Blues Matters 135

BOB MARGOLIN

GIVES THANKS WITH NEW ALBUM

SUE FOLEY IS LIVE IN AUSTIN

BERNIE MARSDEN

AND HIS PART IN HEAVENLY CREAM

MUDDY WATERS & LIGHTNIN’ HOPKINS JAM TOGETHER?

THE ILLUSTRATED BLUES OF BRIAN KRAMER

with account by

So, this is a piece that started out as a long time “what if?” Blues fantasy scenario; Muddy Waters playing together with Lightnin’ Hopkins. Can’t tell you how many times I imagined this to myself. A few months ago I posted a selection of my Lightnin’ creations on Facebook when out of the blue the great Bob Margolin chimes in and posts in reply a photo he took of Lightnin’ in the 70s. THEN the amazing Blues guitarist Tinsley Ellis responds with a photo of Both Muddy and Lightnin’ together on the thread, so I mention off the cuff, THAT would be a jam I truly wish existed.

Then Bob responds and drops the bomb that they actually DID jam together once,

Bob recalls; “Oh, they jammed once when I was around. At Liberty Hall in Houston, mid-70s. Lightnin’ used my archtop guitar. He wanted me to turn up the treble for him. Muddy invited him to sing one – and then Muddy focused on following him wherever he went and whenever he changed. Like a rodeo rider. Good lesson and amazing to watch and hear. Muddy sat on a stool, Lightnin’ in a chair. Muddy as intrepid as a Border Collie staring at him and playing a perfect guitar part to back him. Offstage to the side, me with big hair watching both of them, learning, amazed“.

This really got me goin’ and I mentioned that I

may conjure that up as an illustration.

I started sketching out a piece based on some of the things he wrote, mostly how I would see it in my mind. He mentioned that he had loaned Lightnin’ his prized Gibson ES-150 archtop, which was a good place to start. I imagined the two of my biggest Blues idols, who I actually got to see live, enjoying this moment together on stage. Full of respect and appreciation. In the photo Tinsley Ellis posted, they both looked very pleased. How could it not be?

Then as a courtesy, I sent Bob a preview of the sketch before I started really digging in.

Bob immediately wrote me back with some very eye-opening details;

“There was no smiling. Lightnin’ was playing (facing the right side) and Muddy was on him like Bill Russell on Wilt Chamberlain. Lightnin’ not relaxed. Muddy leaning in towards him, would not be thrown off”.

Bob then generously took the time to give me his detailed recollections of the occurrence and I was so inspired to fuse my imagined mental scenario and spirit with Bob Margolin’s actual witnessed experience. Now this illustra-

tion was much more than just my own fantasy, I was bestowed the task to re-create what Bob had witnessed.

So, this is the result of my rendering of two iconic giants in the Blues world and the one time they wound up on stage together.

Before I released it publicly, I sent a preview to Bob (with held breath) and he responded right away to my relief and joy;

“Yeah, That’s it. Damn you’re good! And very true to my memory. I admire your talent so much”.

With great appreciation and thanks to Bob Margolin, long time guitarist to Muddy, who has been nothing but supportive and encouraging to me through my developing art venture over the past few years & never in a million years imagined he himself would offer his guidance.

Additional note; After I completed the Bob Margolin “actual account” illustration, I just couldn’t leave it alone and went back and continued to complete the Brian Kramer fantasy version, just because… Why not?

READERS WITH THE STARS DANIELLE NICOLE, GRAMMY NOMINATED & AWARD-WINNING BASSIST, SINGER & SONGWRITER ANNOUNCES NEW ALBUM ‘THE LOVE YOU BLEED’

Got an image and a story of you meeting one of the stars of the blues? Send it into design@bluesmatters.com and you may just find your mugshot in the next issue of Blues Matters!

Grainne Duffy. This was taken after I supported her at the Braid Real Music Club in my hometown of Ballymena. She and her band couldn’t have been more welcoming. She even let me sit in on Blues Harp on the last song. Great news about her Grammy nominations. Keep up the excellent work with the mag.

ROBIN TROWER FT. SARI SCHORR

Robin Trower and Sari Schorr have released the stunning new album ‘Joyful Sky’ on Provogue.

“I’ve worked with some great vocalists over the years, but Sari is dynamite, just an absolute knockout,” reflects Trower. “This album really pushed me, made me write in different keys and arrange songs for her voice. I went more down the R&B route this time, because I knew she’d be great with that flavour. But the blues still underpins everything I do –and there’s definitely elements from my ’70s stuff in this new album.”

For six decades, Robin Trower’s career has been an act of quiet rebellion. Rewind the reels of the British guitarist’s backstory and you’ll find an artist who has always rolled the dice rather than take the path of least resistance. In the early-’70s, Trower announced his fearless streak by leaving the security of Procol Harum for a gold-selling solo career whose ever-present Bridge Of Sighs - album filled the stadiums of North America. Since then, he’s flowed from his own projects to collaborations with everyone from Jack Bruce to the United State Of Mind supergroup alongside Maxi Priest and Livingstone Brown. Fast-forward to 2023 and Trower’s new studio album, Joyful Sky, represents vindication for his latest flash of artistic instinct.

“I was already a fan of Robin, absolutely,” Schorr says. “You don’t want to use the word ‘genius’ casually, but I believe he is a genius. The way he feels and hears music is so acute, it’s like he has superhuman powers. I had so much faith in his vision. You just grab on and hold tight.”

Danielle Nicole is pleased to announce the upcoming release of her new album, The Love You Bleed, out January 26, 2024 via Forty Below Records. Pre-order the album HERE. In addition, she is sharing her new single “Make Love”, with an accompanying video. This stunning new album is comprised of twelve heartfelt tracks exploring themes of love, loss, and perseverance.

The Love You Bleed was produced by Tony Braunagel (Taj Mahal, Eric Burdon, Robert Cray) and co-produced by Nicole, with John Porter (B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Bryan Ferry) mixing. The tight-knit quartet on the songs features Danielle on bass guitar and vocals; Brandon Miller (electric, acoustic, pedal steel, mandolin, and 12-string guitar), Damon Parker (keyboards); Go-Go Ray (drums), and Stevie Blacke (violin and cello).

Hailing from Kansas Ciity, MO, Danielle was initially influenced by her parents and recalls seeing her father playing blues guitar and her mother singing with the group Little Eva & The Works. She formed Trampled Under Foot, a popular Midwest band, with her two brothers. Her solo career took off with the release of Wolf Den (2015), which peaked at #2 on the Billboard Blues charts and amassed 7.5 million

Spotify streams. Cry No More (2018) debuted at #1 in the Billboard Blues Charts and was nominated for a Grammy. It also boasted Spotify streams of over 10 million.

Nicole has been inducted into the Kansas Music Hall of Fame and the South Canada Blues Hall of Fame. In addition, she has received seven Blues Music Awards. She recently did a duet with Dion on the upcoming song “I Aim To Please” and recorded the opening track in the forthcoming Peter Hutchings film “Which Brings Me To You,”

JOHNNY SHINES

John Earl is a music photographer, writer and historical custodian based in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. A good friend, he has agreed Blues Matters may publish this fascinating personal memoir and we are proud to have the opportunity to share this with you:

From my Memoir: I drove Johnny Shines and his grandson Pete to the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1970. On the way we bought Kentucky Fried Chicken and ate with the bucket resting on the hood of the car. I drove the twelve hour stretch from Tuscaloosa to Ann Arbor without stopping to rest. I’d never seen anything like the endless rows of corn in Indiana. Along side the road near Mitchell there was a marker honoring Hoosier astronaut Gus Grissom. I remember thinking that it was no wonder that he wanted to leave Indiana.

When, Johnny, Pete and I arrived at the hotel that the blues musicians were staying in we found out that there had been a mistake in booking rooms. We had to share our room with the Chicago blues pianist Sunnyland Slim. Sunnyland decided to treat us by going out and buying some Kentucky Fried Chicken. We found out later, to our chagrin, that the festival was catered by Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Johnny slept in the bed in the hotel room with his grandson and I shared a bed with Sunnyland who began calling me his “old bed buddy.” Johnny later told me me that he hadn’t been sure about me but when it didn’t seem to matter to me that I shared the bed with a black man he was convinced that I had no prejudice.

When we first arrived at the festival grounds we saw the tall albino musician Johnny Winter standing in a crowd. He immediately recognized Johnny. In fact he was holding the newly released Shines Chess Records album. He showed it to Johnny who probably hadn’t as yet gotten a copy of the album himself. I remember Winter saying that the Portosans that lined the festival area looked like they were rocket ships about to blast off.

I meet many bluesmen in Ann Arbor, but I liked Mississippi Fred McDowell the best. I later visited Fred in Como, Mississippi, with my friends Rick and Debby. The Rolling Stones album “Sticky Fingers” had just been released with

Fred’s song “You Gotta Move” in it. Fred lived in a small house trailer near the small town’s water tank.

At Ann Arbor Fred and Johnny and Robert Pete Williams jammed in their hotel room. On one occasion they were accompanied by a young keyboard player Mike who had come to the festival from New York.

We went to Mr. Floods Party, a bar that was decorated with a lot of stained glass, memorabilia a vintage Wurlitzer jukebox and hanging Tiffany lamp shades, that was a musicians hangout.

One day at the festival Big Mama Thornton drove up in a big white Cadillac which had its trunk stuffed with beer cans. There was free beer in the performers tent but Big Mama who was waving drum sticks around managed to sell her beer to the performers. She is perhaps best known as the musician who first recorded the song that became a hit for Elvis Presley “You Ain’t Nothing But A Hound Dog.”

I sent a letter to Bob Groom in England recounting my Ann Arbor festival experience and was was surprised to see it used as an article in his blues magazine Blues World.

From my Memoir: I drove Johnny Shines and his grandson Pete to the Ann Arbor Blues Festival in 1970. On the way we bought Kentucky Fried Chicken and ate with the bucket resting on the hood of the car. I drove the twelve hour stretch from Tuscaloosa to Ann Arbor without stopping to rest. I’d never seen anything like the endless rows of corn in Indiana. Along side the road near Mitchell there was a marker honoring Hoosier astronaut Gus Grissom. I remember thinking that it was no wonder that he wanted to leave Indiana.

When, Johnny, Pete and I arrived at the hotel that the blues musicians were staying in we found out that there had been a mistake in booking rooms. We had to share our room with the Chicago blues pianist Sunnyland Slim. Sunnyland decided to treat us by going out and buying some Kentucky Fried Chicken. We found out later, to our chagrin, that the festival was catered by Kentucky Fried Chicken.

Johnny slept in the bed in the hotel room with his grandson and I shared a bed with Sunnyland who began calling me his “old bed buddy.” Johnny later told me me that he hadn’t been sure about me but when it didn’t seem to matter to me that I shared the bed with a black man he was convinced that I had no prejudice.

When we first arrived at the festival grounds we saw the tall albino musician Johnny Winter standing in a crowd. He immediately recognized Johnny. In fact he was holding the newly released Shines Chess Records album. He showed it to Johnny who probably hadn’t as yet gotten a copy of the album himself. I remember Winter saying that the Portosans that lined the festival area looked like they were rocket ships about to blast off.

I meet many bluesmen in Ann Arbor, but I liked Mississippi Fred McDowell the best. I later visited Fred in Como, Mississippi, with my friends Rick and Debby. The Rolling Stones album “Sticky Fingers” had just been released with Fred’s song “You Gotta Move” in it. Fred lived in a small house trailer near the small town’s water tank.

At Ann Arbor Fred and Johnny and Robert Pete Williams jammed in their hotel room. On one occasion they were accompanied by a young keyboard player Mike who had come to the festival from New York.

We went to Mr. Floods Party, a bar that was decorated with a lot of stained glass, memorabilia a vintage Wurlitzer jukebox and hanging Tiffany lamp shades, that was a musicians hangout.

One day at the festival Big Mama Thornton drove up in a big white Cadillac which had its trunk stuffed with beer cans. There was free beer in the performers tent but Big Mama who was waving drum sticks around managed to sell her beer to the performers. She is perhaps best known as the musician who first recorded the song that became a hit for Elvis Presley “You Ain’t Nothing But A Hound Dog.”

I sent a letter to Bob Groom in England recounting my Ann Arbor festival experience and was was surprised to see it used as an article in his blues magazine Blues World.

feat. Buddy Guy • Joe Bonamassa • Christone “KingFish” Ingram • Rob McNelley • James Cotton • Josh Smith

“Every time he steps into the studio for an album of his own, it’s a treat. …A star-laden set that shows why he’s earned dozens of awards in his career.” - Blues Blast

“Blu Ja Vu is a model example of balance between amazing songwriting, excellent musicianship and perfect production coming together to create a great album.” - Blues Rock Review

“When I hear music like this, played by superb musicians, it just makes me smile and want to dance. Totally fabulous from the start through to the closing End Of The Line.” - Blues Matters

“Hambridge is in complete control as he leads the listener in a fluid and masterful manner through a blues soundscape that is at times fiery, lusty, blistering, and smoldering at equal turns.” - AMERICANA HIGHWAYS

“… A set of potent and pulsating pleasure.”

- Big City Rhythm & Blues

The small town of Helena, Arkansas has a long history of preserving and promoting the blues. Its radio station, KFFA, was one of the only stations that would play music by African American artists in the 1940s.

And the station’s show, King Biscuit Time, featured Sonny Boy Williamson II, Robert Lockwood and Pinetop Perkins playing live in the studio. That show inspired blues musicians, including BB King, Robert Nighthawk, and James Cotton, and resulted in Helena becoming a major center for the blues. In 1986, the first King Biscuit Blues Festival was held in Helena, organized by the Sonny Boy Blues Society. One of the founding members of that society, Berbon “Bubba” Sullivan, became known as a champion of the blues, and was the long-time host of the festival, introducing the bands and warming up the audience until his death in 2021. He also owned Bubba’s Blues Corner,

Festival continues to be one of the nation’s largest celebrations of the blues, and this year’s event was no exception. Starting the day prior to the festival, on “Warm-up Wednesday,” a memorial jam was held in honor of Bubba, led by Anson Funderburgh, who has played every King Biscuit Blues Festival but one in the past 36 years. The Main Stage featured well-known superstars of the blues each night, such as Kenny Neal, Billy Branch, Lil Ed & the Blues Imperials, Ruthie Foster, John Primer, John Nemeth, the Nick Moss Band (featuring Dennis Gruenling), and Tab Benoit.

While not strictly a player of blues, Paul Thorn is also a regular at this festival and fans look forward to his quirky storytelling just as much as his talented singing and songwriting. The main stage also introduced some new rising stars, such as Dylan Triplett (who won a Blues Music Award as best emerging artist) and DK

known, but extremely talented artists playing on the other four stages, spread out over six blocks. To get there, fans passed by numerous street musicians who tried to capture their attention as they traveled between the venues, and many vendors offering delicious food and blues-themed merchandise. Tia Carroll, Memphissippi Sounds, Jamiah Rogers, Ben Levin, and the Kenny “Beedy Eyes” Smith Band were some of the favorites from the smaller stages. And, on Saturday night, fans could enter the Malco Theater for an uplifting gospel showcase which included child singers with surprising vocal abilities.

With the laid-back, welcoming atmosphere and outstanding talent, it’s no surprise that thousands of blues fans will return to this festival every year, booking their trip even prior to the announcement of the lineup and knowing they will never be disappointed. With good reason,

ALSO AVAILABLE ON BLUE HEART RECORDS

ROUND-UP

JOHN MAYALL-DECCA

LIVE AT KLOOKS KLEEK, A HARD ROAD, CRUSADE, BARE WIRES

There is not much I can tell ardent Blues fans about John Mayall, a legendary Blues artist who started recording in the middle 60s and kept on going until 2020. But what I can try and put across is the debt this country and wider afield has to John Mayall. He was born in Macclesfield, Cheshire, not London, as some people may think because of his emergence and influence on the 60s British Blues Boom. I don’t need to bore you with anything about the so-called, Beano album, one of the most recognizable covers in music history. No, this is about four albums that were as significant and influential as the Beano album, and some might say, that they had a bigger impact.

Live At Kooks Kleek, released a year before the Beano album, was recorded at Klooks Kleek Club in Hampstead, London, on December 7th1964. Of the twelve songs on the album, eleven were written by Mayall, something of a rarity in them days. It was also the beginning of Mayall attracting and finding young Blues artists from all over England who shared his love of Blues music. It was the catalyst for the start of the British Blues Boom, and, also the launch of what would become known as supergroups, with many artists owing their entire careers to the guidance of John Mayall, among them, Hughie Flint, and John McVie. Another such champion and stalwart of Blues, Alexis Korner, was also developing and nurturing new, raw talent, their respective careers never getting in the way of each other.

A Hard Road followed in 1967 with another couple of rising stars in the Blues world, Peter Green, and Aynsley Dunbar. Now Peter Green was seen as the ideal replacement for the departing Eric Clapton, and judging by his work on this album, it was a very good call indeed. Songs such as, You Don’t Love Me, and Hit The Highway, bring to the fore Green’s guitar chops that would last for the rest of his career. Add to that covers such as Dust My Blues, and two songs penned by Green, The Same Way and The Supernatural, reinforced Mayall’s commitment to bringing through exceptionally gifted young artists. You can see the way things would eventually turn out, Peter Green and John McVie playing together on this album.

Crusade followed later the same year, this time showcasing the new kid on the block as far as guitarists go, Mick Taylor, another young Blues

artist who would play a part in The Rolling Stones some years later. John McVie once more fills the bass line duties, and this, for me is the best of the four albums in this sequence. The brilliant guitar of Taylor, along with his songwriting skills, and let’s not forget just how adept a musician, John Mayall was, and still is, by the way. It also carried a somewhat unheard-of rant by Mayall himself. We all know about swinging sixties London, anything goes, and indeed went, but not usually in the liner notes. It was a call to arms by Mayall, instead of listening to synthetic pop, mass-produced sugary rubbish that was spewing from radio and TV, he was urging us, the audience to give these young Blues artists a fair crack of the whip. Compelling us to give raw talent and truth their freedom, something that Americans had realized they had to do with Blues artists. I Can’t Quit You Baby, and Checkin’ Up On My Baby, are just two stunning tracks on offer.

Bare Wires, released in 1968, took a bit of an unexpected turn in the ever-growing career of John Mayall. It introduced strings, Clarinet, and Violin, not your run-of-the-mill Blues go-to instruments. Don’t let this fool you, Bare Wires is still a formidable Blues album in every sense of the word. Mick Taylor appears again just before joining the Stones, and the likes of Dick Heckstall-Smith, a keen jazz artist had also joined the fray. Highlights from this, Open Up A New Door, very apt, as my introduction referred to, I’m A Stranger, and Killing Time, only go to reiterate the choice of personnel by Mayal to help produce and write these songs, was once again spot on. It’s hard to think of another artist who has had such a cataclysmic effect on British Blues that splintered into so many different factions.

In America, there are a few musical appreciations of Blues artists, B.B King, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Chuck Berry, the list goes on. They honour the Blues artists who helped change the musical landscape, bringing Blues music to the forefront of American culture. I am baffled as to why we don’t have anything like this in England. There would be many deserved musicians, but, for me, the most important one would be John Mayall. He shaped the British Blues Boom almost singlehandedly, with the help of Decca Records. Let us not forget, that five years previous to Live At Klooks Kleek being released, Decca turned down a band called, The Beatles. Now, where’s that museum?

MATHIAS LATTIN

NEW ALBUM - UP NEXT

“an album of excellent Blues with some rocky numbers and a touch of soul to sweeten the pot.”

— Andy Snipper, Music-News

“Smooth vocals, awesome songwriting, and dope guitar work, really great album, original!”

— Christone ‘Kingfish” Ingram AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE

Ben Levin and Stella Heath

digital EP - Waiting Just for You

“With Stella’s background in jazz and a love for the blues, and Ben’s background in blues with a love for jazz, the two met musically in the middle. “Waiting Just For You” showcases four duets in a style where blues and jazz intersect to create a beautiful, classic sound.”

— American Blues Scene

Vizz Tone label group

JERRY RICKS BLUES FESTIVAL 2023

When Damir Halilic “HAL”, The Artistic Director of The Jerry Ricks Blues Festival invited me to Croatia to open the 15th edition of the Festival on the Open Air Stage in Opatija to play the opener for Ana Popović, I was, to say the least, surprised and of course very pleased. After I calmed down I started to become curious as to what the first and largest of Croatia’s Blues Festivals was all about.

Jerry Ricks Blues Festival 2023 was held over 5 days with concerts in various towns on the Opatija Riviera - Opatija, Kastav, Klana, Matulji, Lovran, Mošćenička Draga . This years lineup included Ana Popović, Katie Henry Band, Zdenka Kovačiček and The Greenhouse Blues Band, Delta Blues Chain, Babasissoko Mediteranean Blues, Nicolas Kurelic Band, King King, Riccardo Staraj and The Midnight Blues Band and myself.

I was the only acoustic solo act in the line-up and asked myself why? Over a few cappuccinos, in a bar in the Mountain town of Kastav where I was also invited to hold a Fingerpicking Blues Guitar Masterclass, within sight of the house where Jerry Ricks spent his last days, I asked Hal about the man that the festival was named after and how the largest and most prestigious of Croatia’s Blues Festivals came about.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Jerry Ricks, often billed as “Philadelphia” Jerry Ricks, played trumpet as a child. In the late

1950s he started playing guitar in local coffee shop scene. Between 1960 and 1966 he was booking manager for the Second Fret Coffee House in Philadelphia, so he came into contact with many major figures in the blues revival, including Son House, Lightnin’ Hopkins, Libba Cotten, Jesse Fuller, Mance Lipscomb, and Lonnie Johnson. He also recorded with Mississippi John Hurt in 1964. In 1969, Jerry toured with Buddy Guy on a State Department-sponsored East African tour.

Hal described Jerry Ricks as a sort of modern-day nomad, moving to a different town or even country every few years. He spent several years in Europe with his family or alone in various countries; Holland, UK, France, Austria, Germany.

Hal, himself a well known guitarist on the international stage and who has known and worked with the likes of Tommy Emmanuel and Woody Mann, first met Jerry on the university campus in Northampton, England. Hal was staying there at the invitation of the European Blues Association during their annual Blues Week program. Jerry was introduced to him by his friend Michael Roach, a blues musician – and still the driving force behind the EBA - living in England at the time.

Talking to Jerry, Hal found out that Jerry knew and had often played in Croatia as well as in the rest of ex-Yugoslavia during the eighties. In fact, Jerry’s first solo album was recorded in Zagreb in 1984, which at that time in Yugoslavia,

and he had also recorded albums in Hungary, Austria and Switzerland. Jerry’s concerts were always popular and well attended, he also was known to hang out with some of Croatia’s well known jazz musicians.

Seeing that Jerry was a wandering soul and seemed to have a desire to constantly change his environment, Hal asked him if he ever thought about coming to live in Croatia. Just a few weeks later, Hal received a call from Jerry who told him that he and his partner Nancy Klein, had decided that they would like to come to live in Croatia. Hal helped them find an apartment which had a balcony overlooking the town square and they settled in Kastav in 2006.

