He is a monster country blues rocker who is influenced by Lightnin’ Hopkins, Freddie King, Duane Allman, and Robin Trower. In fact, throughout all the songs you can hear the effects driven Trower blues-rock sound everywhere. Check out the high energy, growling guitar in “Good Guys Win,” “Letter,” “Dream,” “Twisted Rails,” and the title track “Blood Moon.” With cool effects and guitar tones, blues rockers “Get Your Goin’ Out On,” “Gypsy,” and “My Body” are like Alvin Lee and Ten Years After meets Pink Floyd. Most of Blood Moon features screaming guitar solos set to memorable music that was mostly recorded live to studio. And you can hear the difference. There is an excitement and spontaneity that is close to being physical. You can almost hear and feel the thousands of fans in an arena clamoring for the encore. A couple of the cuts are over seven minutes long, which add to this shared festival experience. Langford writes the material, and is joined in the band by Jeff “Shakey” Fowlkes on drums and vocals and Robert Kearns playing bass and adding his backing vocals. This CD is what you would expect from Too Slim And The Taildraggers: strong, high-energy rock with a deep blues foundation. Great stuff!– A.J. Wachtel

-----------------------------LAURENCE JONESWhat’s It Gonna BeRuf Records

Guitarist Laurence Jones is one of a handful of young talents that have

revived a moribund British blues scene with their vision, vitality, and creativity. Two-time winner of the British Blues Award for “Young Artist of the Year,” the twenty-something-year-old Jones has accomplished a lot in a short period of time – he released his debut, Thunder

In The Sky, in 2012; followed it with his acclaimed sophomore effort

Temptation in 2014; and toured Europe with the 2014 Blues Caravan. As shown by What’s It Gonna Be, his third album, Jones is part of a generation of youthful British fretburners like Oli Brown and Joanne Shaw Taylor that are influenced more by Joe Bonamassa and Walter Trout than they are by the ghost of Stevie Ray Vaughan. The album-opening title track “What’s It Gonna Be” is a fierce power-trio blues-rock romper-stomper with wiry fretwork, driving rhythms, and percussive percussion that sounds like a turbocharged cross between Leslie West’s Mountain and Bonamassa’s Black Country Communion. Jones’ original “Don’t Need No Reason” throws in a few rockabilly licks riding high atop a sly, funky rhythmic groove while the rollicking “Evil” sounds like SRV playing Muddy Waters playing Tampa Red, Chicago blues as viewed through the prism of decades of British blues-rock tradition. Jones wrote nine of the eleven tunes on What’s It Gonna Be, and he’s a fair lyricist still developing an ear for storytelling. “Don’t Look Back,” a duet with the talented Sandi Thom, is a mix of blues and soul, Jones’ breathless vocals and subtle fretwork blending nicely with Thom’s gospel-tinged vox. A duet with Dana Fuchs on Bad Company’s “Can’t Get Enough” lacks the instrumental spark that would send it over the top, but a cover of Leadbelly’s classic “Good Morning Blues,” with the legend’s spoken-word intro, shows Jones’ ability to channel the spirit of his predecessors, the performance a muscular tour de force of soulful vocals, stinging guitars, and hypnotic percussion. A rock-solid collection of guitar-driven blues-rock, Laurence Jones’ proves his mettle with What’s It Gonna Be, delivering an album that should appeal even to finicky American blues fans.– Rev. Keith A. Gordon

