Blues Reviews June/July 2020
Linsey
Alexander
Live at Rosa’s
Delmark
Chicago Blues Hall of Famer Linsey Alexander has been a fixture on the
Chicago blues scene for decades, first on the city’s South Side
and later on the city’s popular North Side, specifically at the
clubs Kingston Mines and B.L.U.E.S. Live at Rosa’s captures the
highlights of two nights last May at the venue Rosa’s Lounge, on
Chicago’s Near Northwest side. This is his fourth release on the
esteemed jazz and blues label Delmark.
Live at Rosa’s contains six Alexander originals and three covers,
including B.B. King’s “Please Love Me” and Freddie King’s
“Have You Ever Loved a Woman.” The eight- plus minute Junior
Wells tune “Ships On the Ocean” is a highlight, giving the
veteran bluesman ample time to stretch things out. As usual, the rhythm
section of bassist Ron Simmons and drummer “Big Ray” Stewart
stays solid and doesn’t budge. The final track, the Alexander-penned
“Going Back to My All Time Used to Be,” gives keyboardist
Roosevelt Purifoy a chance to show his impressive chops, followed by an
epic solo by Linsey, even slipping in a few Jimi Hendrix licks in. Guitarist
Sergei Androshin opts mostly to stay in the background throughout the
set, laying down tasty chord comps and weaving beautifully with the keys
of Purifoy.
Live at Rosa’s showcases Linsey Alexander’s authentic guitar
and vocal skills in their natural element, a gritty, tight Chicago club,
and listening to this album is the next best thing to being there. –
Bob Monteleone
The
Proven Ones
You Ain’t Done
Gulf Coast Records 2020
This group of blues all-stars coalesced a couple of years ago and released
their initial album, “Wild Again,” in 2018. That set was comprised
of a few originals and several cover versions. In the ensuing years The
Proven Ones have signed with Mike Zito’s Gulf Coast label and obviously
spent quality time honing their already glittering credentials. This release
features all originals (save for one) and demonstrates the band’s
ability to grab a groove and ride it. While maintaining a strong blues
vibe, the band has branched out to encompass soul, pop, rock, and even
hints of Latin and psychedelia.
The latter is represented by “Get Love Intro,” the one-minute
instrumental opener, in which Kid Ramos’s guitar evokes comparison
with sitar and the composition with Beatles’ experiments of fifty-plus
years ago. Immediately following are three rockers: “Get Love,”
“Gone to Stay,” and the title track. All are distinguished
by the outstanding musicianship of each group member, and especially by
the incendiary drumming of Jimi Bott. Group “extras” Chris
Mercer on saxophone and “Mack” McCarthy on trumpet add soulful
horn grit, at points even producing a “wall of sound” which
almost - but not quite - obscures Brian Templeton’s powerful vocals.
Ramos and keyboardist extraordinaire Anthony Geraci trade riffs on the
title track, fortified throughout by bassist Willie J. Campbell.
It gets even better, if possible, with “Already Gone,” a mid-tempo
anthem replete with harmony vocals and tinkly piano that had me singing
along after only the first few bars. Following is “Whom My Soul
Loves,” co-written by Templeton and sung in harmony with the great
Ruthie Foster. Then comes “Milinda,” a love ballad with a
tinge of Latin flavor, and “Nothing Left to Give,” penned
by Geraci and prodded by Campbell’s bass. By this time Bott has
abandoned drum dramatics for his impeccable rock-steady foundation.
“She’ll Never Know,” written by Bott about a poignant
family situation, is distinguished by lyrical guitar licks by Ramos and
one of Templeton’s most passionate vocals. Ramos then takes center
stage singing his own composition, “I Ain’t Good for Nothin’
“ [when she has left him], with Templeton chiming in competently
on harmonica. Ramos’s crunching chords drive “Fallen,”
and the set closes with its only cover, the rocker “Favorite Dress,”
introduced by drums and bass, guitar joining, then piano…and we
are launched!
Along the way on this standout set, LaRhonda Steele and Norma Honjosa
contribute backing vocal harmonies while Mike Zito plays acoustic guitar
on five tracks, although mostly inaudibly, but every other instrument
is heard clearly…fortunately for the listener, because these guys
are premier musicians, and this album is destined to win awards.—Steve
Daniels
John
Blues Boyd
What my eyes have seen…
Gulf Coast Records
John Blues Boyd released his debut The Real Deal in 2016 at seventy-one
years young. Born and raised in Mississippi, picking cotton at the age
of seven, he was run out of town at the age of eighteen for participating
in the Martin Luther King Jr. Freedom March. Eventually settling in California,
he made a nice but hard life for himself and his beloved wife Dona Mae,
working as a roofer, while sitting in at local clubs, impressing audiences
with his stately and authentic blues voice. “What my eyes have seen…”
is a collection of original songs written by the combination of producer/guitarist
Kid Andersen, Gulf Coast founder Guy Hale and John Blues Boyd. The idea
was to create an album that tells the story of Boyd’s life, the
struggles and oppression of the Afro-American people back through the
dark days of Jim Crow. The songs depict events that shaped Boyd’s
life. “Run Out of Town” describes his escape from his home
in the Deep South in 1963. “A Beautiful Woman” is a tribute
to his beloved departed wife Dona Mae. “Why Did You Take That Shot?”