For those who don’t know Croatia, Kastav is a small medieval town about 15 kms from Rijeka, the largest port in Croatia. Being an open friendly sort of character, Jerry quickly became popular with the locals. There are 3 bars with terraces in the square in Kastav and over our cappucinos Hal told me a great story about Jerry. Every morning he would come out on his balcony, raise his hat and shout good morn ing to the people sitting having their morning coffee on the bar terraces below and then everybody would wave back and shout hello. The people in Kastav loved him.

So now based in Kastav, Jerry of course continued to tour in other countries, but, the magic is that after Jerry Ricks moved to

Kastav, he inspired so many local blues players who never had the chance to see and hear the ‘real thing’ before. Then with the help of many local contacts he was asked to play at other venues in Croatia both on a local and national level.

I can just imagine it, “Hey guys, you gotta book Jerry, he’s the real deal”.

In late 2007 Jerry suffered a stroke and he died

directors Damir Halilic “Hal” and Riccardo Staraj who have made sure that Acoustic Country Blues are included every year in the festival lineup.

Croatia is a country filled with incredible blues musicians, but in my view mostly Blues-Rock. As I’ve said before, it reminds me of UK in the 1970’s when acoustic players were considered the poor relation of the electric blues scene. So, it’s great to see acoustic blues being given a

boasts mountain towns, wonderful beaches and warm generous people.

As the Jerry Ricks Festival publicity says says: ‘This festival is not just about music, it is about community and the unity that music can create. It is an opportunity to come together and enjoy beautiful music while socializing with people who share our love for blues.’

If you love blues and are looking for some-

JOHN DEARNESS

Growing up in Orkney John (Deep Roots Last) was surrounded by blues music. Though the live scene was not huge some of his early music memories include watching Catfish Keith and Kent DuChaine in Woodwick house and the blues took a firm grip. His father had a love for music and his cd collection spanned across many genres. Albert King, Robert Johnston, Albert Collins, Buddy Guy, Freddie King, Robert Cray, and BB King were on loop, and he remembers playing their ‘The Last Waltz’ and ‘A tribute to Stevie Ray Vaughan’ videos until they were worn and stretched. A trip to see BB king in Edinburgh also fuelled his passion.

From age twelve he was playing the blues in pubs, taking part in jams, and enjoying the wealth of talent in the local scene. As with many small communities he was drawn into lots of other types of music and performed in folk and rock groups.

This diverse experience meant that, a couple of years ago, when he returned to playing more regularly in public and began writing his own songs, they generally were folk, blues, rock and mix of roots music. The songs came to him thick and fast and so he built a shed in his garden and set to recording them as to avoid waking his two young girls Daisy and Poppy. All the years listening to classic albums supporting his ears in making a judgement on the best sound.

The name Deep Roots Last is a double entendre as it both states that the heartfelt cultured music lasts forever as well as the feeling John has when he is digging deeper into himself for songs exploring; feelings, opinions and memories that matter and that he wants to say something about, the last song he will write will be furthest down in his thoughts. (This is also depicted on all Deep Roots last CD’s)

John has just released his second album Deep Roots Last 12 in Slate a bluesy, earthy, and gritty album that uses a mix of electric and acoustic guitar, creative use of percussion, bass, harmonica, and fiddle played by a local legend Douglas Montgomery. (Who actually taught John to play the guitar when he was 11). The album follows the lives of a father and son through challenges and ends with three moral of the story songs. John strives to leave air and space instrumentally and, in his lyrics, to give the listener the opportunity to interoperate it the way they want or need to at the time they are listening.

Deep Roots Last recently enjoyed playing at the Orkney Blues Festival playing at the Blues Matters sponsored gig and look forward to any opportunities to play their music in the future. The Album Deep Roots Last 12 in Slate is available now.

For further details:

https://deeprootslast.bandcamp.com/

THE VIOLET HOURS

A spectrum of influences makes them one of the newest blues acts on the scene.

‘My earliest influences go as far back as Robert Johnson,’ Chris said when talking about his musical influences. ‘Because Robert Johnson was one of the first guys I heard play slide guitar and he wrote so many classic blues songs – there is loads of influences, though, Duane Allman, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck and Freddie King. I would have been about 13 or 14 at the time, listening to Robert Johnson, and I started gigging soon afterwards.’

Chris, from Burnley, went on to join his first band with a group of friends in East Lancashire when he was still in his formative years, and he has been gigging ever since with numerous line-ups before joining his latest creation with Preston-based singer Helen May who he met through a mutual friend and formed ‘The Violet Hours.’

‘For a long time, I had wanted to form a blues country rock band after listening to ‘Live at Fillmore East – The Allman Brothers.’ Helen May said. ‘The power of it gets you from the first few bars. And I had seen Chris playing slide with Slack Alice and sought him out. He was interested in depping, but nothing came of it for some time until I was offered an opportunity to sing for another band and their guitarist dropped out, and I immediately thought of Chris. The band didn’t work out but Chris and I managed to impress each other enough to want to work together some more and recruited Halifax-based Damon Waite on drums.’

The Violet Hours was formed soon after (in April 2023) with the intention of providing a new take on well-known blues country rock classics and being a vehicle for the band’s original music which has distinct Americana flavours.

‘I was wondering what to call the band and a friend had given me an album by The Civil Wars called ‘Barton Hollow’ – The Violet Hour (singular) was one of the tracks and it just consumed me. The Violet Hour is the death of the day as the sun goes down and night falls, casting a beautiful lilac hue. It interested me that ‘The Violet Hour’ is also part of a poem called ‘The Wasteland’ by T.S. Eliot which is full of colour and emotion – something that I hope to bring out in the tracks we do.”

After debuting at Colne Blues Festival and Orkney Blues Festival, The Violet Hours next appear at the Citadel Theatre in St Helens, Lancashire on October 6th, 2023.

For further information: www.facebook.com/TheVioletHoursUK

BERNIE MARSDEN - A WORKING LIFE

Bernie Marsden was very much one of our own, a bluesman to the bone and an international musician loved by countless fans across the globe. His passing a few months ago, in August, left a hole in the British blues firmament that few, if any, can hope to fill. Fortunately, however, before heading off, Bernie left a new album on Conquest Records to leave a lasting taste of his power and presence.

Blues Matters believes it best to let others, his friends and musical buddies, to reveal their thoughts on his importance and place in the blues world.

Joe Bonamassa:

“I am truly heartbroken,” says Joe Bonamassa. “Bernie Marsden was the kindest soul. I met him on May 4, 2009 at my Royal Albert Hall debut. A big moment for me. After the show he approached me and was the first person to say ‘Great gig…Hi, my name is Bernie Marsden.’ I was in awe of him as I was in awe that entire day.”

“There would be many wonderful times with Bernie to come. As our friendship has grown over the past 14 years, I have found Bernie to be a great encourager, a confidant, a brilliant writer and most of all…a dear friend. He was “the best of the best” and championed so many young careers while being such a brilliant musician on his own. I never saw him happier than the time we camped out at Abbey Road Studios for a month writing music together for what would become the Royal Tea album. So much talent wrapped up in such a wonderful human being.

“Humble, kind and larger than life, I will always cherish my time with him and regret the moments we won’t have together. This is such a great loss to me personally and a tremendous loss to the music world. He was a superstar in every imaginable way.

“My sincerest heartfelt condolences go out to Fran and his family.”

“I’ve always had the utmost respect for him as a musician – I would say underestimate Bernie Marsden at your peril, because as a singer he’ll kick your ass, as a player he’ll kick your ass and as a songwriter he’ll definitely kick your ass!”

Neil Murray:

“I knew Bernie as a friend and musical colleague for almost 50 years, starting when I stood in for Cozy Powell’s Hammer bassist Clive Chaman on quite a few shows, progressing through gigs and recordings with Whitesnake, MGM, the Moody Marsden Band, Company Of Snakes, M3 Classic Whitesnake and Bernie’s own band, as well as many ‘function band’-type performances. Since Bernie’s passing, I’ve realised that I probably had the most enjoyable times of my life when I was with Bernie, both musically and personally. Although I have worked with many other famous musicians and singers, I think I had the most satisfaction and the most fun playing with him. We’ve lost a great character, a brilliant guitarist, singer and songwriter.”

Ian Paice:

“My first meeting with Bernie was in the Paice, Ashton & Lord collaboration. When he came into

the audition, he was like a breath of fresh air. Confident, talented and very funny. He got the job immediately.

When I joined Whitesnake it was great to be working with him again. He told me that at the PAL audition he was so nervous inside, that his way to get through it was to put on the complete physical reverse of his inner feelings. Super confident! Of course, by the WS time he was established in his own right not only as a musician but a great songwriter. I never laughed so much on the road with the “Snakes”, and a lot of that was down to Bernie”.

Phil Campbell:

‘Bernie was a lovely man, a wonderful guitar player and musician and his contribution to rock music was immense. I valued our friendship and will miss him dearly’

Steve Lukather:

From the first time I met Bernie I knew he was a special person. He was a great musician and kept the pure original UK blues guitar style alive yet in his own way, whether it was the early Whitesnake or his many other projects thru the years as an incredible player and songwriter and singer. Tone and touch and taste. That was Bernie. His kindness and humor I will never forget! The fact he liked me touched my heart and I miss him! I imagine he is plugged into an angels Marshall stack playing his heart on a Les Paul God made for him. It’s a thought I wanna keep.

Luke:

RIP Bernie or as I called him ‘ Bernard’

Rick Wakeman:

“Bernie was not just a great guitarist and songwriter but also an extremely nice guy and great fun to be with. He lived for music (and guitars, of course° and has left an indelible mark within the history of rock music. I truly miss him but I am grateful for all the music and memories he has left with us.”

Rob Cass:

“IIn 1986 Bernie brought me over from Dublin to join his band Alaska in London and my life was forever changed…Touring the world, recording in amazing studios, Bernie had made my dreams come true.. Many years later I produced his album Shine at Abbey Road Studios and we got very close.. Then getting him on Jack Bruce’s album, working with Ginger Baker & many other incredible musicians too many to mention.. It was thrilling.. Bernie was a joy to work with. Always funny but focused.. In my opinion he was one of the best blues rock guitar players of all time.. I recorded him for Pete Brown’s album which I was producing only a few months before he passed.. Even though he was very ill he still played beautifully… But that was Bernie, a brilliant musician and music lover to the end. The real deal, and my dear friend.”

Donal Gallagher:

“Recall first meeting gentleman Bernie back in the 70s, his band had been signed up by our then agents Quarry Productions (above the old Marquee Club). He enthused about my brother and I said ‘Well, he’s down the corridor, why not say hello yourself.’ Once introduced, Rory and Bernie were like magnets and all headed down

to The Ship pub, on Wardour Street. Over the years, the two guitarists would meet on the road and bond together in musio language. Following my brother’s passing, dear Bernie was one of the first musicians to call and to pay tribute to Rory. On the phone call Bernie asked if he could play my sibling’s Stratocaster, so, at the Buxton Opera House tribute concert, I had no hesitation in letting Bernie be the first guitarist to perform with the instrument and Marsden did Rory’s orphaned guitar proud. In guitar heaven I’m sure the two musicians are jamming and discussing the merits of their instruments. Bless you Bernie, it’s sad to see you ‘hit the road again’ but you leave wonderful memories and music with us.”

Don Airey:

‘We knew Bernie Marsden for nearly 50 years. He was the most affable of men. Funny, dedicated to his family and friends, adept in his youth at soccer, and at snooker in his middle age, but first and foremost a music biz pro with an amazing talent for playing guitar. Last time we worked together was at our charity bash in Great Gransden performing a half hour blues set – ‘Crossroads,’ ‘Hoochie Coochie Man,’ ‘Same old Blues,’ ‘Here I go Again”’- that brought the house down, the crowd to it’s feet, and a tear to everyone’s eyes such was the intensity of his playing. God bless you Bernie for all you gave to so many people. We’ll miss you.”

David Coverdale:

A” genuinely funny, gifted man, whom I was honoured to know & share a stage with. Bernie…once a Snake…always a Snake.”

Peter Frampton:

“Bernie was a treasure of a human and a passionate guitar player I have admired for so long.”

Elkie Brooks:

“I was very honoured when Bernie sent me the recording of the song ‘Place in my heart’. He was a fine musician and songwriter and would often be a special guest in my band. Bernie always envisaged ‘Place in my Heart’ with just me singing it but my son Jermaine and his wife Joanna who manage me and also produce my albums saw it as duet with Bernie and how right they were. It has to be one of the most soulful songs I have ever sung. What a privilege to sing alongside Bernie’s beautiful vocal timbre. Thankfully Bernie managed to hear our version of his song before he passed away and gave it much approval. Bernie will be very missed.May he rest in peace.My sincerest love and respect. Elkie X.”

Doug Aldrich:

“Bernie Marsden was such a humble sweet person, you could hear it in every song he wrote and every note he played. His was a legend of the British hard rock guitar sound. Grateful to have known him.”

Tell us something about your musical background:

“I originally wanted to go to college and study wildlife management or forestry! I enjoyed playing music, but purely for fun. As I was going to open mics for fun. and then starting to get paid here and there to do certain little gigs, I just decided that this would be what I wanted to do. I wasn’t good at Botany and Physics and struggling with the curriculum for my majors. I was excelling at this music thing and having fun doing it.I got a big offer to go on the road with Sam Lay; I turned it down because I was scared to tell my mother that I quit college to go on the road, but turning down that gig started making me think, what if I could do this music thing instead? I was really in love with little Walter and James Cotton, Junior Wells and Butterfield and all the old guys. When starting out, I was putting six, seven, eight, nine, ten, 15, 16 hours a day into practice. Next thing you know, I upped the ante and moved to Memphis to give it a shot!”

But why choose the harmonica as an instrument?:

“I was in a punk band as a kid, and I was the singer. But the other guys in the band started to sing too. I didn’t play an instrument, well I played guitar, but they didn’t want me to play guitar in the band, because even in the punk band, I would have ruined it! They gave me a harmonica so that I wasn’t put to the side of stage! My mother didn’t know they were cheap to buy, so she bought me one, but I would have to take lessons. My guitar teacher taught harmonica luckily, so I ended up learning it, I took to it quickly. I was taking guitar lessons for a couple of years at that time, but guitar was just a vehicle for writing songs. I just wanted to bang on it and scream and write lyrics. That’s what I really cared about, was writing lyrics. I just fell in love with jazz music and harmonica. I didn’t think it was possible to play any of that stuff on harmonica. Then I heard Howard Levy. I went back playing the harp harder than ever. Right around that time, I started trying to play chromatically on a diatonic or playing jazz licks. At that point, I knew this instrument that I had chosen was probably the hardest one in the world for that kind of stuff. Every harmonica player is an influence on me, Little Walter, Paul Butterfield, Mark Hummel the list is endless.”

Talk about some of your early lifestyle changes:

“I don’t think punk music influences my musical style as once it did. I grew up as a skateboarder and, even my dreadlocks image, is from looking at white guys from California that were surfers and their hair, matted from the sun and the salt water. That was my culture growing up, punk rock music was naturally part of that. So, in the early 2000’s, I was a blues guy, I played nothing but blues and that’s all I listen to now. But the thing was, in 2001, I came out of the closet, I had a boyfriend. I just decided to be myself in every area of my

life, embracing things from my childhood and putting that into who I am as a musician today, regardless of whether it fit the category! So that’s why we covered Lou Reed tunes and the likes. Now I’m older and settled down, I’m not so into screaming and yelling and doing punk stuff. I’m more interested in slowing down and making the best music I can.”

Jason has so many musical styles, what are his preferences?:

“I listen to primarily jazz music; I love blues, too, but listen to a lot of Hammond B3. I like the Mardi Gras, Indian music, the New Orleans funk music, all that’s heavily jazz infused. So that’s where my heart is right now. My mom was interested in blues, and she had some Muddy Waters records, and she bought Howlin Wolf records when I was a kid. I remember we went to Kmart, and she bought a Howlin’ Wolf cassette, me and my brother were making fun of it, you know, making fun of the cover. It didn’t look like the stuff we were into, like Weird Al Yankovic.”

James Cotton and other blues influencers on his career:

“I was lucky my mom took me to see James Cotton when I was thirteen. It was there that I saw the sincerity of him and other blues guys she took me to see, it was the same sincerity that I saw in punk music and from my culture, except in a different culture. That’s what made me fall in love with the music, people were just being real, I don’t think there’s as much of that left in our genre today. Blues is rebel music, from its inception and it is rebel music for Black culture. It’s not part of my culture how I grew up but as a tourist I try to do my homework. I don’t care what you call my music, when people call it blues, I understand why they would. Even on the new record Behind the Veil, this has the most blues on that I have recorded. It’s the closest thing to traditional blues but I’m heavily jazz and funk influenced. It’s all music at the end of the day! Back in the 60s, you didn’t say I’m going to see a blues band you said I’m going to see Albert King or Janis Joplin not a style of music. Janis Joplin is a huge influence on me being a musician. I used to watch VHS tapes of her live shows repeatedly. How she conducted the band and how she was, like, naked on stage and on the verge of being able to hit certain notes but still going for them. What I learned from Janis is that if you’re sincere and if you are yourself, everything else is secondary. But how hard is it to peel the layers of the onion away. Women were more of a force in my life; my first favourite artists were all women, like Deborah Harry, Nina Simone, Ella Fitzgerald and Sarah Vaughan and Billie Holiday, they were my favourite lyricists. I was really into Jim Morrison and that kind of stuff too, when I was a kid and later in life as well.”

What does success mean for you?:

“I think success today more than anything is, how kind a person can be right throughout the day, especially on hard days. That doesn’t mean that I don’t have ambition and goals. They are secondary to waking up, saying my prayers, doing positive thinking to get the day

going, and staying sober! I don’t worry about the state of the blues or if the audience is getting older, I just do what I do, and I’m okay.”

Jason’s interpretation of what blues means to him:

“I would say it is the tension between major and minor, that’s why we can hear blues in John Coltrane, and Janis Joplin and The Doors. We can hear blues even in Britney Spears, because of those changes. I think the most important thing for this to appeal to a younger generation is lyrics. If we’re going to be blues musicians, we must start singing about real things that are happening now and happening to us. I don’t think there’s very much of that happening. There are artists that are doing it, like Damon Fowler, Selwyn Birchwood, but we need more of that. We need more of people being themselves and not rehashing lyrics from a culture that doesn’t belong to that. It’s okay to cover songs if you identify with what is being said. If you don’t know what it means and you just start singing, it because you think it sounds cool, the young people are going to notice that. When we make instrumental music, it must be the same way. Especially when you’re singing as well. I was scared of singing. I started singing out of necessity, just so I could, have my own band because nobody wants to hire a harmonica player!”

How did you get involved with Gulf Coast Records?:

“I did an organ trio jazz funk blues record with Joe Krown and Mike Zito. It was Mike’s idea.

Joe and I had a band, an organ trio in New Orleans, and that later, had Walter Wolfman Washington playing with us. We were ecstatic to work with Mike and to have an opportunity to record. So that was my introduction to Gulf Coast. Having known Mike for twenty odd years, it wasn’t a hard decision to go and collaborate with him, especially after some of the experiences I’ve had in the past with other labels, legalities, and just straight up criminal activity. So, when it came time to do a record for my band, Mike was the first call. Mike treats his artists like no other label I’ve ever worked for. There’s no bickering over the contracts, they’re designed to benefit the musicians on the label. Mike is amazing, he lets us do whatever we want, just total trust. Unlike some other labels where I have never received any accounting from. Candye Kane said she was an ex-porn actor as well as a great blues artist, “Nothing in the porno business prepared me for the sleaze of the music industry” I’ll leave it at that.”

Will Jason ever play a tour of United Kingdom?:

“Unless there’s a law that’s changed, I don’t foresee a possibility of ever being able to come to the United Kingdom. I’ve watched friends of mine who have similar charges to me go through the process and then make it over there once or twice and then get denied at the border. Then all the wreckage of the past is brought back up in the public light.”

For further information, see website: mooncat.org

THE MAKING OF HEAVENLY CREAM DOUBLE CREAM CREAM DOUBLE

A tribute from a son to a father does not come more heartfelt and grander than this project curated by Malcolm Bruce to his much-missed father, Jack. However, being through the prism of Jack Bruce’s earlier career highlight in what was the first supergroup, Cream, it is more than the sum of one part.

This album accrued further poignancy with Ginger Baker contributing to tracks on what are his final released recording sessions prior to his passing.

Amongst the starry cast bringing their ‘A game’ to the tracking sessions at Abbey Road Studios is original Cream lyricist, and singer in his own right, Pete Brown. Also, legendary bass player Mo Foster and, applying his inimitable bluesrock guitar sound to most of the fifteen tracks, is Bernie Marsden all of whom have since sadly passed away. Consequently, Heavenly Cream takes on a deeper and more solemn significance as an album title.

Nevertheless, the idea for this album came from a familiar quarter as a chipper Malcolm Bruce tells me: “Well, it was Pete Brown’s idea. He was talking with this US record label (Quarto) about his own documentary, which is called White Rooms And Imaginary Westerns, and has still not seen the light of day.” Malcolm furthers: “That’s a separate documentary about Pete Brown’s life including interviews with my dad, Eric Clapton and Martin Scorsese. All kinds of people are in that. So, he was talking to Mike Carden, Head of A&R at Quarto Valley, and I think they just started talking about doing a record and making a documentary to go alongside it. The initial premise was acoustic versions of Cream songs. Pete started it then he came to me to get involved. Then he went to Rob Cass, who produced the record, and Mark Waters who directed the documentary.”

Once all the artists involved were secured, the actual recording of the album took place over a few months in 2018. The recordings would occur in spurts as the various artists became available. Fly on the wall footage was shot as the sessions commenced with the whole creative process taking place over an eighteen-month period partly due to the pandemic. One of the many notable contributions is that of original Cream drummer Ginger Baker on Sunshine Of Your Love, Sweet Wine, Crossroads and Tales Of Brave Ulysses as Malcolm explains: “Ginger came into the studio on two separate days. The first day, we did a song called Sweet Wine, which was a song that Ginger co-wrote with my mum, Janet (Godfrey). We did that song in the studio with a wonderful singer called Nathan James. On the second day we lined up Joe Bonamassa, who was touring in the UK, and we found a day that he was willing to come in and we arranged that with Ginger as well. So, we were in the studio with Ginger, Joe, Bernie Marsden, Neil Murray, Abbas Dodoo and me doing Sunshine Of Your Love. It was great having Ginger as it was his final recording sessions,” reminisces Malcolm. He tells me more: “I knew Ginger a little bit over the years and saw lots of different sides to him. As you know, there’s all the notoriety and the mythology surrounding him. But, when it comes down to it, he was a master of what he did and played beautifully.”

With four studio albums from which to select songs and musicians to choose, Malcolm details the project’s preparation: “We put together a master list of what needs to be there. Obviously, you need to have the most famous songs that Cream did. Pete as a vocalist himself wanted to do White Room, which was one of his favourite songs to sing. And then the ones we would want the big names to do. Joe did Sunshine... and we wanted Ginger on that with Joe. Also, Joe want-

ed to play with Ginger and that was a little bit of a carrot for Joe to be involved. There was a bit of a hierarchy going on, the bigger names got to choose what they wanted. Pete wanted Bobby Rush to come in and Bobby made most sense on some of the more standard blues numbers that Cream also covered. Paul Rodgers sang Born Under A Bad Sign. I haven’t spoken to him about it. Maybe, he might have been interested in going back to something that inspired him very early on. We gave everyone the option of three or four songs.”