-----------------------------TAS CRUYou Keep The MoneyCrustee Tees

Delta bluesman T-Model Ford. Cru and his band, the Tortured Souls, had

signed on to work at a fundraiser to help the ailing bluesman pay his bills. Cru told Ford he was grateful but that the band should keep the earnings: “Tonight, just show me the love. You keep the money.” In the liner notes, the guitarist, singer, and songwriter dedicates his sixth the album to all blues artists, acknowledging that most struggle to keep enough “sugar in the bowl” to earn a living. You Keep The Money makes good on the spirit the title track and album opener promises, delivering a dozen original contemporary blues songs with traces of R&B and country, including the slow-burning minor-key blues of “A Month Of Sundays,” the club-friendly party song “Half The Time” (as in drunk half the time), and the mellow after-hours guitar instrumental “La Belle Poutine,” which recalls Carlos Santana. Cru and his band mates get funky on “Heart Trouble,” augmented by background singers Mary Ann Casale and Alice “Honeybea” Erickson, who are featured on several cuts on the album. He’s more somber on “A Little More TIme,” a gospel-flavored song that salutes “the legendary aging bluesman and women still gracing our world with their music and tireless artistry,” Cru says in the song notes. Guy Nirelli’s organ, a constant on the album, provides a strong counterpoint to Cru’s lead guitar fills, the vocal and instrumental lines interweaving in a graceful call and response. “I’m here today, ain’t going away; I still got things I want to say,” Cru sings. The good-time vibe returns on “One Bad Habit,” a light-hearted shuffle and on “Bringing Out The Beast,” a deep-groove romp that displays Cru’s prowess on acoustic guitar. Both feature Dick Earl Ericksen on harmonica. On “Take Me Back To Tulsa” Cru salutes the road, NASCAR, the Tennessee Highway Patrol, and J.J. Cale all in high style. On album closer “Thinking How To Tell Me Goodbye” Cru brings a bluegrass touch to the album, ending the set with a high-energy breakup song amped up by harmonica and acoustic slide. – Michael Cote


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TASHA TAYLORHoney For The BiscuitRuf Records

The saying that the “apple doesn’t fall far from the tree” comes into play with

a description of Tasha Taylor, daughter of the fabulous Stax soul singer Johnnie Taylor. Her voice is silky and easy on the ears, and her songwriting skills match. She is also an actress and, having spent much her childhood on her dad’s tour bus, is a consummate seasoned performer. This is her third CD and is an enjoyable listen. “Family Tree” says it all as it intones, “We’re all swinging around this family tree!” with Keb’ Mo’ lending his guitar talents to this cut. She wrote ten of the 13 songs, co-wrote the other three, and also produced this CD. Singer/songwriter/actress Taylor plays guitar and percussion and has added other notable guest talents such as lap steel extraordinaire Robert Randolph on “Little Miss Suzie,” Samantha Fish on guitar and vocals on “Leave That Dog Alone,” and finally Tommy Castro on vocals on “Same Old Thing.” Nine additional musicians help fill out the sound and the horn section offers just enough accompaniment to transport the listener back to the best times of sweet and tender soul music. Her sultry song, “One And Only” makes the listeners wish that she was singing it to them. Her “All I Need” (is a man like you, babe) captures her emotive soulful singing at its best. Just the right amount of horns, complementary drumming, pitch perfect phrasing, and lead and backing vocals make this an exemplary cut. She can also rock out a bit on “How Long” with a more urgent beat. The CD package features the lyrics of all the songs. If you are in that special space with someone and want a soundtrack for lovely sensual music, Tasha Taylor’s Honey For The Biscuit is the right recipe. Enjoy!– Pete Sardon

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TONY JOE WHITERain CrowYep Roc

Trudge and slosh through a boondocks bog in midday sun and you’ll still

need to sprout armor and sport a tail to be as swampy as Tony Joe White. Tony Joe makes that kind of blues music, cooked in the Mississippi hills but served steaming hot in the bayou. Sly and sinister narratives; grooves as thick as mire; a murky, riveting singing voice; and exquisitely-picked and scraped guitar. All White’s signatures. And all the fixin’s for one hell of an album, once again. White grew up on a Louisiana cotton farm, so there’s that in his blood. He debuted in 1967 at age 24, and two years later scored with “Polk Salad Annie.” “Rainy Night In Georgia,” made great by Brook Benton, turned White into a revered songwriter. But this absolute American music icon never hit the big-time on his own, despite an embarrassment of superb albums over the many years. Maybe that’s the way he’s always wanted it, though. Do things real, in his own time, and then fade into the mist for a while again. These nine new songs, including a couple co-written with his wife, Leanne, and one with buddy Billy Bob Thornton, are as strong as any he’s put to tape, and they’re all wrapped up in that one-of-a-kind mesmerizing music of his. “Hoochie Woman” sets the tone. Vivid scenes of a magic queen fill the room, sashaying to her Smoochie Man, and to her own bottomless, sweat-dappled self just the same. White’s guitar right off captivates. It calls to mind his good friend Mark Knopfler, who got as much from White in the beginning as he did from Dylan and J.J. Cale. “Rain Crow” swoops down from the heavens, a shadowy thing, but offering a sense of hope for a hardscrabble livelihood, while hushed soul and undying love sheathes “Right Back In The Fire,” White soloing so very sweetly to the sentiment. Then, “The Middle Of Nowhere” and “Conjure Child” completely encapsulate the unique views about pals and kinfolk in, well, the