is about MLK’s assassination, his move to the West Coast in “California,”
“The Singing Roofer.” A brilliant device on this record is
the short, cathartic interludes interspersed between the ten compositions.
“My Memory Takes Me There: Pts 1-9” are all free flowing,
stream of conscience-style vignettes underscored by Kid Andersen’s
soothing organ and tasty guitar licks. Musically the songs never stray
far from the blues, from the shuffle of the opener “In My Blood,”
the swampy minor key “What My Eyes Have Seen,” the John Lee
Hooker-style riff of “I Heard the Blues Somewhere.” The core
group of Andersen on guitars and organ, bassist Quantae Johnson, drummer
June Core and keyboardist Jim Pugh (founder of the Little Village Foundation)
is augmented by Andersen’s Greaseland Studios circle of session
musicians and comrades including horn players like Jack Sanford, Nancy
Wright, Ric Feliziano, and others who contribute throughout the album.
The anchor of the album is, of course, the ferocity, tenderness and shear
honesty of Mr. John Blues Boyd’s majestic voice. “What my
eyes have seen…” is a unique and vital statement, a historically
driven listen and will most likely stand the test of time. – Bob
Monteleone
Johnny
Burgin
No Border Blues
Delmark 2020
Born in the South, musically educated in Chicago, guitarist Johnny Burgin
has established respected credentials over the last twenty years in gigs
with such blues legends as Sam Lay, Pinetop Perkins, Lurrie Bell, Jimmy
Dawkins, and John Littlejohn. He has released multiple albums over the
last decade, culminating in 2017’s “Howlin’ at Greaseland,”
which garnered a Blues Music Award nomination for Traditional Album of
the Year.
His extensive touring has included multiple trips to Japan, where he established
musical relationships with Japanese blues musicians who have remained
there and some who have immigrated to the U.S. “No Border Blues”
is a collection of tracks recorded with many of those Japanese blues lovers
and purveyors. In the liner notes Burgin expresses his admiration for
the dedication of these musicians, who dwell in a musical underground
devoid of awards, widespread recognition, or means to a livelihood.
Burgin takes the guitar lead skillfully throughout, on all eleven numbers
of the set, three of which are his own compositions. (One of those is
a re-working of the Robert Johnson classic “Sweet Home Chicago”
morphed into “Sweet Home Osaka”.) The general approach is
mid-tempo, with shuffles predominating. Some of the more rocking numbers
are the best; check out “Pumpkin’s Boogie,” with vocal
and jumping piano by Lee Kanehira (who wrote the tune), and harmonica
by Kotez, Burgin laying out some nifty guitar fills. There are covers
of tunes by well known bluesmen Carey Bell, Tampa Red (Hudson Whitaker),
John Brim, and Little Walter Jacobs. Little Walter’s tune, “I
Just Keep Loving Her,” has the same cast as “Pumpkin’s
Boogie” and is equally spirited. It’s followed by “Rattlesnake,”
the Brim cover, which is actually Big Mama Thornton and Elvis Presley’s
“Hound Dog” with different lyrics.
Several numbers sport two guitarists; others feature harmonica players
in duet. Unfortunately, the liner notes don’t identify individual
lead contributions. Overall, the musicians are competent, although not
stellar. The harmonica players tend to flaunt technical prowess and to
overplay; the guitarists are capable but undistinguished; the pianists
are generally very good; the bassists and drummers are mechanistic and
desultory, without the occasional flourish that would juice a number into
overdrive.