One of the artists to rock up singing lead vocals on two tracks, album opener I Feel Free and Badge, is Deborah Bonham who delivers a sublime vocal on these tracks. As does one of Deborah’s heroines, Maggie Bell. Coinciden-

tally, Robert Plant was working in a different studio at Abbey Road on the day Deborah laid down her vocals. However, Deborah essays her formative experience with Cream: “I remember I was still at school, and I had some mates who

are local musicians in Kidderminster where I grew up who had this band called Streets Ahead and they used to play Badge. I just stood there, and I loved the song, and they played it brilliantly. Anyway, when Cream started to happen, I vaguely remember hearing these songs. And, of course, as I got older, into my teens, I was hearing John playing them and my other brother Michael. So, I got the Goodbye album... fast forward all these years and there I am singing Badge and I’m pinching myself thinking this is crazy playing with Ginger Baker and all the amazing people that were on this record. Not least, my biggest inspiration from being a very young girl: Maggie Bell.”

Maggie delivers stunning vocals on Take It Back and, with Bobby Rush, Sitting on Top Of The World as Deborah expands on her love for

world was just incredible.” Deborah continues: “I put this record on, Suicide Sal, and I heard this voice and that was it. I absolutely loved the soul that she brought to it. I mean, I love Janis Joplin, but Maggie had this incredible sort of soul, and you could tell who she’d listened to her all her life. So, yeah, to be on an album with Maggie Bell…I nearly fell over myself when Malcolm asked me to do it.”

With her old friend Bernie Marsden playing on both tracks, plus sharing guitar duties on Badge with her husband Peter Bullick and Tony Remy, Deborah has this to say about the sessions with Bernie: “It was incredibly special because, with Bernie, we had such a laugh while we were recording. And for him not to see this album come out, I was quite heartbroken with the news, as many people were. He was a special guy, and an amazingly talented guitarist and writer. I get upset a bit now, as we really did have some fun at Abbey Road. But there it is, and I’m so glad

Maggie Bell’s voice: “Let’s go back to the 70s and John’s in Led Zeppelin and they’ve started their own label, Swan Song, and they signed this woman! I mean, I love so many women in music, but to hear one that’s trailblazing in that

that the album is coming out because that’s a testament to him as well as Ginger Baker” Deborah Bonham is a goldmine of recollections and anecdotes as she recalls an hilarious occasion when she literally stumbled into meeting Jack Bruce: “I met Malcolm’s dad Jack Bruce a couple of times. One very funny time was when we were touring in America with my nephew, Jason Bonham, and we just played a fantastic show in Dallas Fort Worth. It was brilliant, and we had a big gig the next day. So, I said to the band, ‘listen, a couple of drinks in the bar and then you’re all going to bed’, like a mother hen! So, a couple of drinks and off I went to bed,” she continues. “And I’m thinking, where are they? The hours go on, and there’s no sign of them. I thought, right, that’s it. I head down to the bar and its carnage going on in there because Ringo Starr’s All Starr Band is in town, they’re at the same hotel, and it’s all going on in this bar. I see my guitarist, now my husband, Peter Bullick, and there he is dancing away with someone and it’s all going on. So, I see Pete dancing, and I’ve gone over to him saying ‘what the ‘bleep’ are

you doing? You’re supposed to be in bed!’ I’m looking at the band and the band are like ‘oh, my god’, and Peter said, ‘have you met Jack’? I turned around and it’s Jack Bruce! I was on the dark side then. I had a drink and that was it. We were all partying to god knows what time in the morning when we get a knock on the door from a very famous golfer’s people, who I won’t mention, who said we were causing him not to have any sleep. He lost the tournament the next day. So, yeah, we were very naughty that day.” Talk about having your spoonful and then some more she remembers seeing a ‘phenomenal’ BBM gig at The Marquee club with Ginger Baker, Jack Bruce and Gary Moore on fire: “They were absolutely fantastic, and a big fight broke out at the end. Ginger kicked his drums over everywhere. They all had a scrap then they fell behind the curtain! The crowd were absolutely loving the show and they didn’t come back on because they had a big scrap and that was the end of the band.” The final word on the making of this album must go to the cultured multi-instrumentalist

Malcolm Bruce: “I think as an overall experience, it’s really joyful. Everybody came to the sessions with the right intention. This is a celebration of a great body of work and we’re not trying to compete with the original recordings,” he avers.

“We’re doing it completely differently; we’re taking a sort of stripped-down version. There was no overthinking or getting uptight about it. It’s quite loose in places, which I like. It was just about the vibe, let’s put it like that. Because that’s the nature of that music to let it all hang out. I’m happy with it. I think everybody that was involved is happy that they contributed. It is what it is. It’s a beautiful document and it has become a historical document with these musicians that have passed away since its recording. For me, it’s quite joyous to just feel that I was part of something like this. A celebration of Cream’s music right across the board.”

Amen to that.

With her mesmerising guitar skills and soulful voice, Sue has carved a niche for herself in the world of blues music. Hailing from Ottawa, Canada, Sue Foley has been making waves in the industry since the early 1990s, captivating audiences worldwide with her electrifying performances and heartfelt lyrics.

Her passion for the blues is evident in every note she plays, and her deep understanding of the genre’s roots shines through in her music. Today, Blues Matters delves into the musical journey of this remarkable artist, including chatting about her newest live release, Live In Austin Volume 1. She was at home in Austin, Texas.

Born in Ottawa, moved to Texas, for how long?

I’ve been here a long time, I first moved here in 1990, then I was away for probably 20 years in between. So, I mean, I’ve been here probably 15 years in total, but in two different spells.

What drew you towards being a musician and guitarist firstly?

I’m from a family of guitar players. It just seemed inevitable, everybody played music. It was music everywhere. We had a lot of hootenannies at the house. My dad always played around the house and my brothers were in bands. I got into the blues through a lot of avenues other people did; through bands like the Rolling Stones and Led Zeppelin, bands my older brothers were listening to even ZZ Top. When I think back, I’ve been a dedicated blues artist since I’ve been, 15 or 16, so a long time! I started my recording career in Texas and am part of the Texas music scene and the Austin, Texas guitar scene, which I’m proud of. I’m basically a Texas blues artist, but it seems weird because I am Canadian, but it’s true! And then later on I got really into punk. I was really into The Clash and the Sex Pistols, and that led me to early British Invasion, the early stones that led me to the early Rolling Stones, where they were covering Muddy Waters songs. And the rest is history, right? Once I discovered Blues, I didn’t really veer off that trail.

Singer songwriter and blues rooted influencers?

My singing is basically self-taught but influenced by blues artists. I’d say my favourite singer is Bessie Smith. The stuff I’m into is 100 years old now! I’m out of step with the times.

I don’t fol-

low what’s going on at all. I just like what I like, and Bessie was always my favourite singer, I really love Billie Holiday, too, and T-Bone Walker, I love his singing. Guitar wise; I’ve studied a lot of Freddie King. I’ve listened to a lot of all the legends, as far as guitar goes. Blues guitarist influences go from B.B. King to Albert King to Freddie King to T-Bone Walker to, a lot of Texas artists to Clarence Gatemouth Brown. If you want to talk about people who are still alive, you know I love Jimmie Vaughan. I think Jimmie’s such a great artist. He’s so stylistically cool, and he sort of personifies the Texas sound. I love Billy Gibbons take also. When I get to play with those guys it’s always a thrill. Then there’s women, Memphis Minnie is a huge influence on me. I’ve done an intense study on women guitar players, and that’s something I’m working on too. There’s an album coming out early next year on pioneering women guitar players. That’s my next project after this live album.

I asked Sue whether she faced any challenges when starting out as a guitarist in a male orientated profession.

I never really cared because I just wanted to play! I had a lot of older brothers, I was always used to being around guys and I was, I was a tomboy and I liked playing visceral guitar licks. I wanted to play lead guitar specifically. So, having female role models and fellow sisters in the scene always made an impact on me. When you’re a cat among dogs, you’re looking for other cats. You know, you’re like, where are the cats? So, there was a long time where I felt a little alienated, a little isolated or lonely in that field. Then women started breaking through. When I started on the scene, in the blues specifically; there was a lot of women players, Bonnie Raitt, there was Deborah Coleman, me, Joanna Connor and Debbie Davies. We all had record labels behind us, and we were out touring and stuff. Now there’s just countless more. I’ve always paid attention to that. So that’s kind of what led me down into that project.

Music and entertainment

When you’re out there performing on stage, it does matter about your performance as a musician. You’re on stage, people are looking at you and the way people perceive you is different, but I was always focused on playing, so I didn’t really care about that so much. It’s the connection with the audience that is important. I just wanted to play guitar. You know, I didn’t really want all the bells and whistles or anything, you know? I just was really focused on playing, getting to be a better musician. I was lucky to come up when I did because there were so many greats out on the road. When you could go see Albert Collins and Clarence Gatemouth Brown and just countless people who are passed away now, it kept you humble, but it also kept you reaching, um, and know you can call on people like Billy Gibbons to come up and you can sit in with them. As well

as Jimmie Vaughan being a cheerleader and mentor, Ronnie Earl has been a great friend of mine. He’s been a mentor to me since we started out. He’s so soulful and, you know. He’s been a good friend for about over 30 years. I learned so much from him!

Motivation and advice on her musical career path?

Just love the work! It’s not going to be necessarily easy; not to say it’s going to be super hard. It’s different for every person, but you got to love it because it is work. You know, practicing guitar, you’ve got to put in the hours. To be good at your craft, like any crafts person, you got to put in a lot of hours. You’ve got to work really hard at it. Then there’s the business side, there’s a tremendous amount of stuff to do. There used to be an infrastructure where people would handle things, publicity wise especially but this is a very difficult job. There’s a lot on an artist’s shoulders now. If you’re going to be a musician, you must be working all the time. But I love working, I don’t want to be bored, I like to do stuff.

Talk about the new album, Live In Austin Volume 1

This is a retrospective collection, that was intentional. That’s why it’s called volume one, there will be more volumes. We recorded a bunch of songs that had been on the last two albums, Pinky’s Blues and The Ice Queen, and we didn’t want to put those out too quick. We always start with the older material first. With this album, we wanted to do something that was fun and upbeat, just kind of like a rock and live show. I always say it’s an album you can put on in your car or at a party, and really feel like you’re there. We had microphones everywhere in the audience and through The Continental Club Austin where it was recorded. They recorded it to Atmos surround sound. So, if you have that technology, you can actually really feel like you’re in the club. We wanted that effect. Yeah. And that’s our engineer Chris Bell and Mike Flanagan the producer’s work. I didn’t put a lot of slow stuff on the album, it’s all upbeat.

Well, the future. Hopefully we’ll get over to Scotland to play and the UK, we need to get over there. I love it over there. I’ve got Scottish heritage. Irish first, but then it goes back when we dated it back. It goes back to Alexander clan in Scotland. So yeah, lots more touring. I’ve got the solo album coming out next year, early next year. You know, one Guitar Woman, which is a tribute to the female pioneers of guitar that’s recorded all on my nylon string, not on my pink paisley Fender Telecaster “Pinky”. But yeah, lots more touring with the band. We’re going to run this live album out and see what happens with it! Also, Sue is finishing off her PHD in Musicology at York University in Toronto, busy times ahead!

For further information see website: www.suefoley.com

CHRISTONE INGRAM KINGFISH

Born and raised in Clarksdale, Mississippi, “Kingfish” has become the most talked about Blues artist on the planet. At the age of twenty-four, this young man has the Blues world at his feet. His latest album, Live In London, is a stormer. We initially met up when he was one of the leading blues artists to be invited onto The Mediterranean Blues Cruise that set sail in August. I was delighted to be invited on board the Cruise to represent Blues Matters Magazine and was lucky enough to see Christone perform three times as well as the star-studded jam on the final night. I recently caught up again with him in L. A. and chatted with him about the upcoming album, the cruise, and being born and raised in Clarksdale.

“Yeah, yeah, I remember you man, actually, we’ve just finished playing The Crossroads Festival here in LA before we go and do a couple of shows in San Fransisco. For years, I’d watched the Crossroads Festival via social media and had to try and understand what was going on with all these heavyweight cats that play at the gig every year, I’d love to do it again in the future for sure”.

This may have been his first appearance at The Crossroads Festival, and it certainly won’t be the last, but Christone has been a regular artist

on board the now-famous Blues Cruise, both in the Mediterranean and The Caribbean. “ We were first approached just before covid hit, but thanks to Joe (Bonamassa) we were invited onto the next one, and we’ve been on every one since. It’s always a great gig on the ship.”

I’ve been fortunate enough to have reviewed the first two studio albums by “ Kingfish” and recently was sent his latest album, Live In London recorded earlier this year at London’s Garage. Now many iconic Blues albums have been released over the years, but believe me when I say this, Live In London is up there with the very best of them

“I kinda of came up with the idea that we’d already got two studio records under our belt, and I thought, why not? A lot of fans had been asking for a long time for a live album. All we had to do was pick out a particular show, and The Garage is such an iconic venue. So, I did some rehearsals with the band, added a few different intros, played around with a few things, changed a few things, and it came out really beautiful man, really beautiful.”

One thing that has always intrigued me, probably more than it needs to, to be honest, is where the nickname ‘Kingfish’ came from, if you are of a similar mind to me, you would always refer

to him as ‘Kingfish,’ so I had to ask the question on our behalf: “ When I was in an educational Blues programme back in my hometown of, Clarksdale, Mississippi, I had two mentors, Bill ‘Howl-N- Mad’ Perry, and Richard ‘Daddy Rich’ Crisman and both of them used to give all of the kids in the class nicknames. Mine was after a character in an old sitcom, or something like that, and it just stuck, I guess.”

I wasn’t expecting that answer, I thought maybe it was the name of an old and slightly obscure Blues artist from days gone by, but as they say, every day is a schoolday. Ironically, the first track on Live In London is She Calls Me Kingfish. I wonder if this had any bearing on a personal note for him:

“No, not really, it was written with a possible mythical person who calls me ’Kingfish’ but she’s always leaving, in the true blues sense. More like a concept song than something that has happened in real life. It was more of a separate thing from the actual name.”

Being born and raised in Mississippi, and more significantly, Clarksdale, as a young person, the Blues is going to affect you in one way or another. Having listened to ‘Kingfish’ for the last four years, it’s quite obvious that the blues has had an enormous and profound effect on

him.. Clarksdale is obviously the most talked about and written about blues landscape on the planet, largely because of Robert Johnson and the infamous Crossroads.

“Before I got into the Blues, I was influenced by a lot of Gospel music, and sacred religious music, and my mom on her side of the family was a singer. My family from her side was very religious and musica.l I started playing drums and bass from an early age in church. So, Gospel music, and church music were my influences before I got into blues music. I first got into The Spinners and Teddy Prendergast, this was a whole melting pot of stuff, whereas my dad and my brother were turning me onto Hip-Hop. I was exposed to music from all angles because I was surrounded by music from all angles.”

Being just twenty-four years old now, it seems incredible that this gifted young man has had such a profound impact on blues music, a theme I pursue: “I first got interested in guitar when I was about eight years old, but I was still learning the bass guitar which was my principle instrument at the time. The window between,

11-13 is when I switched over to the guitar, and It’s been my primary instrument ever since.”

Staying with Clarksdale and the huge influence that this very location has I was keen to dig a little deeper into the people who have had a huge bearing on the formation and blossoming career of this fine young blues artist. Who lit the torch?

“Well, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Robert Nighthawk, and, of course, Robert Johnson. So when the electric cats came along, like Howlin’ Wolf and of course, Muddy, and Little Walter, so when I started, I wanted to explore a little deeper. I got into Santana and the electric side of the blues, then started to experiment with people like Jimi Hendrix and all those cool cats. Prince and Gary Moore, they have all been a big influence on me.”

There is an eclectic mixture of influences that show themselves within the music that ‘Kingfish’ produces in the studio and a live environment, but his roots firmly lie in the soil of his hometown. This appears most evident in

the song, Something In The Dirt taken from his second studio album; it also finds its way into the live performance at The recently recorded Garage gig.

“For sure, being raised in Clarksdale has impacted me in such a positive way, and not just the famous Blues guys that we have previously mentioned. Guys like Big Jack Johnson, Junior Parker, and Earl Hooker. The Clarksdale Blues culture itself was a huge influence for sure, and the best thing for me growing up was that I’d heard of these guys before I’d heard of the famous, more widely known guys. I would say that it was a particular sound rather than a particular song that first caught my attention, like listening to the sound Muddy Waters got playing slide guitar or watching B.B King, bend a note. That had the biggest effect more than anything.”

On the Live In London album, it is, as you would expect, 95% blues, a tinge of soul, and a teaspoon of gospel, but there is a nice bit of funk going on, especially from the guitar and keys, a real upbeat groove that highlights everything that has played a role in the journey of ‘Kingfish’:

“Technically, we have a lot of the same songs on the live album, but we have new flavours on them, new intros, new arrangements, and having someone who has recently joined the band, D-Vibes ( Deshawn Alexander) he has brought a new feel to the band which helps us experiment

and expand some of the songs into new territory. I’ve known him since about 2017 and he’s been in the band just over a year or so now.”

One song on the live album reignited with me, both for the title, which is slightly misleading, and for one particular line, the song in question is Rock & Roll. Now you could be forgiven for thinking that this tune will be raucous and wild, full of boogie, get up and dance, but you could not be further from the truth. It is actually a very sweet ballad dedicated to his late mother that contains the line, Bare your soul to rock &roll which is something his mother used to tell him to achieve what he needs to do in the blues. It was so different from what I expected in a song, spiritually it touched something inside of me, that’s the beauty of music.

I said at the top of the interview that I was completely blown away watching Cristone ‘Kingfish’ Ingram performing live on board the Mediterranean Blues Cruise in August - the main theme of the cruises is to help keep the blues alive, in the hands of ‘Kingfish’ it has a solid long-term future.

UP NEXT! MATHIAS LATTIN

Mathias Lattin has already done so much with his life, a scholarship to the Kinder High School For Performing And Visual Arts, trained Jazz guitarist, trained bass guitarist, and earlier this year, 1st Place Band winner and Best Guitarist of the Blues Foundation’s International Blues Challenge in Memphis TN..

An invitation to perform on board The Mediterranean Blues Cruise, alongside, Joe Bonamassa, Jimmy Vivino, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and Christone “ Kingfish” Ingram.

Not bad for a young man who, until that invitation to the Blues Cruise, had never set foot outside America. I was lucky enough to be aboard The Blues Cruise representing Blues Matters Magazine, I’d just watched “ Kingfish” perform his first set, Mathias, joining him for a couple of songs. Immediately, blown away by both artists, and a chance meeting at the elevator straight after the gig, has led to this, rather laid-back, but immensely interesting chat with the recent winner.

“I’m at home right now, where I was born and raised, the beautiful, Houston, Texas, in my house with my guitars on one side of me, and my amps on the other side of me.”

The thing that struck me straight away as we chatted, is how relaxed Mathias seems, after a whirlwind year with much more to come before 2023 is out, he has the same calm and polite manner as he did when we bumped into each other at the elevator:

It was my first time out of the country, yeah, got the first

passport stamped. It was great, such a wonderful experience for me. A buddy of mine “ Kingfish” Ingram asked if I wanted to come to hang out for the week with him and his band, I was free, so I said, ‘ yeah, I’d love to do that.’ I joined him onstage a couple of times. I really enjoyed it.”

For me, it was the first time that I’d had the opportunity to catch a live gig with Kingfish. I’ve been a huge fan of his since reviewing his first album in 2019. So, to say I was keen to see him perform live is an understatement. Then Mathias took to the stage alongside him on a couple of songs. I have to admit, I knew virtually nothing about Mathias at that point, but I was suddenly watching two young guys playing as good a Blues show as I’ve seen in almost fifty years of watching live bands. Once in a while, you get hit by something almost spiritual; on this occasion, I was hit twice.

“It’s been an interesting ride so far, a really great ride. I’ve done a couple of big festivals this year. With the Blues challenge, I’d done

it two times as a youth artist, and a couple of times as a side man, then I went this year, and it turned out like it turned out.”

Mathias Lattin seems to come out of nowhere, to be one of the most talked about blues artists since, well, since Kingfish Ingram. Their paths are closely entwined, not as lifelong friends, but more because of their youthfulness and the impact they are both having on the Blues world at very young ages. Both are getting rave reviews and quite rightly so, but Mathias has such a musical background despite being from a very sporting family. I was interested in finding out what exactly he played at the Blues Challenge, old Blues

2023 ALBUM

2023 ALBUM ROUND-UP

Christmas is a-coming and the goose is getting…

Or words to that effect maybe. As we look ahead to a new year with hope and a handful of blues releases to come, we also find the time to look back at what has been before. Music is an ever-changing feast with countless, myriad genres and styles. Rock often rules the roost, certainly in terms of chart-topping releases and prominence but blues is always bubbling there somewhere in the magical musical mix.

Muddy Waters may well have said it best when he reportedly said –Blues had a baby and they called it Rockn’Roll! For our part here at Blues Matters Magazine, it’s a time for reflection and anticipation where our team of top-dawg writers cast their ears to the wind and select some of those magaical moments that have delighted, - inspired and enthused them over the past twelve months.

JOHN MITCHELL:

DOUG DEMING & THE JEWEL TONES GROOVIN’ AT GROOVE NOW

Sadly almost unknown in the UK, Doug is a superb guitarist, not a pedal in sight! Saxes and keys add to the trio’s sound on a great live outing.

NICK MOSS BAND FT. DENNIS GRUENLING GET YOUR BACK INTO IT!

Another tremendous effort from one of the great current US bands on their third Alligator release.

STAN MOSLEY NO SOUL, NO BLUES

CADILLAC KINGS CRASH AND BURN

Britain’s finest purveyors of blues, boogie, and R&B return with their usual blend of great musicianship, catchy tunes, and witty lyrics.

ADRIAN BLACKLEE:

SAVOY BROWN BLUES ALL AROUND

Kim Simmonds’s final offering after his sad demise, he certainly went out on a high, this album being one of his best, great Blues/Rock music with some scintillating guitar playing.

MATT ANDERSEN BIG BOTTLE OF JOY

Matt is a Canadian who has a tremendous vocal range and delivers a top level of performance, he has a laidback style with his silky-smooth vocals although he can rock with the best of them when required, he is not a pure Blues performer as he mixes his material with gospel and Americana influences.

ERIC BIBB RIDIN’

I have lost count of the number of albums Eric has released over the years but this latest release sounds so refreshing, his haunting vocals and guitar playing are exemplary, and the opening track Family is atmospheric and spellbinding.

LITTLE G WEEVIL IF I MAY

A little-known USA artist whom I came across about a decade ago when I purchased his second album called The Teaser, I have subsequently got myself acquainted with his back catalogue, and his latest release Ridin’ is a very strong album full of punchy electric Blues sung and played superbly.

DAVE DRURY: REVEREND FREAKCHILD

SONGS OF BEAUTY FOR ASHES OF REALIZATION

The aptly named Rev produces a mesmerizing mash-up of blues, funk, rock, psychedelia, and country. Always a fascinating, interesting, and rewarding listen. It’s all here and it’s great fun.

DAVE KEYS

RHYTHM BLUES & BOOGIE

New York piano man with his great band producing some good-time, rollicking dance music, N’awlins funk. and blues. Guests include Poppa Chubby, Bernard “Pretty” Purdie, and Doug MacLeod. Hot Stuff!