VAN WILKS21st Century BluesTexas 51 Records

The title of this disc says it all, because it sure ain’t 20th century blues. Some

might say it’s not blues at all, with the exception of the third track, “Golddigger” a rocking mid-tempo shuffle with a good heavy rhythm section. But Van Wilks, out of Austin, succeeds in making the album pretty darn good with his masterful musicianship on guitar, a common golden thread that holds together this diverse collection of what he describes as “his blues.” Wilks also nicely handles the vocals, with an assist from Grammy winner Christopher Cross on “Drive By Lover,” a song co-written with Billy Gibbons, and by Austin fixture Malford Milligan on “She Makes Me Crazy.” The 12 tracks, Wilks’ first studio recording in 10 years, are all originals. One of the more interesting is a six-minute gem called “There’s A Sin In There Somewhere,” which sounds like it could be on the twang side of the street, but is actually an old-timey bluesy number. It even starts (and ends) with the scratchy sound of an old vinyl record and a dobro for a few lines until you are blown away by Wilks’ entrance on loud, fast guitar. There’s a tremendous solo, slide and all, after the bridge, which happily is repeated a few times. It’s rockin. The lyrics (by Wilks, with Lisa North and Dana Farmer) do speak of sin, the devil, saving grace, and all that, making the song even more appealing without becoming too religious. The title track, a rocker, features a good amount of more first-rate slide guitar and speaks to all of the bad stuff going on in the world. (“I’m sittin’ here, my head in my hands/Contemplating the news/It’s more than a man can stand,

middle of nowhere. A spare band helps bring these songs fully to life. Seventy-three years old and he makes an album as great as this? Tony Joe White is very vital royalty. – Tom Clarke

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these 21st century blues.”) “She Makes Me Crazy,” featuring Milligan and written by Cross, is another fast country-rocker with yet another cool guitar solo by Wilks. The disc might be “new blues.” Whatever you want to call it, most of the songs hold the listener’s attention by the sheer, often romantic, feel of Wilks’ guitar. That flair is particularly notable on the last song, an eerie Spanish love song which begins as a seemingly slow instrumental – with a hint of the Delta – until the preternatural spoken voice of the “Mexican angel” joins in. It’s quite unusual and worth a listen.– Karen Nugent

REGGIE WAYNE MORRISDon’t Bring Me No DaylightBlue Jay Sound

It’s hard to believe that this veteran Baltimore-based guitarist last released

an album 15 years ago. His latest album, only his third, contains 11 originals, ten by co-producer Gerald “Gypsy” Robinson and Morris; the lone exception is the mid-tempo Southern soul of “Sign My Check,” a jeremiad infused with weariness and resignation, penned by Ceophus Palmer. Shuffles of various tempos and hooks are the dominant grooves here. The shuffles range from classic Chicago styles like the title track to seventies-styled Memphis shuffle bumps with “Son Of A Blues Fan,” a tune many readers of this magazine will identify with. Also in the mix are two soul ballads (“Ball & Chain” and “Meet Me”), a reggae-gospel hybrid (“God Loves You”), and a slinky slice of salacious Bobby Rush-styled funk (“Oooo Weee”). Morris claims B.B. King and Jimi Hendrix as primary influences; however, there’s a plethora of piercing Albert Collins-like licks here as well. His straight forward declamatory vocals are at times suggestive of soul-blues giants like Z.Z. Hill, Artie “Blues Boy” White, and Travis Haddix but not as sonorous. Solid support is provided by several different drummers, bassists, and keyboardists from the Maryland/Washington, D.C., scene. Soul-blues fans who like the guitar front and center in the manner of Johnny Rawls,

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Roy Roberts, Theodis Ealey, and the aforementioned Travis Haddix, will discover a kindred artist in Reggie Wayne Morris, an artist well-deserving of greater recognition.– Thomas J. Cullen III

-----------------------------THE RHYTHM ROCKETSShe Swings Blue Volume 2: After HoursBrother Raccoon Records