GRAINNE DUFFY

DIRT WOMAN BLUES

Irish blues-r

Irish blues-rocker ventures to California to record her latest and ups her game with this fine all-original album.combining searing slide guitar, mighty vocals, soulful blues, and touches of Celtic influence.

ALBUM ROUND-UP

GA20

LIVE IN LOVELAND

This band has an unusual line-up featuring two guitars and drums producing a sound that is raw, energetic, rough and ready, different and exciting. The raucous crowd feeds off the power, and passion of this excellent trio.

THE YARDBIRDS LIVE IN SWEDEN

Following the departures of Clapton & Beck the Yardbirds are back to their best with Chris Dreja, Jim McCarty, Keith Relf and Jimmy Page on lead guitar. This lineup is focused and back to its best playing with fire and passion. and recording quality is excellent.

PAUL DAVIES:

BERNIE MARSDEN WORKING MAN

Bernie’s swansong and his best and most balanced solo album on which he plays and sings with enjoyable confidence and every track is a banger.

ROBERT JON & THE WRECK RIDE INTO THE LIGHT

Prolific and hard-working, RJ&TW deliver a California sunny-side-up short album of Southern-hued blues rock tunes. Ride on!

ANGELA STREHLI ACE OF BLUES

The co-owner of the famous Antones club in Austin, Texas, returns from her self-imposed exile with a smoky and stylish offering of new tunes and old. This classy chanteuse also pays homage to Stevie Ray Vaughan who began his career at Antone’s.

STEPHEN HARRISON:

JIM KIRKPATRICK DEAD MAN WALKING

This is Jim’s second solo album and it’s just a remarkable album. From start to finish, this album is a musical gem. I’ve said it before, what we have here is the English equivalent of Joe Bonamassa. Jim Kirkpatrick is the real deal.

KINGFISH LIVE IN LONDON

I’ve recently been fortunate enough to catch Kingfish playing live. This is his third album release and first live recording. If someone wants to know about Blues music, play them this album. As a Blues guitarist, there is no one better at the moment, add to that silky Blues vocals, Kingfish is the future of Blues music.

JIMMY REGAL AND THE ROYALS FIRST AND LAST STOP

Another debut album that oozes class from the off. This very talented trio from London. You could be forgiven for thinking that these guys were from the deep South of America, they have that aura about them. A truly brilliant album.

MATHIAS LATTIN UP NEXT

International Blues Award winner for 2023, Mathias Lattin mixes Blues, Jazz, and Soul, with the emphasis mainly on the Blues. Singer, songwriter, and one hell of a musician, Mathias Lattin has the Blues world at his feet.

SHIRL: THE DEAL THE STUMBLE

An album crammed full of top-quality songwriting and musicianship. Blues, Soul, and R’N’B, delivered with that Stumble panache the guys have excelled with their best release to date, a must-have.

MIKE ZITOALBERT CASTIGLIA BLOOD BROTHERS

With five originals and six covers, these two great guitarists have surprised me with a superb collection of songs, Southern Rock, Blues Rock, Ballads, and great covers, and sang and played with a wonderful ease and style that keeps me coming back to this superb album.

NICK MOSS FEAT. DENNIS GRUENLING. GET YOUR BACK IN TO IT

Chicago guitarist Nick Moss releases another fine blues album with their traditional Chicago style blues with some swing and jump mixed in. A feel-good pleasure that always hits the mark.

2023 ALBUM

2023 ALBUM ROUND-UP

COLIN CAMPBELL: REDFISH BLUES BAND TOGETHER IS BETTER

A full-on blues-infused release, the band’s chemistry is the telling point here. Great production, differing styles punctuated by wonderful Hammond organ play then guitar riffs and solos, Top tracks, Money Don’t Make It Right and Move On.

BLACKBURN BROTHERS SOULFUNKNBLUES

Prepare to get funky these are twelve songs that will get the listener dancing and tapping their feet. This is a quality release, with infectious tones, and beats. A brotherhood of musical styles. They just have that connection; one listen and you are hooked.

MONSTER MIKE WELCH NOTHING BUT TIME

This is a testament to his extraordinary talent and his love for the blues music he plays. An amazing dextrous guitarist this is his best work to date. He bears his soul on this release with rhythm, groove, and tone on every song, outstanding.

NAT MYERS YELLOW PERIL

This Korean American blues poet keeps to the old traditional acoustic blues fingerpicking style. He is very much in touch with his heritage and uses this in his unique songwriting style. This record does not just give me hope that the old sound is not dead, it reaffirms that it remains in the veins of younger blues-rooted musicians, a wonderful release.

ANDY SNIPPER:

STARLITE & CAMPBELL STARLITE ONE

Suzy Starlite & Simon Campbell make music that is intelligent, from the heart, and makes the listener think. Not your ordinary Blues band

JIM JONES ALLSTARS

AIN’T NO PERIL

Jim Jones took himself to Memphis and made a Jim Jones album that is infused with Southern funk and voodoo groove

THE CURSE OF K K HAMMOND DEATH ROLL BLUES

Probably the least predictable album this year. Acoustic swamp Blues with a distinctly British touch.

ANDY HUGHES: DANNY BRYANT RISE

This album tops my list for 2023 because it has everything. The guitar, the voice, the band’s musical support, the song construction, it’s all there. If you are looking for the perfect Christmas gift for a blues fan, pop this in their stocking. They can write and thank me later.

SELINA AND THE HOWLIN’ DOGS BISCUIT CITY

Blues from Reading, and a wonderfully soulful and rocking combination located in the vocals of Selina Arch. Some bands are just a cut above the usual, with something special about the songs they write. This is one of them.

DOUGLAS AVERY TAKE MY RIDER

Former surfer turned blues harp meister, Douglas Avery is ensuring that the potentially neglected art of blues harmonica is kept alive. Vintage Rolling Stones fans should check this out for a reminder of the influence Mick Jagger was, as a player back in the day.

HILLSBOROUGH COMIN’ BACK FOR YOU

An Australian duo who has successfully absorbed the vintage Americana and Blues sounds that have influenced the music of their fair land. Atmosphere in spades on this fine collection, a band to look out for.

THE TESKEY BROTHERS THE WINDING WAY

Another Australian band with masterful song construction and intelligence in its lyrical content. Josh Teskey’s voice is one of the finest to grace my speakers in 2023, and admirers of the legendary Al Green should check out this album for lessons learned from the master.

ROUND-UPTOP 5 FOR 2023

So there you have it! A selection box of blues and soul goodies that should satisfy every musical, blues-influenced appetite for the festive period. Here’s our writers top 5 albums of the year:

When Rivers Meet - Aces are High

5

PAUL DAVIES:

Rightly regarded as the future of the UK blues scene, husband and wife duo Grace & Aaron Bond deliver a tour-de-force of grace and danger performances on their best release.

ANDY SNIPPER:

This could so easily have been just more of the same but there is a sense of danger and something twisted in this album

3

Tom Hambridge- Blu Ja Vu

PAUL DAVIES:

The multiple Grammy Award-winning producer, songwriter and drummercollects together his tracks written for famous artists, plus new songs, on an album that’s sure to be Grammy nominated.

SHIRL: With a great backing band and excellent choice of guests, it’s a blistering album from start to finish, blues, R’n’B, and rock ‘N’ Roll tightly played that entertains and thrills.

D.K.Harrell- The Right Man

JOHN MITCHELL:

An astonishingly assured debut disc from a young man with an old soul and a guitar style that is pure B.B. King. A name to watch out for in the future.

STEVE HARRISON: Still in his middle twenties, Harrell has the sound and confidence of an artist twice his age. This is a no-nonsense Blues album of the highest quality. This guy will be around making Bluews music for a very long time. Amazing debut album.

1

4

Joe Bonamassa - Blues Deluxe Vol. 2

ADRIAN BLACKLEE:

While most songs are covers this is a cracking album to listen to, Joe generates a beautiful guitar sound and delivers some extended solos besides his soulful vocals. A Blues album that is easily accessible.

Dom Martin- Buried In The Hail

SHIRL: Another album that exemplifies great songwriting. Dom is not afraid to play dirty slide blues and mellow acoustic that pull you in and take you on an emotional roller coaster of a journey that leaves you wanting more.

COLIN CAMPBELL:

Buried In the Hail: Simply stunning release full of emotional content, his guitar work is sublime, and lyrics twisted and dark, even sinister at times.

2

DEJA BLUE AN INTERVIEW WITH TOM HAMBRIDGE

Given his stellar achievements as a solo artist and an in-demand drummer, also as a songwriter, penning hit songs for premier performers; and a producer of blue-chip artists; Tom Hambridge still has one long-term burning ambition to work with one notable artist, which we shall address further along in this interview.

It’s Hambridge’s insect-like attention to detail and his sharp instincts for nurturing artists’ sonic wishes that find this workaholic icon cruising along on a constant creative roll. His latest release, Blu Ja Vu, is a perfect example of such as, with diamond-drilled precision, he gets the best out of himself and others. And what a prestige roll call of others it is. Interleaved with a back story of original songs; some new and some recorded by other artists, Tom explains this album’s tale:

“I’ve written a lot of songs for people that are on different records. I go into the studio at full tilt and make it. I’m singing it, I plan it, and it sounds like ‘this blues record’. Then the artists I’m working with hear a song and they go, ‘Oh,

my gosh, I want to record that song on my record’.”

Tom is a generous creator as he reveals: “So, we get to the studio and the musicians are always saying, in a nice way, ‘How are we going to make it sound better than that’? I go, ‘Well, we’re going to find a way to do it’. I like the fact that there’s already a challenge right there.” He continues: “This time, I thought I should record some of the songs that I’ve written for other people the way I do it, which is a little different, before they make it their record and that’s kind of where it started from.” He explains: “There are a lot of songs where my versions were slightly different that I changed for them. I wanted to record the songs the way I originally had them.”

As the living definition of what it means to be a prolific artist, Tom details to me how he selected some of Blu Ja Vu’s tracks: “Well, a song such as Ain’t it Just Like Love was a song that no one had ever recorded and I thought Buddy Guy would sound good doing this song,” he states.

“We had a ball, and he loved the groove and the idea. There are a bunch of songs like Get Out Of Town and Automatic that nobody had recorded. I just wrote them for this album.” He expands: “I remember recording That’s My Home for a Buddy Guy record years ago and I wanted to redo that the way I want to hear it but with Joe Bonamassa on it. I thought he’d be perfect, and he slayed it.” Tom continues: “There are different things like that and, of course, the James Cotton song. I had produced James Cotton, and he’s passed away.

The song I wrote is about my brother, John. It’s called Brother John’s Boogie. He’s a Cotton fan and he turned me on to James Cotton and I had this song that I always dreamed of having James on. So, after I did James’s album, and it’s the last thing he recorded before he died, I asked him if he would come out to the studio and play harmonica. We have Chuck Leavell on piano, Glenn Worf on upright bass and me on drums, and we knocked it out. I was sitting on that song for several years and thought this is the album I want to put it on.”

Another blues hero of Tom’s is Johnny Winter. He worked on Winter’s 2004 I’m a Bluesman album and Hambridge pays homage to this unique bluesman on Blu Ja Vu. It’s an eponymously titled track demanding to know why Winter isn’t in the Rock’n’Roll Hall Of Fame.

“Nobody sounds like Johnny Winter. I’ve been a big fan of his since I was a young kid. That’s another one my brother would take me to concerts to see. The energy he had was over the top. Johnny went out and ran that band. They were just relentless, and I am such a big fan.” Tom draws for breath: “I was sitting around with a dear friend of mine, Richard Fleming, and he’s like, ‘I hear the Rock’n’ Roll Hall of Fame is inducting whoever and I was going ‘is Johnny Winter there’? How can they have all these other artists, which are probably very valid, but put them in before Johnny Winter? It sounds like they have forgotten Johnny and it’s too late now. I thought that’s bullshit. So, yeah, I wrote this song, it’s funny, but it’s the truth.”

Tom is touring with Buddy Guy, playing the drums behind this blues legend, and watching how Buddy works an audience. It’s an alliance that started with Tom producing, co-writing, and drumming on Buddy’s 2008 Grammy-nominated album, Skin Deep. Tom fondly recalls how he and Buddy developed their professional and personal relationship:

when he plays certain things, I know to bring the band in or to stop the band or end the song or go into another song from just watching him and following him. But it’s a beautiful thing. It’s amazing. Every night, he’s just kicking ass!”

Armed with an almost unparalleled recording resume, let’s get back to Tom’s ultimate wish...: “I’d love to do a full record with Paul McCartney. I’m just such a Beatles nut. I’d be happy

“I can’t believe I’ve been fortunate enough to work with great, great artists like that. I tell the story of the first record I did for him, Skin Deep. We were at the Grammys, and he was getting in his limo, and I said goodbye to him. And right before he got in the car, he goes, ‘Oh, Tom, we better start writing and working on the next one’. I said to my wife, ‘Did he just say I’m going to do another record for him’?”

Numerous albums later, Buddy’s blossoming late career recording surge can be attributed to this sympatico relationship both artists share as Tom explains: “It’s just been one album after the other and the success we’ve had with these records and the career he’s had, with people loving the records, I’m just so happy for him and happy that I’m a part of it.”

Yet, that is only one side of the story as Tom details what it is like playing live with Buddy: “ It’s great. It’s entering the danger zone as onstage he’s a fireball. He just goes out like a gunslinger, and he has no setlist. The whole band, we’re just following him, and I can kind of fall in and know where he’s going. When he says something or

but nervous.” They have been in contact as Tom furthers: “I met him one time at the Grammys. I had sent him an email about playing on a song with Buddy Guy and he got back to me, believe it or not, and said, ‘I’m too busy, but thank you for asking’. So, at the Grammys, I said ‘You won’t remember this, but my name is Tom Hambridge and I work with Buddy Guy’. He goes, ‘Did you get my email’?” Tom adds: “He’s the top of the mountain for me right now.”

Every night, he’s just kicking ass!

Tom Hanbridge has scaled many heights, going further in a musical career, beyond that he could imagine, that began in high school. Fear not, there remain many more heady heights of musical achievements awaiting this affable, engaging and multi-talented man.

RIDE INTO THE LIGHT

ROBERT JON & THE WRECK

  Adam Kennedy

Southern California’s Robert Jon & The Wreck recently released their seventh studio album, Ride Into The Light, via Joe Bonamassa’s Journeyman Records.

For their latest offering, the group teamed up with legendary producers such as Don Was, Kevin Shirley and Dave Cobb, along with guitar legends Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith.

The band has been touring relentlessly, including several European tours since lockdown restrictions were lifted. The band recently completed a run of UK dates in September, which followed off the back of an appearance at Maid of Stone festival during the summer and an earlier headline tour in February. The UK has almost become a home away from home for the group.

With their UK dates in their rear-view mirror, when we spoke with the band’s frontman, Robert Jon Burrison, he was getting used to life at home. “I think beforehand, when maybe we didn’t have kids and families and you kind of get home, you were like, Whoa, what do I do now?” said Robert. “But for me, with the kid and everything, it’s really easy for me to get home and then get back into it. So, it’s great to be home. It’s always great to be home. And then a few weeks later, we’ll be itching to get on the road again - it’s a double-edged sword.”

Whilst Robert Jon and the Wreck have spent a large amount of the year on the road, they’ve not been keeping count of the number of shows they’ve performed. “If I counted, it would be overwhelming to think about it too much,” said Robert. “We did a lot of short runs this year.” He adds: “We’re home now for a little bit, and then we get back on the road in November.”

On the band’s recent UK tour, they played some of their biggest headline shows on this side of the pond to date. “It gets more and more incredible every time we do it. So, it always feels good to step into a new room and then see that room with a good chunk of people in it. Every time you step into that new bigger place, you get worried that it won’t feel good or look good. And it’s worked this time. So, we’re excited to be back,” explains Robert. The group’s new keyboard player, Jake Aber-

nathie has been settling into the band line-up. “It’s been great,” confirms Robert. “There was a time where we were playing with different subs and stuff like that. So, we couldn’t really hone in a set. Or, we had to hone in on exactly what the set was. And we couldn’t really veer off into different branches of randomness. And it’s been great to have Jake as a main player in the band and fill in shoes that needed to be filled. So

that’s been great, too. And writing all this new material with them too has been great. So, it’s been quite a pleasure and we are excited for the future.”

One of the group’s many releases this year was their concert album Live from Ancienne Belgique. “There’s an energy that the band gives off that you don’t hear on the studio recording. And I think that energy is what we feel when we’re playing live,” explains Robert. “It’s not the exact thing because you weren’t in that room, but it’s a little taste of what that room feels like, to us, at least.”

Of course, when you are recording a live album, you’ve only got one shot at getting it right. “We did it in one night. And I think there might have been two or three minimal overdubs, just parts that didn’t get captured for some reason. Nothing crazy. Nothing that’ll make people say, oh, it’s not really live like that, but, yeah, we had one night,” said Robert. “We also had a video team there, because we captured it on film as well.”

Recording a live album gives a different kind of pressure to recording in the studio. “There’s a lot of pressure because you can’t do it twice,” he said. “We did it in the middle of a tour. So, we already played thirty or more shows before that to get everything locked and loaded. But yeah, there’s definitely more pressure. But usually, if we feed off the pressure, it’s nerve-racking until you get there, and then you feed off that adrenaline and that pressure that you’ve created for yourself.”

Robert Jon and the Wreck recently released a new single called Hold On. “It’s about being on the road and being an artist. And at some points, you’re like, how long can this go for before you or the other person can’t hold on

any longer? There’s a lot of work that goes into that. And just the overall pressure of being on the road and then doing what we do is really what it’s about. And, yeah, it came out great,” explains Robert. “We were stoked to record it with Kevin Shirley. And we’ve got more songs coming out soon, too. So, we’re really excited for this year.”

Home and life on the road have been a reoccurring theme in some of the band’s recent compositions. “Half of our life is on the road; it’s a constant thing in our brain. So, it seems natural for it to come out in song at some point eventually,” explains Robert.

Robert Jon and the Wreck will perform shows alongside the Mavericks and Blackberry Smoke in the US before the end of the year. This is something which the group are very much looking forward to. “Being able to open up for anyone that you respect, and that you look up to is for us, we’re just learning every night. We’re watching and taking it all in. And it’s a lot of fun, especially

to get up to play an opening set and then being able to get to hang out and watch the band. And they’re a lot of fun. We’re really excited. And we are looking forward to playing with the Mavericks and meeting those guys. I think Andrew and Henry have seen them and met them a while back. But I’m excited to see it and do a little run with them. It’ll be fun.”

Heading into the New Year, the band are taking things in their stride. “It’s pretty mapped out already. We have some available times just in case things pop up because we try to plan almost two years in advance. We found that things come very quickly without us having anything to do with it; we just get a phone call. And we’re like, well, okay. So, we do our best to plan it out,” explains Robert. “The schedule isn’t as intense next year. Right now, but who knows? We are going to keep on trucking like we do.”

Robert Jon & The Wreck’s “Ride Into The Light” and “Live At The Ancienne Belgique” albums are available from https://ktbarecords.com

BOB MARGOLIN GIVES THANKS!

These days Bob Margolin is something of a Blues Ambassador, a writer, label owner and supporter of upcoming artists. He is also steeped in the real authentic blues, especially Chicago Blues.

As a young 24-year-old white guy from Boston he landed up as guitar player for the legendary Muddy Waters in 1973, a role he fulfilled for the next seven years, playing his part in Muddy’s big revival in the spotlight inspired by Blue Sky Records and the support of Johnny Winter. It was also the period when Muddy and his band played their part in the now classic Martin Scorsese directed documentary The Last Waltz built around the last performance of The Band recorded at The Winter Ballroom in 1976. On his new album ‘Thanks’ Bob pays tribute to that period of his career and acknowledges the great musicians that opportunity allowed him to meet and play with, but this is no lazy covers album, it’s heartfelt and gives us a glimpse into those characters and how they impacted on Bob. It’s also the story of a special guitar, Bob’s 1956 Gibson ES 150, but more on that later.

Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I was able to catch up with Bob via zoom whilst he walked his beloved Border Collies,

one of whom makes an impromptu appearance on the record!

I began by telling Bob how highly personal and reflective I found the album to be.

‘’Exactly. On my website I’ve created a Deep Dive of liner notes that explain a little about each song and the individuals involved. I couldn’t fit all of that onto the CD sleeve and let’s face it lots of people don’t get their music that way anymore.’’

‘Thanks’ consists of ten tracks inspired by the time spent with Muddy and people Bob meet via that connection. There is a version of The Shape I’m In, written by Robbie Robertson and a lot of reference to Jimmy Rogers who was clearly a big inspiration.

‘’He sure was, even before I ever met him or Muddy. I’ll tell you a story, when I joined Muddy’s band in 1973 there was another guitar player even younger than me, I was 24, he was only 19, his name was Hollywood Fats. an incredible player. When we weren’t playing he and I used to hang out at The Thunderbird Hotel on the South Side of Chicago. Every night we would take a taxi out to Jimmy Rogers place. Fats had already by that time played

with Albert King and Jimmy Witherspoon. Anyway, we picked up a bottle of gin and went to see Jimmy guesting with a band, The Bob Reed Blues Band. Jimmy could tell I was trying to play old school Chicago blues and he befriended me because of it and was very encouraging to me. What a thrill to me, one night I got to play these wonderful blues Muddy style with Jimmy and the next night Jimmy style with Muddy. And I was aware then, right in the moment of the significance of that. I thought I am a lucky boy!’’

I asked Bob how it was a young guy went from playing in his first band Freeborne around the Boston music scene to playing with Muddy.

He sniggered, and told me, ‘‘It certainly had nothing to do with The Freeborne! Later on, I got into bands playing blues and blues rock. In fact, in 1966 I was in a band trying to play blues. We were into Paul Butterfield, John Mayall and the like. I played in bands that supported Muddy and he saw I trying to play that Chicago style blues. It bothered him that lots of young guys especially African Americans weren’t into that. So, he supported me and was very kind to me. Those bands were smart enough not to play Muddy tunes just before he went on but we did play lots of old

Jimmy Rogers and Jimmy Reed tunes and stuff and Muddy saw I was trying to play it in the old way. He would sit with me in the dressing room while his band played three numbers before he went on stage and talk to me about what they were playing and guitar players and asking what I liked. It was a huge thrill, to me he wasn’t just Muddy Waters, he was THE one from the first time I heard him on college radio it was a life changing experience.’’

I mentioned to Bob how Muddy had a huge impact on me when I first heard him sing Mannish Boy on the live Blue Sky recording:

‘’That was me playing that first guitar part responding to Muddy going OOHH YEAH! It was obvious it was a big deal right in the moment. Two gigantic things happened to resurrect Muddys career, first we recorded Hard Again on Blue Sky and at the same time he was invited to play on The Last Waltz. Muddy took me and Pinetop with him and we played with Paul Butterfield on harp. We played Mannish Boy on the concert footage. The rebirth Muddy had in the last four or five years was kicked off by Hard Again. I realised later that The Last Waltz was actually Muddys most visible moment, As big a musical icon as he was more people saw him in that movie about The Band and their guests than anything else.’’

The live Blue Sky recording is certainly one of my favourite ever Blues album and I mentioned to Bob the extended version that is now available on CD.

‘’I had the great privilege of working on the extended one. A friend of mine Steve Berkowitz, who I used to play guitar with in Boston, became head of Sony Legacy and he invited me to put together tracks they had rescued. I worked on the mixing side of it. It was a labour of love; you can hear how the band really was.’’

Talking about those Blue Sky recordings, there’s a track on Thanks that Bob wrote called Lonely Man Blues. Muddy liked it and added a verse and it was recorded as a potential track for the I’m Ready album but ended up not getting used.

“That album had Walter Horton on harp and Johnny Winter and Jimmy Rogers on guitar. Just before the recording I was getting ready to tour with Muddy, I spoke to Jimmy and asked did he have a message for him. Jimmy said tell Muddy I’d love to play together with him again on those old blues. That gave me chills and I told this to Johnny Winter who instantly said I’ll make that happen. A few minutes later I got a call saying it was arranged. Trouble was that put me out of a job, three guitar players was a bit over the top. With Muddy, Johnny and Jimmy they sure didn’t need Little Bobby. Fortunately, Muddy had seen me play bass for Gatemouth Brown so I got to play bass on the record. I carry all of these moments inside of me and they are a big part of this new album while I was in the studio crafting it.’’

The member of the Muddy band that Bob was a part of who was also a giant figure of the Blues was Pinetop Perkins. Reading those Deep Dive notes it is clear how close the pair became.

‘ We really did, I played with Pinetop on and off after Muddys band until he posassed in 2011. He was the oldest member in Muddys band and I really bonded with him and Muddy. I was really drawn to the music that came out when I did, I was born in 1949 and I love that really primitive blues sound. It’s the most powerful music to me. The 60s and 70s were very exciting times for music, Muddy was carrying on with his own sound, around him were a band of younger musicians. I just heard the Rolling Stones version of Muddys song Rolling Stone Blues that closes their new Hackney Diamonds album and they give that the same primitive feel.’’

I wondered if Bob had ever gotten to play with The Stones?

‘’Yes, as a matter of fact. I had a chance in 1978, they came to see Muddy play in a small club in Chicago. It got so packed the floor was shaking. They got up to play with Muddy. I offered Keith to play Muddy’s Telecaster but he gestured to my Stratocaster so he took that and I played Muddy’s guitar. There’s no video of that one. There is video of them with Muddy four years later in Buddy Guys club but I wasn’t on that one.’’

Eric Clapton is somebody else got to know and play with, the track Baby Can’t Be Found on Thanks was in part inspired by him.

‘’In the UK in 78 we toured with him, and I got to play in hotel rooms with him and jam sometimes. He once told me that if he forgot the words to a blues song, he got out of it by singing my baby can’t be found. I thought that was interesting and some time later I found myself in a relationship that reflected those sentiments. About a dozen years later I wrote that song.’’

One of the standout tracks is Mean Old Chicago, written with Jimmy Rogers in mind but could now be applied to any number of great bluesmen.

‘’ Since I wrote that almost all of that generation of bluesmen has gone. Pinetop made it to 97, I really thought he would make it to 100 if anyone would. He had really good genes cos he did not have a healthy lifestyle, he was drinking until he was 85, and smoked his whole life and his favourite meal was from MacDonalds. He pretty much kept his health; he had some hi tech hearing aids that he would switch off if he didn’t want to hear what someone was telling him and stare off into space. He went out every night and take a box of CDs with him and he would sign them and make some money selling them. One day he woke up in his sheltered housing, played some cards and he liked to slam them down like he was a tough guy, which he probably was back in the 40’s. Then he said I think I’ll take a nap, an hour later they found him laying on his back, hands behind his head and a big smile on his face. The life had just eased out of him.’’

On the aforementioned track Bob simply plays the guitar with vocals and some foot tapping with no added guitar parts. The guitar is an important part of the story.

An album I really loved was the one by the Muddy Waters Band that you guys recorded after his passing. Do you have memories of that?

‘’They called it Muddy Waters Tribute band, which didn’t have the same stigma then as it would now. We went into the studio recording some of his songs and some were overdubbed with vocals later. Levon came into the studio and recorded Going Down To Main Street, he did it in his own voice, not trying to sound like muddy and he did a really good job of it. The album was nominated for Grammy that year.’’

The album is very much a personal journey for Bob, and it closes with Just Before Dawn, a song that has connections to his mother.

‘’I wrote that because that was an expression my mother used to use. I feel its one of the deepest blues I’ve written about being lonely. I recorded that with a lot of chime like resonance to try and make it sound really sweet.

I first released it on my 2007 album North Carolina but I recorded this version just with the ES 150.’’

‘In 1975 I bought a Gibson ES-150 arch top electric guitar. One of the first things I did with it was to take it to Woodstock to record the Muddy Waters Woodstock album with Muddy, Pinetop and Levon Helm, Paul Butterfield and Garth Hudson, which was Muddy’s last album for Chess. I was already a big fan of The Band, to work with them was amazing. I also had that guitar when we were invited to appear on The Last Waltz. Garth Hudson is a true genius, I asked him once where does he get those improvisations and melodies from? He said from songs his mother played him when he was little. Anyway about the guitar, I actually at one point ended up selling it. In 2016 I needed some money to make an album, and at the same time I called home and my wife told me. It’s raining..in the house! It turned out it neede a 17thousand dollar new roof. I was also spending many thousands of dollars to make the best album I could. It turned out to be a fairly successful album but I spent a lot of money and ended up selling two guitars I had in Muddys band so they had some cache to them. I sold this one to a nice guy in the New York area. When I got invited to be a part of The Last Waltz tour gigs in 2017 he brought it down for me to play on one of those shows. It was a thrill to play the same guitar on that as I had on the original. He did the same thing again last November when we did a Last Waltz show in Florida. That time I really went nuts over having that guitar in my hands again. I played it, and afterwards thanked him profusely and packed it up and handed it back to him and went back onto the tour bus. The bus didn’t go anywhere and I got a call to go see the promoter about an issue with my hotel. Basically, what had happened was that three of the other musicians had bought the guitar back and gave it to me. That inspired me to record this album and I’ll never sell it again.’’

‘Thanks’ is a wonderful album, you will be hard pressed to hear something that so obviously contains much love and respect for the people who inspired it.

Teddy Thompson may need little introduction to music lovers generally. Though, for blues-purists, he could well be a near-new name on the block. And to give him his due, Thompson makes and lays no claim to being a bluesman,,far from it in fact. He is content to work that explosive twangier side of the line; though when I mention Hank Williams, he swiftly agrees that he was basically a bluesman with a country edge. Surely a thought most can agree with.

Thompson has a new album recently launched, My Love Of Country, True to its title, Thompson offers deeply personal and heartfelt readings of ten classic country songs by songwriters like Buck Owens, Hank Cochran, Eddy Arnold, Cindy Walker and even his own father, Richard Thompson. Clearly reflecting his own personal musical loves, the new release features his guitar picking and wonderful vocal abilities on this, his eighth release since moving to the USA in search of fame and fortune.

TEDDY THOMPSON CONVENTION ASIDE

Curious about how the son of one of the UK’s greatest roots, folk and modern singer-songwriters and guitarists, the legendary Richard Thompson - a guy who was the mainstay of UK electric folk pioneers Fairport Convention in the sixties and who has remained at the very top of the global musical tree ever since, happy to pick astonishing acoustic guitar and switch to stiunning electric Strat without a thought and with apparent ease and comfort – how much did his parents backgrounds influence and shape his own persona? So, just how could Teddy end up as a country music fan and exponent, I ask the obvious question; why?:

“It was the first thing that pricked up my ears. I must have been about 12 or 11, something like that. It’s a common misconception, that I grew up listening to folk music because it was what my parents played; In fact it was always different, and now, being a musician myself, I understand! When they played music at home or in the car it was never anything like what they played! When you think about it, it makes much more sense. The last thing you want to do when you come home is listen to more of the same stuff you’ve been playing all day, night, every night. So it was through my mum and my dad primarily that my tastes grew. We had tapes in the car and they would play on drives and though I’m sure there was other stuff, including older blues music, it was the country stuff that just really appealed to me.”

“My dad, Richard, listened to lots of country music, is a big country music fan, and another thing I discovered in my adult life is that so is every musician worth their salt. No matter what genre they’re in, everybody appreciates real country music and if they don’t, steer clear!”

“The goal was to do it in the way that country records I love – mostly from the ‘60s – were made,” says Thompson. “Everything was mapped out, with charts and string parts in place. The musicians came in, and we cut the songs the way they did back then. We just blazed through them.”

The results are riveting. Thompson’s rich, honeyed voice responds beautifully to “A Picture Of Me Without You,” “Cryin’ Time,” and other songs of poetic despondence, throwing off both sparks and tears without ever seeming showy. You can hear how he’s listened deeply to the genre’s masters, absorbing the finer stylistic points of their influence. But rather than imitate, he does something more nuanced and profound. He makes the material his own, and makes the familiar sound new.

Helping Thompson realize his vision for My Love Of Country was multi-instrumentalist producer David Mansfield, whose resume includes touring with Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, scoring Oscar-nominated films like The Apostle and years of high-profile session work with the likes of Johnny Cash, Lucinda Williams and Dwight Yoakam. Mansfield and Thompson assembled a list of twenty titles, then whittled it down to ten. There are well-known standards, old and new, such as Hank Cochran & Harland Howard’s “I Fall To Pieces” (a signature hit for Patsy Cline in 1961), Randy Travis’s

1989 western swing-flavored chart-topper “Is It Still Over?” and Cindy Walker’s portrait of unrequited love, “You Don’t Know Me” (a hit for both Eddy Arnold and Ray Charles). Adding balance are lesser-known gems such as Dolly Parton’s 1968 album track “Love and Learn,” Don Everly’s “Oh, What A Feeling” and a finely-etched drinking song, “I’ll Regret It All In The Morning,” penned by Thompson’s father Richard Thompson. Recorded at Mansfield’s studio Hobo Sound in Hoboken, NJ, the album balances elegant, wrap-around arrangements with one-take energy. A star-studded group of harmony vocalists, including Vince Gill, Rodney Crowell, Logan Ledger and Aoife O’Donovan, added final touches.

same stuff, all those same songs, all that skillful storytelling set to music. The instrumentation puts a different take on it, each genre, but it’s really all coming from the same places.”

“The music I remember the most, that truly influenced me most.from the tape my dad played in the car, is the Everly Brothers. Which of course is or was seen at the time as being Pop music. It was straight ahead pop music, not country music at all. People think, of it as having been country, in that genre, just because, it seems to me. So, the Everly Brothers was my very first thing, I guess looking back.”

I understood even as a young guy that I couldn’t really be a bluesman!

I think I had a natural feel for it – first of all it remains unparalleled, it’s never been bettered! No one has ever done it better, in my opinion. I think the first concert I ever went to out of choice – where it wasn’t my mum or dad, say like sitting back-stage or something - the first concert I actually wanted to go to was the Everlys in the eighties at the Royal Albert Hall; I think Albert Lee was probably in that band. My enduring memory is they would thrash away on their acoustic guitars, really hard and they’d break strings then throw the guitar – it happened a few times – to the guitar tech at the side of the stage and he’d change the strings while they carried on with those blissfiul harmonies. I just thought that was magical!

“What I liked about the writing in the country music I was hearing early on was how clever it was, how clever the turns of phrase were. How often they employed that trick, maybe in the title, or in the song itself, a play on words, something clever in the refrain or title, maybe it only came through once but it was like, say, the Right, Left Hand! Clever lyricism at the core. I know that was something shared with many older US southern bluesmen too. A nearunique ability to be funny, but sharply clever and cloaked in a particular musical style. II do a Charlie Louvin song on the new record, which reflects that ability and writing style.”

“Funnily enough, talking about blues, that’s something I don’t have any particular leaning in that direction, but it was the other music I listened to extensively, even obsessively, all through my teenage years in particular was old traditional acoustic blues music. I think I understood even as a young guy of that age, that I couldn’t really be a bluesman! I was exposed to a lot of that music, my parents also listened to it a lot at home or on the road. My dad played a lot of great blues music everything from like T-Bone Walker, BB King and all the Kings, and through to Howling Wolf and stuff. It is all there, in me but I don’t think you necessarily hear much of it coming through though I do think it’s another one of the pillars of musical education; Again, I do think that any musician worth their salt must listen to that stuff and if you don’t you’re probably missing something in your own music!”

“It bears repeating, but blues and country music like Hank Williams, and early country the Carter Family and early British folk music, it’s all the

“To me, that’s the pinnacle of great songwriting. I was enamored by that from the very beginning. That’s really as good as it gets. It’s so moving – it’s not quite funny and it’s not quite sad, it’s a magical combination of the two really.”

“These are all songs that I’ve known and loved for years. That’s the real key, having them in your body for a long time, decades really. I didn’t really have to think at all about how to sing them. I just honored the originals,” explains Thompson. “In my favorite eras of music, it was all about the song. Most of the classics that I know and love were recorded by dozens and dozens of people. And it was all in the service of the song. I grew up with that being the most important thing. For this record, that was a huge part of it. I just want people to hear these songs.”

“I won’t be touring it really because it requires a band, quite a few people to do it! It’s not something I keen on doing solo, it doesn’t really work, I can’t get that sound across without the full band backing. I’m doing a few shows, London and elsewhere, about seven or eight shows in January in the UK including Celtic Connections in Glasgow.”

The blues has always been rooted in the sound of guitars, but equally important in conveying the trials and tribulations of downtrodden musicians throughout the world, is the piano.

Many legends of the eighty-eight black-andwhite keys have enhanced, and just as often led, the sound of the music we all love, and that legendary status is hard-earned by many, many years of practising, playing, writing, and performing.

Firmly established as a musician to watch, as his prodigious talent and deep feel for blues music is increasing his profile at a rapid rate, is twenty-four-year-old Cincinnati native Ben Levin.

With five albums under his belt, and an increasing list of blues legends to whom he has lent his special keyboard magic, Ben is flying the flag for properly played, and deeply experienced, blues piano.

Ben took an hour out of his relaxation at a Los Angeles hotel, where he is on the road with the Nick Moss Band, to chat about his love of piano blues, and his devotion to discovering the rich and varied history around his chosen musical style. Starting with his feeling about his ‘rapid rise to fame’ as it is described, although, of course, that’s not really how these things work.

So how does it feel to be reaping the rewards of his hard work and dedication, can he be objective about it?:

“That’s a great question.” Ben responds, after a few moments thought. “I try to stop and smell the roses as often as I can. It’s easy to get caught up in things, but I think the most important thing to me as I try to make more of a name for myself in the blues community, is be able to work with, and play with, the musicians that I love. I’ve been doing this for so long now, and it feels funny to say that because I’m only twenty-four, but I have been doing this for more than half my life, and most of my gigs still include my father on guitar, and that means the world to me. I have a lot of good friends and fellow musicians in Cincinnati that I’ve been working with for some years now. One of my great friends, and a mentor to me, is bassist Walter Cash Jr. Shorty Starr the drummer, and my main mentor is Ricky Nye

who is a piano player, but he plays drums quite a lot with me. So, people talk about a ‘rapid rise to success’, and I do feel great about where things are at right now, but I try to stay focused, and not get too caught up in things like that.”

Finding out you are seriously good at playing the piano at a young age is one thing, but actually making the leap into making it your career, is something else entirely.

All professional players have to make the decision, and for Ben, it was never going to be a difficult one:

“You know, you don’t really have a choice. You get bitten by the bug, and I love playing music so much, I love getting out and gigging, I love playing the piano, singing, entertaining the audiences. And I love to play with other musicians. It’s just one of those things. I usually book my own shows, and then I find my calendar is booked up and I sort of realise that I appear to be doing this as a profession! I play a little jazz, and soul, and r‘n’b, pretty much all-American roots music. But I always come back to the blues, it’s my first love, I can’t live without it.”

Watching Ben play, it’s very clear that he not only loves blues music, but he has a deep understanding of it as well. A mixture of innate talent, backed up by structured study of the history of American blues from its roots, to its current status. Ben explains:

“It’s a craft to me. I am a historian as well, I’ve just finished studying history at the University of Cincinnati, and got my Bachelor’s Degree this last spring. So, for me, if you want to study blues music, there is a big history component behind it. When you listen to black American music, you have to understand the historical context that they came from. So, I have studied the sound of the music, and read a lot about the history, and done a lot of interviews with elderly musicians to preserve the stories, and get some perspective about the times when the music I love was produced. As to whether or not you want to pursue the music as a musician, that depends on how much time you want to devote to learning, and honing your craft. I really don’t like it when a young musician comes up, and people say they are a ‘prodigy’, and ‘born with talent’, and I always want to say, these people are putting in hours and hours to get as good as this.”

Ben’s biography advises that he first got the bug for blues piano when he peeped into the living room and caught sight of the Ray Charles biopic his dad was watching, when he was a small child.

“I did see the film, but I always like to specify that I say the edited TV movie version of the film, because it is a pretty heavy story. My dad is a guitarist, so he has mainly guitar albums that he enjoys. He does have some Professor Longhair records, but it was mostly guitarists, Albert King Freddie King, BB King, I love Stevie Ray Vaughan and Robert Cray. It was really cool for me when I went on the Blues Cruise, I got to play with Jim Pugh from Robert Cray’s band.”

“My education in blues started when I hooked up with Ricky Nye when I was about eight years old. After he showed me the basics of blues on the piano, he sent me home each week or every other week with a different CD, and he’d tell me to pick one lick, and learn it, and bring it back to him next week so we’ll work on it. We talked about traditional boogie woogie players, Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson, Meade Lux Lewis, and we talked about

it did feel a bit forced at first. I felt like I had to learn some hard stuff for my piano lessons. But as I got into my teens, and began to learn to feel the music a little more, I developed a natural love for it. Once you are in it, there’s no going back.”

What about technical skills, who does Ben admire as a piano technician?:

“Jay McShann. I have always really admired his playing. To me, his Kansas City is such a wonderful blend of blues and jazz, t’s really sophisticated. There was also a Cincinnati blues player Big Joe Duskin who had a great down-home sound to his playing, he sounded like Memphis Slim or Roosevelt Sykes. There are so many wonderful players to listen to. I have been getting into some jazz as well, playing some solo steakhouse gigs around home, I’ve been listening to a lot of Nat King Cole. There is one more Chicago player that I really love, whose music I’ve never had time yet to dig into and explore, and that’s a guy named Big Maceo. I play his tune The Chicago Breakdown, and he is really the father of Chicago blues piano playing. People like Otis Span and Johnny Jones, Eddie Boyd, they all got their style of playing from him.”

Ben not only plays superb blues piano, he is also possessed of an enviable voice, full of feeling and expression. But playing and singing is a little like patting your head and rubbing your stomach, it takes concentration, and both aspects can’t have your full attention at any one time.

“When I am singing, I am concentrating more on the vocal, so my piano playing becomes a compliment to that. That means that my piano parts do become a little simpler. That’s why I am so impressed with the guys that I named, I’m still not sure how they are able to play with a such a sophisticated style, and play all these beautiful intricate runs and licks, and then sing at the same time.”

Ben is also something of a purist when it comes to playing pieces by musicians he admires. Not for him the ambling into side alleys of interpretation, he likes to play it straight, and respect the composition.

“There are certain songs that are ‘pieces’ almost like a classical piece, where you want to play it as it was recorded. Something like What I’d Say by Ray Charles or Honkey Tonk by Bill Doggett, which should be played like they did it. No riffing or jamming and saying ‘Oh this is my interpretation …’, those tunes have really specific parts which are integral to the song, and I concentrate on those parts to get them right. I have an organ I’m taking out on shows now, and I play a song called Misty by ‘Groove’ Holmes, and there is a two-minute radio edit version, and I am trying to play that as close to his version as I can get it. I am very focused on a piece like that, to get it right.”

instrument he is going to play.

A guitarist has their guitar, a nicely portable instrument, but for a piano player, he often has to deal with what is provided by the local promoter, not always an instrument that would meet his specifications, sometimes even at a most basic level. Ben accepts that as part and parcel of being a touring player, but on occasions, he can have a say in the

“If I am able to make a request in advance, which I don’t always get, I do ask for a fullsized keyboard, with eighty-eight keys. I don’t always get one, and that makes me feel restricted, it’s a little awkward. I also like properly weighted keys, so it feels like a proper piano, and I can dig into the keys when I play. I do dig in, the first piano I had, I actually cracked the plastic on the keys, so I have learned to lighten up a little bit, because that was a silly repair to have to pay for. In Cincinnati, I do have a handful of gigs where I get to play a real piano. But a proper piano has to be properly mic’ed to be heard with an electric band. I use an electric keyboard on the majority of my gigs, but given the choice, I would always have a proper piano to play, but that’s a compromise you have to make to tour like I do.”

What about shopping for a piano, any advice?:

“Well, any instrument will guide you by how it sounds, it has to sound pleasing to you when you play it. But other than that, I check the action and the feel of the keys. Obviously, Steinway are the Cadillac of pianos, but in my apartment, I have a piano made by the Rudolf Wurlitzer company. They are a budget company, and the one I have is even more of a ‘budget’ model, but I got it for free from Facebook and I got it tuned up and it plays and sounds wonderful. I have used it for a couple of recordings at home, and I love it, so it is about the individual instrument that works, you don’t want something that sounds too pristine, you need some edge to the sound.”

Jam sessions are the lifeblood of live blues music, and any musician worth hearing has his own list of heroes he would love to have a session with – and Ben is no exception. And he has had some experience of the wonderful pleasure of sharing a stage with some influential players: “ I actually got to do that recently, I was on the Blues Cruise, and I got to play a set with Ronnie Baker Brooks’ keyboard player Daryl Coutts. We did three or four songs together, he did some solo material, then we played together, and I did some solo songs, it was great fun.”

As a composer, Ben has a couple of names ne would feel very very pleased to hear singing a song he has written, as he explains: “Well… I think of the legends who are still with us. Lil’ Jimmy Reed, I have done some work with him, so that would be amazing if he covered a song of mine. Or Buddy Guy singing a song I wrote, that would be a dream come true as well.”

While Ben continues to enhance his reputation around his native Cincinnati, and around the U.S., we British blues fans would really love to have sight and sound of his wonderful music. And may, just maybe, there is a chance: “I haven’t been over to the UK since 2019, I had two albums out then, now got five. I am looking at some dates in Germany next summer, so maybe I could arrange some gigs in the UK, we’ll have to see what we can do on that.”

ROBIN TROWER

BRAVE RIVAL

BOB CORRITORE: A BLUESMAN’S LIFE

Bob Corritore is one of the most active and highly regarded blues harmonica players on the scene today. He developed his style from listening to many of the original pioneers of Chicago Blues. Here he talks about these influences, his upbringing, being a musician and businessman.

“I don’t know that I really had a choice. I heard blues in some of the rock and roll of the 1960s; and when I heard Muddy Waters, this is the pure part of what I like in music! I bought a Muddy Waters album that had all sorts of Little Walter harmonica on it. I always thought harmonica was the coolest instrument. My brother had a harmonica and knew a little bit on how to play, he showed me a couple of things and said,’ Hey, you’re pretty good at that, you can have that harmonica!!’ I just played every day since, it’s just one of those things, I can’t even imagine what I was thinking back in the high school days, because I bought records like Jimmy Rogers, Chicago Bound and Muddy Waters Sail On and things like that. I would go to bed at night sometimes dreaming about those records. Then years later, I get to tour with Jimmy Rogers and record with him! So, I’ve been able to travel the whole world with some wonderful musicians and make a lot of friends and fans, and it’s been a spectacular ride, and it’s far more than I ever expected.