It takes but a moment listening to After Hours for listeners to slide into the

1940s when “swing” style music loomed over the American music horizon; and the 1950s when its practitioners performed (and recorded) much of this material in smaller, more economically viable, ensembles. This assemblage of excellent musicians and their sublime female vocalist, Nicole Kestler – all new to these ears – have joyously revived that era’s sound. The Rockets had me at the first track, “Mean And Evil Blues,” associated with the late Dinah Washington. It’s arranged to maximize the Rockets’ individual talents. Another Dinah Washington cover, “Duck Before You Drown,” shows up later. Something of a blues grinder, it cues dancers to hug one another just a wee bit tighter. Vocalist Kestler reveals the sultry side of her bandstand persona while the musicians undergird her simmering vocal gyrations. As one might anticipate, “Let’s Rock A While” has a toe in the early 1950s. Co-composed by Frank Haywood and Ernest Monroe Tucker, it owes its notoriety to pianist Amos Milburn, for whom it was a minor hit. Also impressive are the Rockets’ take on Nat King Cole’s rendition of Ollie Jones’ “Send For Me” and Peggy Lee’s and David Barbour’s (her band leader husband) “You Was Right, Baby.” Throughout the dozen glorious audio re-castings here, Kestler’s vocals evoke such vintage chanteuses as Anita O’Day and June Christy but also a handful of contemporary artists like Lavay Smith (of the “Skillet Lickers”), Laurel Massé (a Manhattan Transfer

original), and Catherine Russell. The six gents who furnish the instrumentation all deserve a nod: group founder Dave Downer (guitars), Mark Fornek (drums), Mike Bielecki (tenor sax), Justin Keirans (baritone sax), and Lou Marini (upright bass). Together they remind listeners of a style that comes and goes over the decades, but thankfully never disappears. The Rockets embody the spirit of such vintage bands as Jimmy Lunceford, Duke Ellington, Louis Prima, Benny Goodman, and Artie Shaw. Also such jump blues giants as Louis Jordan, Jay McShann, and Lionel Hampton. The Chicago-based Rhythm Rockets (with the collaboration of noted music writer Bill Dahl), breathe life back into what has been known as the Chicago swing style. This disc is titled Volume 2. So there’s a Volume 1 out. If this reviewer has the opportunity, he’d eagerly give that one a listen, too.– M.E. Travaglini

-----------------------------TOMMY McCOY25 Year RetrospectEarwig Music

Before this most recent powerhouse of a double-CD was released by

Earwig Records, blues guitarist Tommy McCoy had been recording for 23 years, whish translates into seven mostly self-produced killer albums featuring his smoking guitar work, compositional genius, and ensemble playing with some of the best American blues musicians over nearly a quarter century. McCoy was a child prodigy, starting and playing in bands when he was still in grammar school. When the disco craze exploded in the late Seventies, and musical opportunities shrank, McCoy decided to move from his native Ohio to Florida, where he has since flourished. He was for a long time a respected “musician’s musician” who broke through to a public thirsty for his brand of eclectic Southern-inflected blues starting with 1993’s More Than You’ll Ever Know with Greg Allman Band alumni. Two years later, he teamed with the late Stevie Ray Vaughan’s Double


Trouble rhythm section – drummer Chris Layton and bassist Tommy Shannon – on Love N Money. In 2002, McCoy really broke out with the first-rate blues album he wrote and recorded Lay My Demons Down with Hammond B-3 keyboardist Lucky Peterson. In that year, he also recorded Angels Serenade featuring musical heroes Levon Helm and Garth Hudson from The Band. A few years later, McCoy recorded the well-received Kickin’ The Blues with pianist Commander Cody. In 2011, I had the musical pleasure of reviewing the unforgettable Late In The Lonely Night, a recording about which I wrote, “Fans of blues rock – and of McCoy – will find musical sensibilities on Late that he shares with southerners like Gov’t Mule or the Allman Brothers.” I also wrote “[McCoy is] willing to take chances on material and musical attack – sometimes frontal, sometimes more elliptical so that you have to listen carefully to hear what’s going on.” Playing the 25 Year Retrospect straight through (recommended) presents the artist as he matures from a very good young guitarist to a seasoned player in the Southern blues-rock tradition. As a live performer, he is worthy