He reflects about family upbringing: “My Mom loved musicals, and my dad kind of liked jazz. I was born in Chicago and raised in the north suburbs. All around there was all sorts of music. They’d have a little stage in the parking lot of a nearby shopping centre, and you could see Count Basie Band playing there and Woody Herman. The first concert I ever went to was Ike and Tina Turner. Right, that was amazing. I didn’t realize at the time that I was actually seeing something of such powerful blues content, but I was completely enthralled by that band and the whole power of that show. When, as I got older and I was able to get into the clubs, all that stuff became very available to me. The first blues show I saw was at my high school in the auditorium. It was a Sam Lee Blues Revival. This featured Wild Child Butler and Eddie Taylor and Detroit Junior and Lucille Spann. It was an amazing show. I did my very first playing with a real blues band with a Henry Davis, I think he called it the Clarksdale, Mississippi Blues Band at North Western University. They let me play a set with them and I thought, I can do this, you know? This started me getting club dates sitting in with all sorts of artists. Koko Taylor would let me play a couple of numbers with her band, that kind of thing. I got to see Muddy Waters all the time. The first time I saw him play was in my high school gymnasium in my senior year. I had this mixed tape of Muddy Waters and Big Walter Horton and Jimmy Rogers and B.B. King,

and I’d go down the halls of my high school blaring this on my cassette player. I’m sure all the kids thought I was a misfit, but I didn’t care because I was so into it. I thought everybody would be into it.”

What made you play harmonica, I ask, and Bob explains: “We had to learn on our own. It was kind of a secretive thing, because so much of what goes on in harmonica goes on in your mouth and you can’t really explain it, but once you get the idea of it, and get some tips here and there with how to choke the harp, how to do tongue blocking I would go work on that all the time and just do my best to get as good as I could. I also was around these older guys, and they had a particular sound, it was hard to put your finger on, but you knew that it just had that really cool, authentic feel. So, I spent a lot of time really figuring out the whole intention of what they were doing. Today I add that to my own playing, and it’s then when you have that kind of sound going, the older guys recognize that because that’s how it’s supposed to sound! If you’re on the harmonica and adding a bunch of stuff, they don’t relate to it as well. It doesn’t feel like home. But when you’re playing it straight up in the old school style, the older guys really gravitate towards that. So that was kind of my calling card. But it wasn’t until Willie Buck hired me that I really got to play profes sionally in Chicago, and most of these were Southside gigs. They paid very little money, but I got to work with some amazing people. The first day that I got up with Willie Buck; Louis and Dave Myers of Little Walter’s band were playing in the band. Odie Payne, who was Elmore James drummer, Big Moose Walker and Vida Smith was playing second guitar, all this with Willie Buck as the vocalist! There was something powerful about playing with such artists. I felt like I had arrived at that point. But that was also kind of the undoing because I just quit drinking and I’m playing these gigs for 25 bucks. They keep me up till late hours of the night for a day gig. And I discuss this with my brother, who had gone to Arizona State University, and he said, why don’t you come out and hang out in Phoenix for a little bit? I said, I’ll do that. You know, maybe, maybe a year, you know? Right. And here I am over 40 years later!”

Louisiana Red is a known influence, so I ask why: “Once I got to Arizona, I set up some roots. I had already been a fan of Red’s music after seeing him at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 1978.Red and I became immediate friends and exchanged phone num bers. I moved not too long after that to Phoenix. I got a call from Red, and he says, ‘where are you at, Bobby?’ I go, well, I’m in in Phoenix now. He says,’ I know a woman out there who I was thinking about visiting’. I said, well, if you come

BLUES REVIEWS

ROBERT JON & THE WRECK

MICHAEL MCMILLAN

HEAVEN SENT RANCH

Independent

RIDE INTO THE LIGHT

Journeyman Records

It’s fair to say that Robert Jon and the Wreck are in a creative place right now. The group’s latest studio album, Ride Into The Light, follows hot off the back of their concert album, Live From Ancienne Belgique, which was released in April. The band are already teasing that they are about to embark on a new chap ter via the release of singles such as Hold On and Stone Cold Killer. For their latest offering, the group teamed up with legendary producers such as Don Was, Kevin Shirley and Dave Cobb, along with guitar legends Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith. At the top of the album, Pain No More, is the kind of infectious southern rock number we have come to know and love from Robert Jon and the Wreck. It’s a real earworm that immedi ately makes you want to take a second listen. Rich in hooks and catchy riffs, the track is one of the many standout numbers on the album.

Who Can You Love showcases more of the group’s Americana influences during what is a beautiful heart felt ballad before Come At Me brings the tempo back up with an all-out rocker. The band’s guitarist, Henry James, is one of the brightest talents on the scene at present. Songs like One Of A Kind showcase the gift ed artist’s slide guitar skills to great effect. The same can be said of West Coast Eyes, which features an astounding solo from Henry. As a band that spends a large amount of the year on the road, songs like Bring Me Back Home Again highlight that longing to return to a loved one. It showcases the songwriting chops of the group, and you can’t help but be swept away by the song’s wonderful melody and vocal harmonies.

The album concludes with Ride Into The Light. A fitting conclusion to the release and a song with a sound that has undertones of the Allman Brothers in places, particularly via the use of twin-part guitar harmonies.

With each and every release, Robert Jon and the Wreck’s star continues to rise. It won’t be long before the band are not only riding into the light, but their name will be up in lights too. The group’s latest offer ing is another solid release from one of the current forerunners in the southern/blues rock field.

I guess that I will have to be honest here and trust that you will continue to read on through this revue to the end. This release is not a Blues album at all in my opinion. Okay so I have got that statement right out of the way you must now want me to put it into some other category and, for me, that is straight into the area of Country / Americana with Folk undertones. The third thing I want to say is that I like this collection quite a lot. Dare I say that it is easy on the ears? Yes I can, and will. Based in Glasgow, music is Michael’s serving police officer and a counsellor with the prison service. All eleven songs, on this his fifth album, are originals and show Michael’s keen observational eye and story telling skills. I became aware of Michael’s music when he released the Whisky album last year, which was pretty well stripped back to just guitar and voice. Here there is much more of an effort on to production and with additional fiddle, drums keys etc. The overall results are very pleasant. Often that can be a derogatory comment but I reclaim the term in a positive sense as nothing here overpowers the lyrics and music. Highlights for me are Shut The Front Door, What Can You Do, A Great Bunch Of Guys and Scotland. The latter is written from the perspective of a travelling musician earning a crust on the road. So Slàinte mhath Michael and thanks for a fine non-Blues album.

19TH STREET BAND NEAR PERFECT

Gizmo Recording

This one jumps straight out of my speakers with the first track, Might In My Veins, which has me reminiscing about listening to my radio back when I lived with my parents, very catchy tune with Megan Davis on the fiddle which screams rootsy and country at the same time. These guys sound like they’re having a ball and I’m gonna jump on their hayride with them. The pace doesn’t slow down for track two, Crystal Ball that has a rather splendid rhythm about it and as I investigate this four-piece band of

HEAVENLY CREAM

AN ACOUSTIC TRIBUTE TO CREAM

Quarto Valley Records

This is Heavenly Cream as the subsequent passing of Ginger Baker, Pete Brown, Mo Foster and Bernie Marsden gives the title of this release a far deeper meaning than originally intended. With tracking commencing in 2018, it’s a solemn reminder that life and music must be enjoyed to its fullest. Finally released five years from its inception, this album of seminal songs, exquisitely rendered by a super grouping of musicians, is a fitting testament to Cream’s heritage. Deeper grooves are mined and the music swings like a dazzling haymaker in tribute to Jack, Ginger and Eric. Remarkably curated by multi-instrumentalist Malcolm Bruce, his father must be beaming with overwhelming pride someplace, somewhere at his herculean effort. He’s not only corralled together a unique ensemble of musicians he has also directed these well-crafted and elegant arrangements. As on the beautiful We’re Going Wrong where Malcolm’s graceful lead vocals spookily soar over a haunting string arrangement, detailing a song his father wrote about his faltering marriage to Malcolm’s mother. This is a hypnotic primer as elsewhere Deborah Bonham’s sensual vocal is a revelation on I Feel Free and Badge as is Pete Brown as he soulfully vocalises his lyrics on White Room, Politician and Theme To An Imaginary Western. A hard rocker at heart, Nathan James runs up a golden stairway of octaves on Sweet Wine, with lyrics written by Malcolm’s mother Janet Godfrey, and impressively howls on Tales Of Brave Ulysses. Queen of the blues, Maggie Bell is superb on Take It Back. Current king of the blues Joe Bonamassa revels in Sunshine Of Your Love and Deserted Cities Of The Heart as does the recently departed Bernie Marsden on Crossroads.

exquisitely rendered by a super grouping of musicians, is a fitting testament to Cream’s heritage

The undisputed legend of the Chitlin’ circuit Bobby Rush delivers an old school blues lesson on Spoonful and Sitting On Top Of The World with the wonderful Maggie Bell. All great projects must come to an end, and this is a special one as the voice of blues-rock Paul Rodgers closes out one hour of pure blues bliss on Born Under A Bad Sign.

This incredible list of top-grade vocalists is backed up by a once in a lifetime conglomeration of magnificent musicians as Ginger Baker, Mo Foster, Neil Murray, Frank Tontoh, Clem Clempson, Mo Nazam, Tony Remy, Winston Blissett are among many elevating this gold standard project heavenwards. Recorded at Abbey Road, this cathedral of contributions to Cream will continue to ensure the immortality of the trio who blazed like a comet shaking the fathomless foundations of the blues.

Harmonica, vocals), Megan Davis (mandolin, fiddle, vocals), Greg Hardin (bass) and Patty Dougherty (drums, Shaker) I’m thinking some of these tracks wouldn’t be out of place on that classic film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Very clean, country, Bluesy up-tempo stuff that makes me smile, like a warm whisky on a cold autumn night. If, like me, you like listening to albums on your own, this doesn’t disappoint, and the harmonies are just the cinnamon in the glass. Promises, the fourth track, is quickly followed by my favourite song on the album, West winds, conjuring up a mindset of sitting on a porch on a warm summers evening. I’m probably repeating myself here by saying any song that takes you away to another place in your head, is the best type of song, music is not just for listening, you must feel it. New year’s special, track six, has a line in it - songs are for singingthese guys are not wrong. If you like a country feel to your music this album will grab you straight away, if not it strolls up to you and gently nudges your arm and whispers in your ear, we’re having a good time, wanna join us, especially on the title track near perfect, where the fiddle eases into your eardrums as if it was poured. These guys get my vote by finishing an album with a song called Whiskey Chicken, that leaves me with a smile on my face and a very warm feeling.

ANTHONY ROSANO & THE CONQUEROOS

CHEAT THE DEVIL

Whiskey Bayou CD

The colourful cover of this CD has an old-timey American travelling carnival feel. The boss, Rosano, tweaks his ringmaster’s moustache and you’re invited into that dark marquee where devilish blues rock is being played. He was inspired in his teenage years by “the

British bands that took their cues from the blues”. Anthony and his band have already topped Billboard’s and iTunes blues charts. This powerful trio comprises Rosano on vocals and guitar, Kyle McCormick on drums and bassist Jake Fultz. Track three, What Kind of Fool, a slow blues, is a remarkable demonstration of how much power a line up like this has. Rosano’s guitar playing is solid, meaty, growling with a powerful command of chords and stinging solos. The drums on the track Sin City drive like a locomotive, and the ringmaster shows us he has a more romantic side with the superb lyrics and cascading guitar on Rosalita. The production throughout, by Tab Benoit, manages to weld these three musicians together like a steel fist. If you’re wondering how good the blues still is across the pond, then this album is the answer. Media reports Anthony Rosano as ‘modest and motivated … he’s clearly paid his dues.’ This is blues rock with muscles. Let’s hope soon this dark carnival pitches up here for a few dates.

ROY BAINTON

KINGDOM 2023

Independent

Double CD from California based blues rock, Americana and soul band created by American singer Greta Valenti and Robin Davey once of Britain’s own popular twin guitar band The Hoax. CD 1 opens with the blistering attack of Heartbreaker featuring Davey’s driving guitar swiftly followed by Valenti’s powerhouse vocals and wailing organ from Emma Jonson. Baby Was Rich races out of the blocks powered by drummer Tom Rasulo and bass man Stephen Mildwater and features wailing vocals and a sparkling piano solo from Emma Jonson. The pace drops for the slinky Bungalow Paradise with Valenti’s sensual vocal leading the way. Other highlights are the soulful remorse filled ballad Baby Baby, the coruscating attack of Louisiana Good Ride and Valenti’s heartfelt plea Don’t Let The Bastards Grind You Down. The excitement levels soar even higher when Davey’s old sparring partner Jon Amor from The Hoax joins for a few numbers. CD2 opens with the ominous warning Trouble Is Coming before crashing into the good time party number Gris Gris. The thumping rocker Fistful Of Dirt has everything thrown in including the kitchen sink and wah-wah guitar. WOW! Springsteen’s classic I’m On Fire and Queens Of The Stone Age cover Make It Wit Chu’ are both blown out of

BOB CORRITORE & FRIENDS

SOMEBODY PUT BAD LUCK ON ME

Vizztone Label Group

Renowned harmonica master Bob Corritore has unveiled a new collection of sixteen freshly recorded songs, deviating from his usual From the Vaults series. This album features a diverse range of blues artists, blending Corritore’s harmonica skills seamlessly into various musical styles. The tracks boast collaborations with top blues musicians, including John Primer, Thornetta Davis, Johnny Rawls, Bobby Rush, Carl Weathersby, Tia Carroll, Eugene “Hideaway” Bridges, Sugaray Rayford, Lurrie Bell, Francine Reed, Jimi “Primetime” Smith, Diunna Greenleaf, and Willie Buck. The album kicks off with John Primer’s energetic rendition of A.C. Reeds’ “This Little Voice,” followed by soulful performances like Thornetta Davis’s I Need a Whole Lotta Lovin’ and Bobby Rush’s heartbreak ballad I’m Good as Gone. Other highlights include Eugene Bridges’ smooth rhythm and blues track, If You Don’t Want to Love Me, Sugaray Rayford’s funky Goin’ Fishin’ has the right amount of blues infused double meanings to the lyrics. Diunna Greenleaf’s plea in

the water. Fill Me Up rocks furiously as the band race to the big finish. This band certainly deliver, and bluesrock fans will enjoy this raw, high-octane, energy filled show captured on this great double album. Hope I can catch them live sometime touring back in the UK.

BIG DADDY WILSON & THE GOOSEBUMPS BROS

PLAN B

Continental Blue Heaven

none more so than final track the plaintive duet; I Need You making this album a must-listen for anyone appreciating the true essence of blues music.

CANDICE IVORY WHEN THE LEVEE BREAKS: THE MUSIC OF MEMPHIS MINNIE

LITTLE VILLAGE FOUNDATION

Stylish, well-crafted songs a mixed bag of emotions and feelings

Help the Poor is hypnotic and the vocal delivery stunning. Bob Corritore’s harmonica is complemented by stellar guitar work from artists like Johnny Burgin, Kid Ramos, and Billy Flynn. The rhythm section features skilled musicians such as Bob Stroger, Yahni Riley, and Troy Sandow on bass, along with drummers like Wes Starr and Stephen Hodges. The album showcases Corritore’s exceptional production and harmonica artistry, making it a standout addition to his impressive discography. Stylish, well-crafted songs a mixed bag of emotions and feelings and just quality of musicians, an excellent release.

Big Daddy Wilson’s latest album is a testament to his musical prowess, blending American roots on such songs as Faith and the wonderful gospel take to Sometimes, I Cry this is just a stunningly joyful release. Wilson’s deep, resonant voice and the album’s masterful arrangements are accentuated by a slick band of musicians. A frequent presence at jazz festivals, Wilson’s music effortlessly intertwines blues and jazz elements, capturing audiences with its soulful inspirations, just listen to the lyrics of All On Me, a song of friendship. Rooted in his cultural background, Wilson’s music reflects his spiritual upbringing in a community where church played a significant role. His humble beginnings in a small town in North Carolina, shaped by the church and the fields he worked in, add depth to his musical narrative. Relax And Let Go, is a standout track on the album, this captivates the release’s theme, with its exceptional musical structure, highlighting Wilson’s artistry. His blues, infused with scholarly depth, resonates on a profound level, offering a listening experience that is both intellectually stimulating and emotionally satisfying. Big Daddy Wilson’s ability to blend storytelling with musicality creates an album that is not just meant to be heard but experienced. With each note, he invites listeners into his world,

In The Wall, has a gospel feel which is driven by a simple rhythmic pounding beat with vocals and layered harmonies by Ivory. Hoodoo Lady, a toe tapping blues with some engaging electric guitar over acoustic and pedal guitars underpinned by a marching drum rhythm. The album closes with Bumble Bee, wonderfully played out in a gentle Taj Mahal inspired reggae groove, a modern take on old classics that really hit the mark, a very enjoyable album, excellent stuff.

After releasing three critically acclaimed albums of original, jazz-fuelled songs, the Memphis-raised and St. Louis-based Queen of Avant Soul, Candice Ivory reveals a whole new sound with her blues matriarch tribute, When The Levee Breaks: The Music of Memphis Minnie. Joined on this collaboration between Ivory and producer/guitarist and bassist Charlie Hunter, are DeShawn Hickman on pedal steel, George Sluppick on drums, Brevan Hampden and Atiba Rorie on percussion. The album opens with the hypnotic percussion on Me And My Chauffeur Blues, a roadhouse boogie honouring the joys of the open road. The title track When The Levee Breaks, famously covered by Led Zeppelin turns into an Afro-Cuba chant, with Ivory’s layered vocals accompanied by a primal percussion beat. The delicate finger picking acoustic guitar from Hunter lets Ivory’s vocals shine on the country blues ballad of When You Love M., This is followed by Blues Everywhere, the band lay down a grooving mellow rhythm which accentuates Ivory’s passionate anguished vocals. Ivory and Hunter incorporate sacred strains of black church music on Crazy Crying Blues, Ivory’s wails of anguish are wonderfully matched by the band on this clever call and response. Following on with World Of Trouble, a steady blues featuring some fine pedal steel playing, which flows smoothly into Pile Driving Blues, a grooving funky blues with the guitar belting out some stinging guitar riffs. Hole

CHICKENBONE SLIM AND THE BISCUITS DAMN GOOD AND READY

Vizztone

Chickenbone Slim hails from San Diego, California, though this album was recorded at Kid Andersen’s Greaseland studio up in San José. This is the band’s fifth release and it’s a set of twelve originals that blend blues, rock n’roll, country and Mexican Border styles. Led by Larry Neves (aka Chickenbone) on vocals and rhythm guitar, the band features Laura Chavez on lead guitar and a solid rhythm section of drummer Marty Dodson and bassist Justice Guevara. There is plenty of high energy, rocking music here, typified by the exciting opener High Ballin’ Train in which Chickenbone confesses that “once I start to rolling, man, I don’t want to stop” and the band plays up a storm throughout. Laura repeatedly shows her paces, nowhere better than on moody rocker Drink Me, riffs cascading from her guitar, and the punkmeets-the-Stones Rock And Roll Soul, complete with a frenetic sax solo from Eric Spaulding, while the title track makes clear that Chickenbone has paid his dues and is ready for whatever comes his way. We learn that Ice In My Whiskey is how Chickenbone likes his drink, but he also informs us that he keeps “my old sword on my left side, my pistol on my right”. Elsewhere we get a fine piece of jump

blues in Let’s Go Lindy, a trip to the country side of things with Rather Be Up, the rockabilly of Old Cat Man and Deepest Blue which has weepy lyrics about love going wrong and some delicate guitar work from Laura, again showing her versatility, this time in border mood, as is the enigmatic Ty Cobb’s Chiclets which recounts the story of a guy that was buried with an extra heavy headstone “to make sure he stayed buried”! Closing track, I Don’t Want To Talk About

It is another winner, based round rolling bass, steady drums and a final snatch of Laura’s great feel for a solo. This is a thoroughly enjoyable album that should have broad appeal to blues and roots music fans.

CHRIS BEARD PASS IT ON

Blue Heart Records

Chris beard is the son of veteran Blues guitarist Joe Beard who, while not a particularly prolific artist did hang out with some of the Blues’ greats in the 1960’s along Beale Street. He was a traditional Bluesman, but son Chris plays his Blues with a more modern approach bringing in a funkier RnB sound. On this album, which does include some previously released songs that have been remixed and re-mastered, Joe does join his son on the title track which plays out like a homage to father and son with some heartfelt lyrical content with both sparring on Guitar and Vocals. The clear message in the song is that Chis needs to pass on the Blues to his offspring. Chris has a laid-back approach to his vocals and guitar playing which does at times remind me of Robert Cray. He has self-written most of the material and is accompanied by a full backing band that includes Kenny Neal and Johny Rawls. The finest guitar playing is on House of Shame where searing lead guitar work dominates the song and highlights that Chris has a harder edge to his playing when required, with his impressive vocal maintaining its soulful pitch. The final track, Bitter Baby includes another strong performance from Chris who commands the song with some frank lyrics covering a lost love situation, he is ably supported by

some nifty keyboard work by Jonathan Curry. This is an excellent modern Blues album that oozes class, with most coming from Chris himself, nonetheless his supporting musicians must also take credit, providing great support, particularly Mary Ellen Hayden on backing vocals who gives the songs she performs on additional depth.

CHRIS YAKOPCIC LIVE AT THE HIDDEN GEM

Yako Records

This live album finds the singer-songwriter Chirs Yakopcic and his acoustic guitars entertaining an audience at the Hidden Gem Music Club in Dayton, Ohio. The recording is of a high standard catching Yakopcic’s intricate acoustic guitar parts and careworn vocal timbre to good effect. His own songs feature throughout the set, but he has time to squeeze in songs by such stalwarts as Robert Johnson, Leonard Cohen and Tom Waits. Sounds of the Highway is a bluesy dobro reverie with plenty of slide guitar and right-hand pluck, and the album opener Gotta Get Goodbye Somehow is a dextrous blues with plenty of forward momentum and a spirited vocal. However, the key guitar moment of the album is the reading of Tom Wait’s 2.19 with its adventurous time signatures and well-put-together arrangement. During his own song Sweet Times Blues, he has time to quote WC Handy’s St Louis Blues, whilst the closing Preachin’ Blues by Robert Johnson shows Chris Yakopcic’s talents as a singer, guitarist and interpreter to fine effect. His own songs are all of a uniformly high standard, and just show what a man, one guitar and a collection of good songs can do in the right environment.