of any venue wise enough to book him. Over the 30 tracks presented here, from the aforementioned “The King Is Gone,” and “Lay My Demons Down,” to “Spanish Moon,” “Angels Serenade,” and “Late In The Lonely Night,” what strikes the listener are his songwriting, vocal and instrumental control, and seamless ensemble playing. While it’s relatively easy to “get” McCoy’s Southern sensibility, at the same time, he is difficult to label. That’s because he’s willing to take chances as he lets us know that he’s not satisfied fitting into a regional niche. Instead, he plays more like a jazz guitarist than straight-up generic southern blues-rocker, meaning you hear very little that’s predictable or easy to anticipate. “Where’s he going now?” you might ask at the end of one track and the beginning of another. This opus will take lots of listening to absorb McCoy’s artistic range and fine ensemble playing on every track. In addition to the great guest artists, McCoy has been working over these many years with power players that include, among others, rhythm aces Al Razz and Rob McDowell on bass, Pug Baker and Dave Reinhardt on drums,

and keyboardists Karen Caruthers (piano), Lucky Peterson and Tim Heding (Hammond B-3).– Michael Cala

SHARI PUORTOMy ObsessionBlues Rock Music

A dynamic singer/songwriter, Los Angeles based Shari Puorto has

assembled a who’s who of musical talent for her latest CD, My Obsession. Who wouldn’t want Mike Finnigan backing them on B-3 organ and piano? How about Jimmy Vivino on lead guitar? Tony Braunagel on drums? Others include Johnny Lee Schell, Steve Fister, and Johnny Hawthorn on guitars and even

-----------------------------


Barry Goldberg contributes his keyboard expertise on one song. There are still nine other musicians listed in the liner notes that contributed to this recording! Puorto co-produced this CD, co-wrote the first 11 songs, and closes the album out with a lovely version of “When A Man Loves A Woman.” There seems to be a womanly theme throughout the songs of lost love in “It’s A Damn Shame,” the joy of performing in “Workin’ The Room,” and a bounding rendering of the Puorto/Goldberg song of “Better Left Unsaid.” The slick song “Six Months Sober” has the great tag line: “Six months sober! No longer addicted to you!” The title song, “My Obsession,” is about her love of shoes and Puorto is pictured on the tri-fold CD cover sporting a brace of stylish footwear – one even has butterflies! “Old Silo Road” is a truly lovely song by Puorto and Goldberg in which Schell’s guitar sounds absolutely creamy. “Turned To Stone” features Hawthorn on lap steel, and his sound would make David Lindley jealous. This is a delightful outing that covers a variety of moods and musical styles and is easy on the ears. If you aren’t familiar with Shari Puorto’s work, her My Obsession is a good place to start. You will love her voice.– Pete Sardon

-----------------------------TOMMY ZBlizzard Of BluesSelf-released

For decades, Buffalo, New York, was a musical hotbed. As the factories

hummed 24/7, the Nickel City was alive with the sound of blues, soul, and rock ‘n’ roll. Jazz crept in on the fringes, and guitar-strumming folkies could be found around town. As the Rust Belt city’s population dwindled through the years, though, so too did the sound of music. Still, pockets of joyful noise exist to this day, and talented Buffalo artists like funk legend Rick James, bluesman Lucky Peterson, and singer-songwriters Ani DiFranco and Willie Nile have all made great music.

Tommy Z has been a Buffalo institution nearly as long as he’s been able to hold a guitar. A 2007 inductee into the Buffalo Music Hall of Fame, the talented fretburner has performed with legends like Buddy Guy, Johnny Winter, and Pinetop Perkins; he’s also composed music for film and TV, hosted a regular local blues music radio show, and even recorded with notoriously cranky Deep Purple frontman Ian Gillan. The self-produced Blizzard Of Blues is Z’s fourth full-length studio LP, the title a sly nod to his West New York roots, and a fine follow-up to 2013’s acclaimed Sometimes. Fans of blues-rock guitar will find a lot to like on Blizzard Of Blues, beginning with the Chicago-styled “Lovergirl,” which offers Z’s swinging licks and Jeremy Keyes’ raging harpwork. “Going To A Party” is a freight-train rolling down the tracks, a future fan fave with a relentless rhythm, cheeky lyrics, and screaming fretwork. The jazzy instrumental “Bags Of Cool” displays a different facet of Z’s talents, while the title track is a muscular rocker with crashing percussion and flurries of six-string notes that approximate a WNY snowstorm. The haunting “Miracle” evokes memories of the late Jeff Healey with soulful vocals, gentle lyrics, and nuanced guitar playing while a cover of the Muddy Waters tune “My Eyes (Keep Me In Trouble)” is a sizzling, lusty tribute to the Chicago blues legend. With Blizzard of Blues, Tommy Z has honored Buffalo’s rich musical tradition with a creative, satisfying blend of rock and blues guaranteed to raise your roof.– Rev. Keith A. Gordon

-----------------------------DEUCE ‘N A QUARTERTake The JourneyBOLT Records

I’m told “Deuce ‘n a quarter” refers to the dimensions of a 1959 Buick Electra:

225 inches in length. It was a big car and Take The Journey is a big CD. The 12 tracks are all originals ranging from jump blues to old timey sounding Gospel, with some funk and

revved up boogie along this highway. The Ohio-based band that borrowed the Buick’s nickname is led by Brian Peters on strong vocals and wailing harp, with solid backing from guitarist Jeffrey Allen and keyboardist John Sipher, who really impresses on “Bust That Boogie,” a fast danceable number. Several of the songs begin with an interesting percussion intro, handled nicely by drummer D’Arco Smith. Peters said he likes to begin songs like that, to set the tempo and feeling for the story he is about to tell. Like a well-oiled General Motors vehicle, the record goes from zero to 60 right out of the gate with “Tired Of Your Excuses,” a hip jump tune highlighted by Peters’ tremendous harp prowess. The band is obviously influenced by Little Walter, T Bone Walker, and Junior Watson. The energy continues in the next track, “Just The Blues” which, as the name implies, is genuine, brooding, pounding blues. The lyrics, with powerful vocals by Peters, are about real-life problems such as paying the mortgage. It’s one of the best songs on the disc. There’s a side trip to New Orleans on the third track, “Good Music,” an ode to all genres but with a NOLA beat. The car slows down about halfway through the record with a few ballads – there’s a love song, “Love Is Enough,” the Gospel-like “Healing Power,” and a five-minute gem called “Hungry Man” about a homeless guy who refuses a handout, preferring instead to pray. We accelerate again for “If Your Love Has Fallin’,” a shuffle with a good bass solo by Steve Perakis, and “Hard To Find” a funky number. The last song, “Electric Rooster,” a jazzy instrumental, is also one of the best ones on the disc. Peters told me the title derives from a name he concocted for his alarm clock, so the song was written with the hook being the day-by-day annoying alarm. It features each member of the band soloing, with each solo representing another day of the week (a five day work week), beginning and ending with the drums. It’s a fast but smooth ride.– Karen Nugent

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JANE LEE HOOKERNo B!Ruf

John Lee may have liked the look of the band that bears a version

of his name, but Jane Lee Hooker’s sound most likely would have given the old feller a heart attack. There ain’t no aw-haw-haw-haw going on here, it’s balls to the wall rock ‘n’ roll. Former Nashville Pussy bassist Tracy Almazan and Helldorado vet Tina T-Bone Gorin lead the twin guitar attack of this all female band, and with vocals from Dana “Danger” Atkins, pull off a sound like Led Zep

fronted by Janis Joplin. There’s plenty of familiar stuff here, but its been blown up and pumped full of rock and roll bluster. Even the old spiritual “Wade In The Water” gets a facelift, transforming it into an electric powerhouse that would electrocute anybody foolish enough to go near the water with this version plugged in. The group and the project is no novelty act. The women are all skilled musicians, and although the sound is rough and raw, it’s spot-on, including a cover of Johnny Winter’s “Mean Town Blues.” Jane Lee’s version is faster and harder, but the twin guitars capture all the power and fire of the original, Athens sounding like her tonsils are wrapped in barbed wire. The ladies are fearless when it comes to covers, tackling iconic compositions by blues legends. Ray Charles timeless classic “I Believe To My Soul” gets punched up quite a bit, a far cry from Charles’ gospel-drenched, jazz-tinged blues lament; fat, ballsy, rock and roll chords

backing Athens’ mighty bellows as this vehicle thunders along. Muddy’s “Mannish Boy” is much sexier with Athens’ sultry moans replacing Mr. Waters’ boastful proclamations. It may be blasphemy, but it sure sounds good. Muddy gets a sexier translation on “Champagne And Reefer,” but its still low down and dirty, and mighty satisfyin’, too. Anybody who goes up against Howlin’ Wolf usually gets their ass handed to ‘em. The Wolf’s take on Willie Dixon’s “Shake For Me” has never been equaled, and these ladies have the gumption not to attempt it, but just have some raucous fun with a version that keeps gaining in tempo and intensity till the willow tree’s about to topple over from the shakin’ and rockin’ going on, including a thumpedy drum solo that shakes it to its roots. As advertised, there’s no b here; it’s just raw and raucous rock, a hell of a lot of fun.– Grant Britt