CLYDIE KING DIRECT ME

Floating World

Clydie King was a brilliant vocalist who classically spent most of her career ’20 feet from stardom’ as a backing singer to some of the superstars of rock and soul. She was a member of Ray Charles’ Raelettes for three years and contributed to early 1960s recordings by producer Phil Spector, later going on to provide backing vocals for artists such as B.B. King, The Rolling Stones, Steely Dan, Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Linda Ronstadt, Joe Cocker, Dickey Betts, Joe Walsh. On the rock side, she sang with Humble Pie and was a member of the Blackberries, she even sang the background vocals on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s seminal hit “Sweet Home Alabama. However, Direct Me was her first solo album and originally released in 1972 on Ampex Records. It is full of the classic soul of the time, brash horns, funky bass lines, splashy drums and occasional strings all alongside her soulful vocals. Billy Preston supplies piano and organ, Paul Humphrey drums and Bob West on bass (two of the most prolific session players), David T. Walker on guitar, plus Sandrea Crouch and William Allen on percussion, some of the top session players in LA at the time. King’s vocals are high, backed up by The Blackberries, and there is no mistaking someone brought up in classic R&B and especially in Ray Charles backing vocalists. That being said, she also turns her hand to show tunes such as B Minor and a fine version of the Beatles Long and Winding Road. It is a fascinating example of someone who could have made a real career as a lead singer, but who chose to play in the back of the stage for the security of a steadier paycheck as a sessioneer.

ANDY SNIPPER

CONSUMMATE ROGUES

LIVE IN BUCHAREST

Lunaria Records

If you are not familiar with

EMMA WILSON

MEMPHIS CALLING

Independent

What do you get when you have a female singer originating from Middlesborough, Johnny Phillips, who owns Select O Hits in Memphis and is distributing Emma’s music out of Memphis, and some of the finest musicians from Memphis, and the original Stax recording console? You get an album that reaches deep into your soul and an eternal feeling of happiness. Nine songs that accentuate the very essence of Blues and Soul, the Memphis sound and feel bursting out of the speakers like a tidal wave. The opening track, A Small World, co-written by Emma and Gary Burr, has all the vibe of Memphis and Stax, such a soulful song, brilliantly delivered by Emma Wilson. The musicians on this album are steeped in Memphis musical folklore, they come with exceptional resumes, Booker T And The MGs, Greg Allman Band, The Bo-Keys, and Cyndi Lauper. But this album is much more than having stellar musicians in an iconic studio, this album is all about the voice and songwriting acumen of Emma Wilson. What Kind Of Love, Ft, Don Bryant is a prime example of great writing, great harmonies, and wonderful vocals. I’ll See You In The Morning, co-written with the legendary Terry Reid, brings out a more soft and subtle aspect of Emma’s voice, a smokiness to the delivery. There are four covers on the album, Water,

an album that will be talked about for a very long time!

originally recorded and written by Steve Cropper and Eddie Floyd, a magnificent tune, you could be forgiven for thinking that this would be a like-for-like rehash of a classic song, but far from it. When an artist does a cover, you want them to bring something else to the table, Emma Wilson brings the cutlery, condiments, and the main course to this musical feast. The same can be said for her rendition of Hoochie Coochie Man. I think I’m correct in saying that I’ve not heard this song performed by a woman before, It’s part of the DNA of Muddy Waters, and quite rightly so, but Emma Wilson demonstrates just how bloody good she is.

THEKENDALLCONNECTION.CO.UK

LAYLA ZOE BACK TO THE SPIRIT OF 66

Independent

Native of Canada now resident in Germany with a double CD recorded live at the Spirit Of 66 club in Verviers Belgium after returning from a marathon 6 country post covid tour. Following a brief intro from Zoe’s solo vocal on Lennon/McCartney song Golden Slumbers the track Dark Heart crashes out of the speakers with an insistent heavy riffing guitar lick from Krissy Matthews and swirling organ from Paul Jobson before Zoe’s powerhouse vocals take command of the song. The World Could Change is a mid-paced blues rocker allowing the band to stretch out and Zoe to demonstrate her slinky vocals with the plea “put your arms around me this could be the end”. Praying Kind starts with a suitably soulful churchy organ riff from Paul Jobson and pretty guitar work from Krissy Matthews before Zoe inhabits the song with a beautiful vocal. In contrast Leave You For Good is a toe-tapping dancers paradise with Felix Dehmel’s drums leading the charge and Krissy Matthews contributing a couple of fiery guitar solos. CD 1 closes with the fierce rocker Ghost Train which finally slows to a halt as the crowd roar for more. CD 2 opens with the lengthy and dramatic rock ballad Roses And Lavender which allows Zoe to show her incredible talent, mastery and control of her excellent voice. A burst of coruscating wah-wah guitar introduces the warning song Watch What You’re Doing before the 11min tour-de-force sweet ballad Brother which is dedicated to a dear friend. Paul Jobson’s gently rolling piano leads into jazzy closing track He Loves Me an emotional and tender love letter to a special someone. Layla Zoe has a strong distinctive voice and a great band, and this excellent album covers all the bases.

this band, let me introduce you, they are a four-piece band out of London made up of London’s finest session musicians. Chris Rand on vocals, keys, and sax, Leo Appleyard on guitar, Geoff Threadgold on bass, and last but not least, Will Chism on drums. I have had the enormous pleasure of seeing these guys in a live setting, so I was thrilled when this live album dropped through my letterbox. The album/gig was recorded in Romania earlier this year. Ten tracks and five covers go to make this one hell of a fun, uplifting, toe-tapping offering. Not only are these guys brilliant session musicians, as I stated, but they also write wonderful songs, ranging from Blues to Boogie and everywhere in between. Hell Or High Water begins the set, a song written by the band, and sees Chris Rand powerfully igniting the crowd with his raspy, punchy vocals as well as tickling the ivories, leading the band into the groove. How Can I Miss You When You Won’t Go Away, is a song that Chris introduces with a bit of a story, I won’t spoil it for you, You can listen to the story when you get the album, but let’s just say, it involves Keith Richards, Ian Stewart, a little of Charlie Watts, and a cat. Intrigued,

TOM HAMBRIDGE

BLU JA VU

Quarto Valley

Oh my! Here we are right back on track with a totally Blues album and it is a cracker. Tom’s career has been a total blast from the beginning as a drummer for the likes of Buddy Guy, Roy Buchanan, Susan Tedeschi, Sha Na Na and some guy called Chuck Berry. With almost as many Grammy awards as frets on a guitar. I loved this album from the get go a blistering rollicking good ride Ain’t It Just Like Love with Buddy on vocals and axe. Great Honky Tonk piano by Kevin McKendree. Can it get any better well just wait until That’s My Home steamrollers over you with Joe Bonamassa joining in the fun. Yes, yes, this is what I want.

Blues at its very best!

All the cuts are drawn from material written by Tom over the years with Richard Flemming and damn it all as well as providing a really solid platform upon which others overlay their talent it turns out he can handle, very efficiently, lead vocals as well. There is a terrific instrumental, named Brother John Boogie, which gallops along breathlessly with some very tasty harmonica by James Cotton. Can’t say more than if you don’t like this album there must be something seriously amiss. What’s not to like about Get Out Of Town? When I hear music like this, played by superb musicians, it just makes me smile and want to dance. Totally fabulous from the start through to the closing End Of The Line. This is Blues at its very best so go out and buy this release. You won’t regret it.

this excellent album covers all the bases

covers are a couple of very well-known tunes, Such A Night ( Mac Rebennack) and Rag Mama Rag (Robbie Robertson) both treated with the utmost respect, but also with plenty of the Rogues own input. Now you would not expect a song by Neil Diamond to turn into a Boogie-infused, dance your ass off, tune. I’m A Believer, even, The Monkees’ rendition could never have envisaged this even in their wildest imaginations, but what a brilliant version by Consummate Rogues, they could have called it, Boogie with Diamond, that has a certain ring to it I think. Down The Road is the final song of the set, another great tune written by the band, at almost nine minutes long, it allows each member to showcase their capabilities as musicians. There is a reason these guys are in such high demand as session musicians, this live album is a testament to that.

STEPHEN HARRISON

DAVE KELLER IT’S TIME TO SHINE

Tastee Tone Records

You don’t expect soul-blues from Vermont, but Dave Keller has established himself as a fine performer, working frequently with Johnny Rawls, one of the last great soul men still performing. For this album Dave and his band went to a cabin near the Canadian border and produced a fine set of new originals. Horns are overdubbed on several tracks, though the opening pair of songs are a little rockier than Dave’s usual style and the title track finds Dave trying to get out of a down period, feeling that it is now My Time To Shine. However, as soon as Mark Earley’s sax, Tom Parlance’s trumpet and Annika Chambers-Deslaurier’s backing vocals are added we are right in the soul field, as on 789-0133, a lovely tune which may remind listeners of a certain age of Wilson Pickett’s song of similar title, though this is a far smoother ride as Dave’s aching guitar and vocals are beautifully framed by Ira Friedman’s keyboards. I Wanna Go Back To Memphis has a lilting melody over warm keys and solid guitar work, the horns and Annika com-

ing in on the chorus before Dave adds a confessional tone about relationships on the aching soul ballad The First Time With You. Nothing Like Your Love is a short but optimistic tune that will keep toes tapping and drummer Jay Gleason works overtime to set the pace on Paint A New Life Together as Dave seeks reassurance that the new love in his life won’t work out like the previous one. Perhaps all will be well if Dave continues to give the Full Measure Of Pleasure: “I’ve got the cure for what ails you”! Dave is also the Mayor Of Memory and remembers everything on a heavier tune with Alex Budney’s bass prominent in the mix. The last two tracks are soul ballad Something About A Sad Song and the anthemic Hard To Believe which typifies Dave’s style as his guitar soars over the fade of a horn-heavy arrangement. Fans of soulblues can buy this one with confidence!

DAVID GIORCELLI TRIO FT. DREW DAVIES

SWING AT CAVEAU LIVE IN PARIS INDEPENDENT

David Giorcelli is one of Spain’s greatest exponents of Piano Blues and Boogie Woogie. His ability and dynamism have led him to play across many European Countries and even the Middle East. He has participated in Le plus grand festival de boogie-woogie au monde! (the biggest festival of boogie-woogie piano in the world), and the most important Blues and Jazz festivals in Spain. The David Giorcelli Trio, review the classics of Blues and Boogie piano, with four albums released he is cur rently presenting his latest release Swing At Caveau recorded live at the club Le Caveau de la Huchette in Paris. This album consists of one original track and ten interpretations including five instrumentals. Giorcelli is accompanied by Little Jordi Abad on upright

bass, Albert Escudero on drums and featuring Drew Davies on nine of the eleven tracks. The album opens with a rousing instrumental version of Les Brown’s Sentimental Journey, the energetic piano playing is joined by some neat solo bursts from the drums and saxophone. Giorcelli adds his smoky vocals to a straightforward bluesy cover of Willie Dixon’s Good Understanding, this flows into Giorcelli’s original instrumental Swing At Caveau, an enjoyable laidback jazzy blues with some nice interplay between piano and saxophone. The Doc Pomus number, Boogie-Woogie County Girl is an upbeat Boogie-Woogie with some frenetic piano bursts. Kenny Burrell’s Chitlins Con Carne, an infectious Latin jazzy vibe where the saxophones subtle tones replace the guitar to great effect. The popular Amos Milburn track, One Scotch One Burbon One Beer, follows with a lazy swing tempo with Giorcelli delivering husky vocals over jaunty piano aided by some sultry saxophone licks. Giorcelli plays fantastic sprightly piano to accompany guest vocalist Vicente Zúmel on the wonderful bluesy, Little Brother Montgomery’s Keep On Drinking, closing the album with superb boogie woogie piano on the rousing foot tapping Leiber & Stoller Classic, Kansas City, a fine

SUE FOLEY

LIVE IN AUSTIN VOL. 1

Guitar Woman Records

In her newest release, Sue Foley displays her musical prowess with a live, stripped-down performance at the Continental Club in Austin. The album opens with Foley’s original track New Used Car, a classic blues number infused with a seductive double entendre, like all good blues songs. Throughout the set, Foley expertly navigates blues staples, such as Memphis Minnie’s, Me And My Chauffeur Blues, putting her unique spin on these timeless classics. She confidently tackles gender roles in the blues with her rendition of Slim Harpo’s King Bee, transforming it into the sultry and seductive tones of, Queen Bee. Foley’s blues tradition continues with tracks like Walkin’ Home, a propulsive riff infected song. Her energetic interpretation of Howlin’ Wolf’s Howlin’ for My Darlin’ is blues personified. Her musical versatility shines through as she ventures into country-rock territory with her original composition Highwayside. She delivers a poignant take to Bob Dylan’s Positively 4th Street with snarling visceral lyrics. The album also features standout instrumentals, including Jodi Williams’ Hooked on Love (Lucky Lou), where her dextrous guitar work is on full display. The album concludes with a rocking rendition of Cheap Trick’s “High Roller,” leaving listeners craving more. This release has eleven tracks, but the title’s Volume 1 suggests more music is on the horizon. Foley’s performance demonstrates her growth as a blues artist over the years, and her confidence shines through on every note. This reaffirms Foley’s rightful place in the blues scene, making it clear that she continues to evolve and captivate audiences, add it to your collection.

THE KENDALL CONNECTION

BLOOD AND WATER

Independent

When I get a cd to review, the first thing I look at is the packaging, treating it a bit like food, if it looks good on the outside, it’s mostly good on the inside. This five track EP is no exception to the rule, the boys first official physical cd release since the self-titled album in 2020 that our old boss Alan had a fondness for. Here’s a cd with great graphics, lyrics and stories behind why and how

some stellar guitar playing

the songs came about. Kicking off with Broken Bridge, a rather tasty rocking ballad about getting to the light side, that lets us know what an accomplished guitar player Nick Kendall is and what a great little band of boys he’s got behind him. With Steve Holness (keys), Greg Hagger, and Tom Clare (skins), the title track eases in next with some great harmonies and a slightly funky guitar sound that breezes into your ears effortlessly, this is easy breezy listening that has a calmness about it, until we get to power pirates. When I read what the song is about, it immediately becomes my favourite track on here, add to that some stellar guitar playing that takes off like a rocket-ship and into the stratosphere. After you come back down to earth we catch up with Book Without Words, closely followed by oil-Stained Hands, which was inspired by the passing of hot-rod loving guitar maestro Jeff Beck, which hit most of us hard, so we can all relate, enough said.

Difford, Steve Hackett, and Robert Plant. So this is a guy who knows his way around a guitar and everything that comes with it. The blurb also noted his influences, Muddy Waters Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and of course, Robert Johnson. What could possibly go wrong with listening to this collection of original songs? The answer is nothing.. From the opening tune, She Left Me With The Blues, I was hooked. Francis Dunnery has indeed been around the block several times so he knows how to get your attention, and boy does he ever. This song is like a smack-in-the-mouth introduction to what this guy is all about. It also reminded me ever so slightly of a Blues Brothers-type song, up on your Feet Shake It type tune. The vocals and guitar are superb, small wonder Robert Plant rates him so highly. The album gets better and better with each track, Poison Woman, giving you the full-on Chicago Blues. The album is fully laden with Blues nuggets, there is not a weak song or filler in sight. At this point, I have to mention the musicians on the album, too many to name individually, but they all deserve the highest accolades. One stand-out performance on the song My Whole Life is the stupendous backing vocals of Deanne Blazey. Too often the backing vocalists go unnoticed, but she is worthy of heaps of praise. The Comeback Boy and I say this with slight trepidation, is for me the standout track, I say with trepidation, because the album has twelve magnificent songs. I can’t emphasize enough just how good this album is, It has been a long time in the making, but it is certainly worth the wait. In fact, this album is worth its weight in Gold, earlier I told you that it was fully laden with Blues nuggets, so this album should be available in Hatton Garden. Bravo, Francis Dunnery.

GILES ROBSON

BLUES FROM THE ROAD VOLUME 1

Independent Giles has been constantly touring recently and has made his shows intimate raw and compact. They have been small capacities with a Candlelight and Blues theme and have been well attended packing out venues. To this end he has comprised this E.P. of five songs recorded live in a tour of France. He teamed up with guitarist Franck Goldwasser and pianist Philippe Lejeune with a rhythm section comprising Pascal Delmas on drums and Mig Toquereau, the result is a phenomenal band playing raw blues, Giles on harmonica and vocals is a treat for any music listener, a consummate professional. The band strikes out first on Too Hot For The Devil with Chicago rhythms throughout, groove and tone sensational with well delivered vocals and wonderful harmonica playing. The band have style and swagger here. These Deep Blues, highlight Giles harmonica skills along with piano accompaniment, vocals resonate on this great tune. Stompin’ At Lolos Place is a toe tapping instrumental this time Giles duetting on harmonica with guitarist, it’s all about the groove. The band strikes up again with Turnin’ And Burnin,’ Giles venting feelings about the human condition and relationships, then it is a free fold jam session, wonderful freestyle guitar licks mix with superb backbeat, stunning track capturing the moment and connection. Last song, Blues For Toulouse is another wonderful instrumental, giving some kind of flavour what to expect from this live performance, the recording is superb and when the piano solo starts it’s just a different level of blues. Impressive range and tones throughout, look forward to the next volume.

COLIN CAMPBELL

JAKE LEG JUG BAND

HELLO CENTRAL

Green Bullet Records

The Jake Leg Jug Band plays a different style of blues to the blues-rock acts that dominate the circuit in the UK, but they are busy guys with an extensive gig list, so there is clearly an appetite for their music.

Concentrating on music from the 1920’s and 1930’s they take us back to an era when blues and jazz were joined at the hip and the music swung like crazy. The core of the band is double bassist Duncan Wilcox, harmonica player Liam Ward (who also covers jug, washboard, saw and kazoo) and new member Warren James on banjo and guitar; all three sing lead vocals and harmonise very effectively. Three jazz players add sax, clarinet, trumpet and trombone to eight of the twelve tracks. St Louis Blues is given a twist by inserting a tango rhythm section into the tune and Midnight Special veers between the upbeat version we all know and slower elements. Louis Armstrong’s Someday You’ll Be Sorry takes us back to the Roaring 20’s and you can imagine people doing the Charleston to Helen Kane’s Don’t Be Like That. The brass sits out two gospel pieces, the short Joshua Fit The Battle Of Jericho and the acapella Moses Smote The Water, as well as Liam’s tour de force harmonica solo Fox Chase and a great version of The Mississippi Sheiks’ Sales Tax which sounds as relevant today as it must have done back in 1934! Jug and clarinet are to the fore on Lead Belly’s Ella Speed and the brass are in full flow on a superb take on Jelly Roll Morton’s Doctor Jazz which gives the album its title: “Hello Central, give me Dr Jazz”. Lugubrious bass introduces a second visit to the Satchmo canon with St James Infirmary Blues before the band ends the album with the country-meets-gospel of Glory land, a joyous end to a delightful album.

JASON RICCI AND THE BAD KIND

BEHIND THE VEIL

Gulf Coast Records

Beginning with an offbeat, waltz-timed Jason Ricci original titled Casco Bay, he shows this is not your typical, blues-based album. He twists and twirls his lips around the beat as his wife, Kaitlin Dibble, joins on vocals. From there he returns to the blues, covering Rudy Toomb’s Chicago shuffle, 5-10-15, leading into the rousing Baked Potato. The latter finds him improvising on a Southern-inflected instrumental, laying down a riff and then blasting off until guitarist Brent Johnson joins with his own solo. The groove gets tougher and heavier on Kaitlin Dibble’s No Way. He adds in licks from the tune Spoonful as she delivers the song with her husky vocals. The Dax Riggs cover, Terrors of Nightlife brings mystery and drama to a dark ballad. Back to the blues for a searing, slow, swampy Shipwreck; Ricci enters with his raw, gritty harmonica urging the song further into the darkness’s. James Infirmary is given a different twist, and the coiled energy never lags. The closing take on Booker T. and the M.G.’s instrumental “Hip Hug-Her” transports us to Memphis by way of New Orleans, the frontman’s current home. Johnson’s guitar crackles, Ricci’s harmonica splutters and John Krown adds a grinding B3 organ for a rugged, rousing finish. Jason Ricci long ago established his astounding virtuosity on an instrument few have taken to the heights and depths he has. Now, with a great band supporting him on this eclectic and riveting release it is past time for the world to acknowledge his remarkable talents.

JHETT BLACK BABEL Rumblestump Records

Jhett Black’s latest album is a captivating musical journey into the heart of North

Mississippi Hill Country Blues. Drawing inspiration from his deep-rooted love for ‘roots music,’ this album serves as a testament to his passion and respect for the genre. Following his success at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Jhett embarked on a new musical adventure, co-producing his own album. with the assistance of Glenn Halverson, and the collaborative efforts of Al Basile and Callie Sioux. The album highlights Jhett’s distinctive and soulful voice, which explores the realms of rock, soul, and blues. Eleven tracks infused with hypnotic melodies on such tunes as, Mamma Told Me Not To, Eve and Eulogy, hauntingly eloquent and powered by resonator guitars, creating a fresh and intense listening experience. One notable aspect of the album is the absence of bass, allowing the guitars and drums to establish a unique musical dimension. The absence of bass amplifies the synergy between the instruments, giving the album a raw and authentic feel. Each song bears Jhett’s distinctive touch, enveloping listeners in a sonic atmosphere both dark and melodic, often reminiscent of heavy blues and garage blues influences. With its seamless blend of traditional blues elements and contemporary innovation, Jhett Black’s album not only pays homage to the Delta’s rich musical heritage but also points toward the future of blues music. This release is a testament to Jhett Black’s artistry and his ability to breathe new life into a classic genre.

JOHN R MILLER HEAT COMES DOWN Rounder Records

Heat Comes Down is a captivating musical journey crafted by John R Miller in collaboration with Andrija Tokic and John James Tourville. Recorded in Nashville’s Bomb Shelter studio, Miller’s album delves into the human experience, transcending the boundaries of Americana and roots styles full of emotion and poetic lyrics, if blues is a feeling, then be prepared to search your soul, something for any

music lover here. The album opens with Nobody Has to Know Your Mind, immersing listeners in an outlaw cowboy atmosphere with poetic lyrics and retro vibes. Tracks like Crumbling Pie and Ditcher explore themes of apathy and isolation, offering raw, contemplative narratives. Insomnia Blues delves into the struggles of sleeplessness, creating a haunting atmosphere with bluesy undertones. Nostalgia takes centre stage in Summer Lens, capturing the fleeting nature of cherished moments. Miller reflects on his musical journey in Basements, embracing humility and growth. The album’s pace intensifies with Conspiracies, Cults and UFOs, featuring rapid lyrics and a searing guitar solo. In Harpers Ferry Moon, Miller weaves a literary narrative with a dark atmosphere. The album concludes with the impactful Press On, conveying a message of resilience and hope. Heat Comes Down, the title track unfolds its intricacies with each listen, offering comfort and solace to listeners. Miller’s storytelling prowess and musicality create a profound connection, making the album a mirror reflecting the depth of the human condition and a manuscript speaking to the soul of the listener.