the Big Brother and the Holding Company Band and her shot to fame occurred when she exposed her amazing talent at the Monterrey Pop Festival. Janis thrived in getting her audiences up and dancing. When she sold out the Royal Albert Hall in England (Dylan had done it earlier and she wanted to make sure she did too.), it was the first time that this venerable venue had the audience on their feet. The film then takes the viewer through the different iterations of her back up band from the original Big Brother and the Holding Company who were dismissed once manager Albert Grossman cherry-picked her from their band and assembled first the Kosmic Blues Band and then the Full Tilt Boogie Band. Sadly, you know the story ends with Janis’ struggle with drugs and alcohol. The quote that summed up Janis the best was, “She made love to ten thousand fans during her shows but always went home alone.” Janis: Little Girl Blue is a must see for any lover of Janis Joplin’s music and the companion CD would be well worth the investment as it offers her recordings in chronological order.– Pete Sardon

Janis: Little Girl BlueSpecial Edition DVD 105 minutes Plus 30 bonus minutesFilm Rise Studios

When visiting the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, the

exit to the men’s room had a large nude photo of Janis. I think this statement says it all after viewing Janis: Little Girl Blue directed by Amy J. Berg. As you watch this DVD, you get an intimate look at a girl/woman who was never really accepted throughout her life but was blessed with an otherworldly gift of vocal talent. She was less than popular in high school and hung with “the losers” one of whom had some blues records, which gave Janis her first exposure to the women blues singers. She sang in a church choir so singing blues was a perfect fit for her mood and purpose in life. When she went back for her tenth high school reunion, now famous as her Cheap Thrills album had sold over a million copies, her visit was caught on film as she was asked insensitive questions. I found myself screaming at this scene: “Just leave her alone!” The most poignant question asked was, “Did you go to the prom?” and shereplied softly, honestly, and movingly, “Nobody asked me.”

She found acceptance with the Haight-Ashbury music scene and had a short relationship with PigPen (Ron McKernan) from the Grateful Dead and was also good friends with Joe McDonald of Country Joe and the Fish. Promoter Chet Helms recruited her as a vocalist with

Order Today - Call Toll Free 1-855-US BLUES


Blues NewsStony Plain

Based in Edmonton, Canada, Stony Plain Records was founded by Holger Petersen 40 years ago.

As Canada’s oldest independent blues label, Stony Plain has released over 400 records of both Canadian and American blues and roots artists like Amos Garrett, Long John Baldry, David Wilcox, Jeff Healey, Kenny “Blues Boss” Wayne, Downchild, Duke Robillard, Ronnie Earl, Rory Block, Eric Bibb, Joe Louis Walker, Billy Boy Arnold, MonkeyJunk, and Maria Muldaur.

In addition, Petersen has released music by legends like Rosco Gordon, Jay McShann, Jimmy Witherspoon, and Lowell Fulson. As a testament to the quality of its recordings, Stony Plain has six Grammy nominations as well as many Blues Music Award nominations with over a dozen wins. Since its inception at Petersen’s kitchen table, label has garnered 11 Juno Awards and 20 Maple Blues Awards from the Canadian music industry.

This small, independent label, which emphasizes quality over quantity, provides its artists with a stable business environment. At the center of this consistency is the tone set by its dedicated founder, Holger Petersen, who, 40 years later, continues to believe that good music always finds its market.

Alligator Records

Alligator Records was founded in the in 1971 when Bruce Iglauer could not convince Delmark’s

Bob Koester to record Hound Dog Taylor. Iglauer took his meager savings, recorded Taylor in all his raucous glory, and took to the road peddling this infectious music.

From those inauspicious beginnings, running the label from his apartment and selling the record from the trunk of his car, Iglauer has released almost 300 records which have garnered three Grammy Awards, over 41 Grammy nominations, and well over 100 Blues Music Awards. From blues luminaries like Koko Taylor, Albert Collins, Son Seals, Luther Allison, James Cotton, Johnny Winter, Lonnie Brooks, Elvin Bishop, and Charlie Musselwhite to talented standard bearers like Marcia Ball, Shemekia Copeland, Tommy Castro, Rick Estrin & the Nightcats, Lil’ Ed and the Blues Imperials, Saffire, the Uppity Blues Women, and Roomful of Blues, Alligator has continued to be label blues fans can trust.