JOHNNY RAWLS WALKING HEART ATTACK

Catfood Records

Johnny Rawls, the seasoned guitarist, and former bandleader of soul icon O.V. Wright, graces the stage with a soulful presence that is impossible to ignore. With a musical career spanning over fifty years, Rawls embodies the essence of great soul and blues styled music. His collaboration with the Catfood label, along with talented writers like Trenchard and Procell, and a skilled band, including standout performers like Johnny McGhee and Andy Roman, results in an exceptional album. The title track, Walking Heart Attack, a Rawls and Trenchard collaboration, kicks off with a lively chorus and Rawls’ smooth vocals, accompa-

WWW.NICKSTEED.CO.UK

MATHIAS LATTIN UP NEXT

Vizztone

Until August of this year, the name Mathias Lattin was not exactly on the tip of my tongue. I knew that he had won the International Blues Award for 2023, but apart from that, I knew very little. Fast forward to August, Blues Matters Magazine has been invited to cover the very prestigious Mediterranean Blues Cruise hosted by Joe Bonamassa, and I was the lucky guy to be on board. It also happened to be my first time seeing Christone Ingram playing live, and who should be with him as a guitar tech, you guessed it, Mathias Lattin? Not only that, but Mathias joined him for each set on a couple of songs on guitar. To say that I was instantly struck by this young man is an understatement. So, to the album, Up Next, debut albums are not always expected to make a huge splash, it is an introduction to the artist or band, but this debut album hits like a Tsunami. Ten songs, all original, and all written and produced by Mathias Lattin. The opening track, Who’s Been Loving You, has a combination of Blues and Soul gently weaving between each genre like two ends of a pole, with Mathias Lattin holding the middle section guiding the song into this wonderful menage of musical styles. Not only is he capable of writing and producing great songs such as this, but his guitar work is exemplary, nothing fancy, just solid craftsmanship. Can’t Stop Feeling, is one of those very rare tunes that fill you with such emotion and pleasure that the best way to describe it, is to say as little as possible, and let it ride over you, this song is symphonic in its delivery and content. Party takes me back to the early 70s with its superb keyboard segment that blends effortlessly with the funky/blues style groove, a song that evokes movements in your body, swaying and grooving. 2nd Degree has more of a blues/rock feel, a great bass line, and a vocal range that dips in and out of Soul, Blues, Funk, and Gospel. Up Next is one of the best debut albums I’ve heard in many a year, find out for yourself.

GARRET T. WILLIE SAME PAIN

Independent

nied by punchy horns and Roman’s stellar solos. The album pays homage to the late Otis Clay in, Trying to Live My Life Without You and features Rawls’ gospel infused. The original Free, highlights his powerful testimony. Rawls’ tradition of including an O.V. Wright song continues with the soulful ballad, Born All Over. Creative Rawls/ Trenchard tunes like the energetic One More Sin and the emotive Lies, highlight Rawls’ exceptional vocal prowess and astounding range. A surprising twist comes with Rawls’ rendition of Springsteen’s Hungry Heart, transformed into a danceable vintage soul tune. The album concludes on a sentimental note with Trenchard’s original track Mississippi Dreams, capturing the essence of Rawls’ return to his musical roots. Rawls’ triumphant return to the music scene reminds listeners of his rightful place, and this album stands as a testament to his enduring talent and passion for soul music.

is a true spirit-lifter, and the title track, Everybody Loves a Boogie will have your jump suit flapping in seconds. Alley Club Blues has a terrific, louche style complete with the band harmonising on the choruses. This is a collection of musical gems you could play loud at any party, and it cuts across any age group. Everything has a great jazz bounce and listening to it on a rainy afternoon would bring a ray of sunshine into anyone’s life. If you’re pigged off with the world, lying politicians, the doomy horizon, then Kit Packham’s ebullient crew are all the therapy you need.

insights into each track and a list of harmonicas used. Additionally, Oskar’s captivating paintings adorn the liner notes, enhancing the overall aesthetic appeal of this musical gem. This quality release is not merely an album; it’s a sonic adventure that transcends boundaries and leaves a lasting impression on the listener.

He’s 23! And about to give Rock n Roll Blues a formidable 21st century kick in the ass. This young man has such an incredible vocal range. What a voice! I cannot believe this guy is 23 years old, he sings with all the weathered, world-weary, been there seen that, tone you would expect from someone decades older with years of experience and experiences.... Its magic. 10 tracks and it’s hard to pick a favourite but then I decided that Same Pain, the title track, was my favourite. The change of pace, tone, tempo from Track 1, Make You Mine and track 2, Love Hangover was startling in difference, and very cleverly done, think we’re rock n roll. From the fierce, almost intimidating sound of Track 1 and 2, everything changes as Track 3 starts, just beautiful. The voice, the guitar, the drum, all first class, strong throughout but what a belting start with Make You Mine and Track 2 Love

it’s the confidence and delivery of someone much older

Hangover, made me think of a cowboy bar, drinking, dancing and fighting. With Track 4 sliding in to conjure up the same bar but at the end of the night with just 2 or 3 couples left hanging on to each other and swaying to the music. Reminiscent at times of Elvis, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash, not in sound, Garret has all his own sound and delivery, I think it’s the confidence and delivery of someone much older with that kind of gruff storytelling... an old soul.

JEAN KNAPPITT

KIT PACKHAM’S ONE JUMP

AHEAD

EVERYBODY LOVES A BOOGIE

Pelican Records CD

What a pleasant surprise. If you like to jive to the infectious old Louis Jordan beat, if you love Big Joe Turner, Ray Charles or Mose Allison, then here’s a British act which has been on the boards since 1984, and after 39 years they’ve lost none of their youthful drive. Slim Gaillard would have fitted in perfectly here. This isn’t a screaming blues guitar album. There are eleven musicians in this cracking band, led by Kit Packham, who plays tenor, baritone and alto sax, plus clarinet. Kit Packham takes lead vocals on 15 of the 16 tracks. There are classic, uplifting contributions penned by some of the greats such as Duke Ellington, Rodgers & Hart and Louis Jordan. Their version of Route 66

LEE OSKAR SHE SAID MALAHO

Independent

Lee Oskar’s instrumental masterpiece is a musical odyssey that showcases his unparalleled talent on the harmonica. As a founding member of the iconic rockfunk band War, Oskar’s expertise shines through on this diverse album. With just a handful of harmonicas, he effortlessly explores various genres, from funky grooves and reggae beats to soothing lullabies. The album’s rich tapestry includes a blend of guitars, keys, winds, strings, and lively percussion, creating a captivating musical journey. The ten tracks evoke a range of emotions and imagery. Morning Rush combines a vibrant rhythm with traditional Japanese instruments, creating a unique fusion of cultures. Caribbean Love Song transports the listener to an idyllic island beach with its infectious rhythms. The title track, with its gentle tempo and poignant melody, showcases Oskar’s emotive playing, accompanied by an enchanting string section. One of the album’s standout moments is Funky Rhetoric, where Oskar’s high-C harp takes flight over an irresistible, clap-along beat. The album concludes on a high note with One-World Fist, a powerful and eccentric blend of Klezmer folk music influences, demonstrating Oskar’s musical versatility. Beyond the music, the physical edition of the album offers an immersive experience, providing detailed

MARCUS MALONE & THEMOTOR CITY HUSTLERS INTERSTATE 75

Ram Rock Red

Marcus Malone was born and brought up in Detroit USA but now happily resides in the UK where he has earned a name for himself with his rocking Blues style of music aided by a soulful tone to his outstanding vocals. Over the years Marcus has performed in a band format most recently with Innes Sibun although on this album Marcus is accompanied by Dan Smith a multi-instrumentalist who covers the rhythm section and more including lead guitar. In addition, there is a three-piece Horn section who are used throughout the album and provide the funky edge that gives this release a Stax/Motown feel to it, which is moving the music in a slightly different direction than the previous driven rocking Blues style. The album starts with a thumping Bass led driven song, Ain’t No Telling which is interspersed with some flowing lead guitar work and funky horns, this is soon followed by the standout track Never Gonna Leave You which is full of soaring vocals, including guest vocalist Eno Williams who provides a Gospel backing sound and some scintillating guitar breaks from Dan. Marcus’s superlative vocals are commanding on each song on the album and he really directs the Soul and R&B groove. As previously indicated, this was not the style of music I was expecting from Marcus,

but he has done an excellent job here in re-creating the sixties Stax vibe from his home town Detroit. The material is all self-written by the two musicians who have demonstrated some exceptional musicianship in delivering these songs, which have a solid density to them. Do not be put off by the lack of Blues on show, this is quality music.

NORMA MACDONALD IN WAVES

Noyes

Out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Norman MacDonald is a Canadian singer/ songwriter and In Waves is her sixth album under her own name. It is a generally wistful, folky, Americana flavoured set, with hints of her past in folk-rock, but the delicately pure-voiced Norma does draw in some elements that might be slightly unexpected from that description. Lend an ear to Glass Flowers maybe, where the backing vocals sound like they have been sampled from a pop- R’n’B record from the early 60s maybe (they haven’t though). It leads on to Comes In Waves, which has rather subtle tinges of classic Motown. The closing Rescue Mission opens with some beautiful finger picking almost like a 20s Memphis blues recording, though it is all too quickly subsumed into the stronger, more Americana styled arrangement. Daniel Ledwell’s pedal steel guitar work is beautifully subtle in the backing, and it also boasts a string arrangement (or is it a mellotron – one is listed in the credits?) more or less straight from Ben E. King’s early 60s gospel-infused R’n’B classic Stand By Me.The Americana side of Norma’s music is also very strong on The Heart Wants, whilst Same Mistake sounds like a modern reworking of a 60s song and has tinges of Beatles flavoured psychedelia towards the end – think of their classic Sergeant Pepper’s album. The same thought also comes up regarding the first few seconds of the aforementioned Glass Flowers. To sum up then, a fine, mellow set of interest to lovers of Americana or the way in which blues and R’n’B has influenced other musical

forms. Rather intriguing…

KYLA BROX LIVE AT KONIZ CASTLE

Pigskin Records

Kyla brox is readily one of the UK’s finest blues musicians. Her background history as the daughter of another UK blues great, the late Victor Brox, is well documented and over the past decade or so Kyla’s stature as an independent artist has soared and flourished deservedly. Here we have a Live album that genuinely captures the startling talent she has and reflects her deeply sensitive soulful delivery perfectly. Recorded live in Switzerland, the album captures a moment when Kyla seems to be entirely at ease with her appreciative audience and the spirit of soul music shines through. With fourteen tracks, Brox shows her own songwriting skillset is strong and includes only a couple of cover cuts. The remainder is pure Kyla and an album that surely cements her growing greatness and place as one of the UK’s greatest soul singers. If you fancy a bit of full-on soulful music you need this one in your collection.

PAUL J BOLGER BEWARE OF TRAINS

Pillar stone Productions

With only eight tracks, Paul J Bolger’s latest release, Beware of Trains packs a lot into its short length. It skips from ambient spoken word pieces such as Dance To Where You Stand with slower percussion, pedal steel guitar and low Tom Waits/Leonard Cohen vocals to rock and roll songs such as opener All By Herself, where the acoustic guitars, pedal steel guitars and sanctified organ blend Americana sounds with modern roots music. Paul J Bolger is an Irish singer-songwriter who clearly knows his way around an acoustic guitar and intelligent lyrics.

Breathless is a countryish rocker, and Far From Here is a bluesy acoustic reverie that takes a look at the state of the world. Heather Road is an intelligent melange of a glitchy live performance, taken into a studio situation, with all of the warmth and lo-fi charm that a live performance can bring with it. The album’s final track Watering Hole contains a brooding minor chord sound, with pedal steel guitar and low-pitched vocals. Sonically, it is a near cousin of Robbie Robertson’s Somewhere Down That Crazy River. Beware of Trains is Paul J Bolger’s third full album, with much to commend it to fans of American, Roots and more experimental music forms and production methods.

PAUL LAMB & CHAD

STRENTZ BLUES IN THE NIGHT

Temperance Live

In the mid -80s The Blues Burglars moved down to London from the northeast, with Paul Lamb quickly revealing himself to be an accomplished harp player and bandleader in a fashion similar to the exciting, deeply rooted but new blues sounds coming out of California. His solo career took off quickly and he has maintained his justified position as one of the leading UK bluesmen ever since. But prior to all that, Paul’s love was the acoustic blues. Many reviewers have commented on his affection for Sonny’s Terry’s music and style (listen to Hooray Hooray for a good example here), and that is very strongly in evidence on this acoustic set - just Paul on harp and vocals and long-time accomplice Chad Strentz on vocals and guitar. The approach is often very reminiscent of the popular recordings by Sonny and Brownie McGhee, but the whole set references (rather wonderfully) the sounds of the late 50s and early 60s folk-blues revival. The inclusion of several tracks associated with Big Bill Broonzy certainly fits this approach too but then so do the opening Ray

NICK STEED INFLUENTIAL GUIDANCE

Independent

Nick Steed’s newest release follows his illustrious tenure as the Master of Keys at the Colosseum band for three years. These eight tracks are nothing short of a musical revelation. Steeped in the rich traditions of jazz, rock with a defined blues infused tone, Steed’s album echoes the brilliance of legends like Toto and Steely Dan. What sets this record apart is his ingenious songwriting ability, evident in tracks like Yesterday’s Blues, which effortlessly transports listeners to a nostalgic Blue Note corner of a night club full of ambience and atmosphere. His vocals are crystal clear, complemented by his self-created backing vocals that astoundingly mimic a choir of three, a masterful innovative moment. The addition of percussionist Lenny Castro, famed for his work with Toto and Steely Dan, further solidifies the album’s authenticity. The ensemble’s synergy is palpable;

nothing short of a musical revelation

Mike Smith and Jamie Brownfield’s warm horn section, along with the rhythmic mastery of drummers Greg Morgan and Steve Gibson, create a harmonious backdrop. Steed’s choice of collaborators for solo performances is a work of genius, with Clem Clempson and Kim Nishikawara delivering exceptional guitar and saxophone solos, respectively. Tracks like Luckless Pedestrian showcase intricate shuffles, demonstrating Steed’s musical finesse. Moreover, the album achieves heights of catchiness, exemplified by Things You Said I Would and the poignant Suzie, a tale of someone destined for greatness. This is a masterclass in musicality, a testament to his artistry, and a promise of even greater things to come.

BOB MARGOLIN

THANKS

VizzTone

Bob Margolin, with the exception of Buddy Guy, can probably claim to be the most authentic Chicago Blues survivor around. This young white guy from Boston became an important part of Muddy Waters band from ’73 to ’80, a period that saw Muddy gain his widest reach and recognition. On Thanks, Bob recognises the great opportunity that was and honours many of the outstanding musicians that lead to him meeting and playing alongside. This is no lazy tribute album of cover versions, this is more than that, it is a collection of very personal and reflective songs, some revamped, some new but all meaningful. Thanks, is all Bob, and all recorded using the very special 1956 Gibson ES-150 Archtop, that has its own part in the journey (see my interview with Bob). We start off with Going Down To Main Street, an old Muddy track from the 50s that was re-recorded on The Woodstock album in 75 with Levon Helm and Bob. The Band and Robbie Robertson are remembered with a fine version of The Shape I’m In, where Bob really excels vocally and acknowledges his and

Charles and Johnny Cash medley, the Lee Dorsey cover as Ya Ya Blues and even Today I Started Lovin’ (You Again), which is part Bobby Bland’s seventies hit version, and part the country original. Then there is Paul’s uncanny evocation of Sonny Boy Williamson No. 2 (Rice Miller) with Fattenin Frogs. The album was recorded at The Temperance Café and Bar in Leamington Spa in April 2023; it is a very, very enjoyable set, and an excellent example of just how good Paul’s acoustic side can be.

ROB TOGNONI PRODUCT OF A SOUTHERN LAND – BBC PAUL JONES

With twenty-one previous releases quite how, I don’t have anything in my collection by Rob is beyond me. Yes, am very much aware of hearing some of his music before, and with the added moniker of The Tasmanian Devil for sure he has a presence on the Blues scene which undeniable. There you have it though, my first time, and it is a short, but sweet, introduction. This is an E.P with only five cuts on it. All recorded beautifully for a BBC session, at the sadly closed Maida Vale Studios, in 2007. Quite how it has taken so long to gain a release is for others to ponder and answer. Ably supported by Mike Hellier drums, the hirsute Gaz Rackman on bass plus some Hammond played by programme producer Paul Long. All tracks are originals culled, I guess, from material written between 1995 and 2007. Three cuts are quite extended workouts with the remaining two just short of four minutes in length. Having been recent

THE BLUE LENA DARKWOOD Independent

As might be expected from a band that named itself after Keith Richards’ Bentley, The Blue Lena’s self-released debut album offers a fine sample of 1970s British classic rock, served up just the way we liked it in the 1970s. The ghosts of the better UK bands of half a century ago stalk this recording, filtering blues, southern rock and country influences from the other side of the pond in the way that was common half a century ago but just doesn’t seem to happen anymore. Strong vocal hints of Free’s Paul Rodgers are provided by main singer Peter Yeomans, with Fi Channon’s backing vox lending many tracks notes of Fleetwood Mac, and guitarist Nick Singleton channelling the more melodic and less shreddy guitar heroes of the period. Songs of note include opener Last Chance Saloon, on which Singleton shows a fine command of Quadrophenia-era Pete Townshend fretwork, while closer What Do You Want is a nod to a certain Bob Seger riff later recycled by Thin Lizzy. Sometimes follows the popular trick of starting as an acoustic ballad, building up into something heavier and then quietening down again. The only weakness I’d highlight is perhaps the lack of variety in the songwriting, with an over-reliance on individually strong mid-tempo rockers resulting in slightly less than full marks for the set as a whole. But Darkwood is impressive stuff for first time out and I look forward to hearing more from this lot.

BERNIE MARSDEN WORKING MAN (SPECIAL EDITION)

Conquest Records

Bernie marsden sadly left the stage a few months ago but his astonishing talent, strength and stature remain

firmly fixed in the UK and world blues firmament. Here, with his old label, Conquest, we have a remarkable release of some of the great man’s finest moments. Tracks range across his career and kickoff with the aptly named, Being famous – a thought that I’m sure would have Bernie smiling now. The title track, Working Man, is a fabulous, commanding number that highlights Marsden at his finest – and reflects his own life in so many ways as a hard-working, in demand blues-rocker and journeyman performer. Ain’t No Love in the Heart of the City is another outstanding effort and it’s perhaps perfect to find the closing track is one of those hugely popular songs from Robert Johnson’s cannon – a path well-trodden and totally mastered by the late Marsden, Come on in My Kitchen. This is an album that blues lovers will simply love in every way!

IAIN PATIENCE

TOBY WALKER STRING SLINGER

Independent

Toby Walker is a US bluesman through and through. An absolute master of acoustic guitar, year on year his talent gows. His recent visit to the UK on tour coincided with the release of this stunning 12 track selection where he displays nothing short of huge guitar pyrotechnic prowess and sheer visrtuosity. His live sets invariably feature some lighter humourous moments and he captures that

endearing witty spririt here in a few tracks. However, it’s really his usual grasp of traditional southern US blues that shines throughout in his artistry and mastery of his instrument backed by wholesome vocal dexterity and delivery. Walker played alongside countless greats – including Muddy – back in the day as he honed his craft and developed his own distinctive style and strength. Hot Tuna and former Jefferson Auirplane guitarist describes him as one of the big dawgs of US blues music and a listen to this wonderful album easily confirms that to be true. Walker romps through acoustic and blues resonator-slide work with absolute ease featuring a range of covers and selpenned tracks. An album for lovers of qcoustic blues guitar picking at its very best, this is surely a festive season must-have.

IAIN PATIENCE

LISA BIALES AT CHRISTMAS

Big Song Music

BIG HARP GEORGE BIG HARP GEORGE DOES CHRISTMAS

Blues Mountain Records

Although there are some great Christmas records in the blues (BB King and Roomful Of Blues are two favourites in our house!) it is always good to add a new one, particularly when most of the material is original, and here we have two to savour. Lisa Biales worked with producer Tony Braunagel and a host of Los Angeles players to deliver nine originals and one cover.

The title track opens with Braunagel’s marching drums and adds a New Orleans feel as Lisa sings warmly and seductively about the delights of the season. The sole cover is a Louis Prima song, Shake Hands With Santa Claus, which swings like crazy, as does That’s What I Like About Christmas with some fine guitar and a sax solo topping off the tune. When The Snowflakes Fall has poignant lyrics, the jaunty The Boy I Met For Christmas has an old-fashioned feel while Lisa celebrates a favourite pet in Lulu Magoo, reassuring Santa that she won’t bite! Mary’s Little Baby Boy contains traditional lyrics but the music rocks out with huge chords and slide, making it the heaviest track on the album. Back to a more traditional style musically, Lisa confesses that I Like You Mister Claus and the band sets a Southern groove with greasy slide as Lisa details what she defines as Christmas Cheer, including references to many traditional Christmas images, closing the album in festive mood.

BIG HARP GEORGE BIG HARP

GEORGE DOES CHRISTMAS

Blues Mountain Records

San Francisco’s George Bisharat recorded these Christmas songs during the sessions for previous albums and here presents them in one package.

Recorded at Kid Andersen’s Greaseland studio, the album features a host of great players with horns on most tracks and plenty of George’s excellent chromatic harp playing. There are two contrasting instrumentals, both doing what the titles suggest (Fireside Waltz and Snow Shuffle) and trips to Brazil (Carioca Christmas) and the Caribbean (Coquito Girl), a tune to which you simply cannot stay still. Where I’ll Be For Christmas is a proper blues shuffle with a ringing guitar solo from the late and much missed Little Charlie Baty and George pays tribute to The Three Kings, not the ones in the Christmas story, but Albert, BB and Freddie, Kid doing excellent impressions of all three dur-

REDFISH BLUES BAND TOGETHER

Independent

ing the song. Those familiar with George’s albums will recognise his sly sense of humour in songs like Reindeer On Strike and War On Christmas! George admits that That Grinch Is Me in a tune with a classic horn arrangement but watch out in particular for Bad Santa who will steal your cookies, drink your best wine and, possibly, be found in your wife or your daughter’s bedroom! Listen also how George weaves Santa Claus Is Coming To Town and Kid Jingle Bells into their solos here. If you are looking for an addition to your Christmas music collection these two discs are well worth checking out.

IS BETTER

This band has gone through some personnel changes through recent years and have also diversified their musical styles. The emphasis here is on the blues style genre but there is just so much else happening in these powerful well-crafted tunes. This is the culmination of years of working together and am very proud that this reviewer got the insight when sitting in on some of these recordings in the Cumbrian studio. Never forget how the Funky Hammond tune came together, it was Steve McGuckin’s choice, and Christian Sharpe joined in the funky riff. Similarly breaking down the title track with the band and not collaborating with the Cinelli Brothers does make this their own tune, a true highlight of any concert, this band rock it when playing live. They also bring the tempo down on the likes of Money Don’t Make It Right, a hauntingly beautiful soulful tune, rhythm section of Rod MacKay on bass and Steve Gibson on drums just have that telepathic chemistry. Soho Rising opens the release with a catchy upbeat style, lyrics delivered well throughout by Christian. Something On Your Mind hooks the listener in and does not let you go, full of jazzy tones and that Hammond organ playing is phenomenal. Move On has the catchiest of riffs and hooks, melodic tune up-tempo, perfect. Time Passes By is full of slow bluesy notes, just rapturous and builds up so well, the band a solid unit here. Got A Feeling About You is a feelgood tune with a catchy chorus, a full band sound. With guest harmonica player Ronnie Semple on You Don’t Love Me Baby and Breakout, this must be one of the best blues releases this year. Check them out where you can, a top-class act.

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BOB MARGOLIN

NEW ALBUM - THANKS

Bob Margolin gives THANKS to celebrate 50 years since he joined the Muddy Waters Blues Band. Steady rollin’ on, Bob honors his legendary friends with love and the weight of experience. Bob produced, performed, mixed and mastered every note of this album.

PRODUCED BY DON WAS, DAVE COBB, KEVIN SHIRLEY JOE BONAMASSA & JOSH SMITH