With its exciting new crop of talent like Selwyn Birchwood, Toronzo Cannon, Jarekus Singleton, and Moreland and Arbuckle, the label is poised to take its house rockin’ mantra into the future. “I want to keep bringing the blues and roots music to new fans and getting them as excited about the music as I am,” says Iglauer.

Bear Family and MVD

Bear Family Records, the German independent record label specializing in reissues of archival

country, rock ‘n’ roll, rhythm & blues, blues, folk, and soul music, will have exclusive distribution in the U.S. (for the first time) via MVD Entertainment Group. Historically, Bear Family material has had only limited availability in the U.S., stocked at Ernest Tubb Record Shops and through mail order sources. With the MVD deal in place, Bear Family box sets will be widely available in the U.S. The label has been in existence since 1975, founded by collector Richard Weize. Bear Family’s oldest recording archives date back to 1896, but a great deal of their releases contains material from the 1960s and ‘70s. The label has become known for its extravagant box sets and the company describes itself as “a collector’s record label” due to its primary business, which is reissuing rare recordings in CD format in small amounts. “With joining the MVD Entertainment Group of labels, Bear Family is making the next step,” said Detlev Hoegen of Bear Family Records. “While as a record label we are preserving the past, with MVD as our distribution partner we are meeting the challenges of today’s global market.” “We are so proud to be working closely with Detlev and his team, and especially proud to be affiliated with such a strong brand as Bear Family.” said Ed Seaman, COO of MVD Entertainment Group. “This opens new doors for our growing business and allows MVD to expand further into the high end music collector’s market.”


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Visit the Members Area at the Blues Music Magazine’s website to download all these amazing songs. Click on issue ten’s cover. This will open the web page where you can download all the following songs. Congratulations and thanks to all the artists appearing on sampler ten.

SAMPLER TEN

1. The Delgado Brothers - “If I Don’t Get Home” from the album Let’s Get Back on Mocombo Records.

2. Sonny Moorman - “You Made All My Blues” from the album You Made All My Blues on Atlas Records.

3. Bobby Blackhat - “Come Home Blues” from the album Accidental Blues on GEM Recording & Production.

4. Ben Hunter & Joe Seamons- “Beale St. Mess Around” from the album The North Wind & The Sun an independent release.

5. Tee Dee Young - “Bye Bye Baby” from the album Born With The Blues on LIR Records.

6. Trey Johnson & Jason Willmon - “Low & Behold” from the album Trey Johnson & Jason Willmon an independent release.

7. Hector Anchondo Band - “Turns Out” from the album Young Guns an independent release.

8. Micah Kesselring - “Ice & Snow” from the album Cabin Fever Blues an independent release.

9. The Paul DesLauriers Band - “Up In The Air” from the album Relentless an independent release.

10. The Dave Muskett Acoustic Blues Band - “Handyman Blues” from the album Recorded Live At The Slippery Noodle Inn an independent release.

11. The Norman Jackson Band - “Norman’s Blues’” from the album Child Support And Alimony an independent release.

12. Bing Futch - “The Flip Side” from the album Unresolved Blues on J.O.B. Entertainment.

13. Rob Lumbard - “Fool Me” from the album Blues In A Bottle on Lumbard Music.

2016 International Blues Challenge Finalists


PENNSYLVANIABLUES FESTIVAL

September 16-18, 2016Split Rock Resort, Lake Harmony

Anthony Geraci & The Boston Blues Allstars, Mike Wheeler Band with s/g Jimmy Burns & Peaches Staten

Toronzo Cannon, Zac Harman, Harrison KennedyAndy T Nick Nixon Band, Gaye Adegbalola & The Wild Rutz

Mikey Juniors Blues RevueSlam Allen, Blackburn , Beareather Reddy, Vanessa Collier

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NIck Schnebelen BandLive at Knuckleheads

Bob MargolinMy Road

Dennis GruenlingReady Or Not

Katy Guillen & the GirlsHeavy Days

The Terry Hanck BandFrom Roadhouse to Your House - LIVE!

Nancy WrightPlayDate!

Little Boys BlueTennissippi

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