An original indigenous American music, derived from Africa, blues is now
deservedly popular in much of the world. Kudos to Johnny Burgin and these
musicians for keeping it vibrant in Japan.—Steve Daniels
Albert
Castiglia
Wild and Free
Gulf Coast Records
Albert Castiglia wastes no time stating his agenda on the live album Wild
and Free. He comes storming out of the gate with ferocity seconds into
the opener, “Let the Big Dog Eat,” and doesn’t let up
until the classic blues turnaround heard at the conclusion of the closer,
“Boogie Funk.” Unapologetic, hard rocking blues is on the
menu here. Wild and Free was recorded in January of this year over two
nights at the Boca Raton venue the Funky Biscuit. Born in NYC, he was
raised in Miami and was discovered by Junior Wells in 1996, touring in
Wells’ band until Junior’s death in 1998. The Florida-based
guitar slinger has been releasing albums since 2004, this one is the 12th
in his discography. 2019’s Masterpiece very recently won Best Blues
Rock Album of the Year at the Blues Music Awards. Of the eleven tracks
on this album, four were written by Castiglia. The covers are an interesting
mix: Mike Zito’s “Hoodoo On Me” (Mike produced this
album and guests on the Johnny Winter tune “Too Much Seconal”);
longtime Neville Bros. guitarist Brian Stoltz’s “I Been Up
All Night”; Paul Butterfield’s “Lovin’ Cup”;
Freddie King’s “Boogie Funk.” A highlight is the Castiglia
original “Heavy,” a slower number that clocks in just under
ten minutes, giving the guitarist plenty of time to stretch out. Castiglia
takes out his slide and tears up Elmore James licks in “Get Your
Ass in the Van.” On the more rocking numbers the band’s style
reminds one of Pat Travers or Johnny Winter in his pre-Alligator Records
days. The rhythm section of bassist Justine Tompkins and drummer Ephraim
Lowell along with keyboardist Lewis Stephens hold everything down and
accompany Castiglia through his wild excursions like seasoned pros. Ace
organist John Ginty makes a cameo on two tracks, laying down a scorching
solo on “Too Much Seconal.” All in all Wild and Free is a
great party album and really gets to the nitty gritty of this virtuoso’s
talents.—Bob Monteleone
Jose
Ramirez
Here I Come
JoseRamirezBlues.com
Coming from Costa Rica, Jose Ramirez is one of the most important up and
coming blues artists in Latin America. The Jose Ramirez Band has recently
won second place in the International Blues Challenge in Memphis. At thirty
one, Ramirez has two European tours under his belt and during 2019’s
US tour his band played at most of the elite blues clubs across the Midwest
and the South. Here I Come was recorded in Austin and produced by longtime
Texas guitarist Anson Funderburgh, of Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets
fame. As Ramirez states on the CD’s inside, “Each song represents
a story or experience I have lived through.” The autobiographical
title track starts things up, name checking some of the greats of the
blues and features some great piano work from Jim Pugh, who shines throughout
the album. T-Bone Walker’s “I Miss You Baby” (written
by Freddie Simon) has a nice horn chart by the Texas Horns. Ramirez’s
understated soloing on this track is a highlight, as it is throughout
the album. His style is very laid back, his tone usually clean, playing
almost behind the beat. He doesn’t just throw notes out there without
a purpose like some of his peers. Like a precise jazz soloist, every note
counts. Funderburgh sits in on two numbers: burning a solo on “Gasoline
and Matches,” a nice contrast to Ramirez’s approach; and sets
the table with his patented Texas-style rhythm guitar on the Ramirez original
“Three Years.” (Nice nick of The Godfather theme at the conclusion,
guys!) The cover of Robert Johnson’s “Traveling Riverside
Blues” is interesting due to the fact that the song changes stripes
from what is usually played in a major key is now a minor blues. In “Stop
Teasing Me” the guitarist describes that flirty band-girl found
at (hopefully) every gig “dancing like that.” Of note is the
handsome full color eight page booklet included in the CD packaging. Jose
Ramirez is a talent to keep an eye on. His songwriting and smooth voice
complements his guitar skills, which is mature beyond his years. –
Bob Monteleone
Mike
Zito
Quarantine Blues
www.mikezito.com
No tour- no gigs? What the heck?—let’s compose and record
an album in 14 days and give it away for free to fans over the internet.
Renowned singer-songwriter, producer and guitar-slinger Mike Zito was
in Europe touring, in support of his latest album “Rock n’
Roll: A Tribute to Chuck Berry” on Ruf Records, when the pandemic
hit and he had to pack up his band, instruments and gear, and head back
to the States. Said Zito: “While flying home from Europe after all
of our tours being cancelled, I decided the band and myself would record
a free album for our fans. Individually we have been quarantined for 14
days and this idea of writing, producing and releasing an album in the
14-day period seemed like quite an effort and a distraction for us.”
Originally from St. Louis Missouri, Zito was a co-founder of The Royal
Southern Brotherhood that featured Devon Allman (they met when they were
both working at the Guitar Center in St. Louis), Cyril Neville, Yonrico
Scott and bass player Charlie Wooton.
Coming home from Europe Zito went straight to his backyard garage in Texas
and started sketch-drum-looping for reference and sharing audio files
with band members over the internet via drop-box - even making friends
and collaborating with Tracii Guns, founding guitar player of glam-rock
band L.A. Guns quarantined in Denmark over the internet.
This album isn’t blues – it’s a wall-of-blues rock and
not what you’d expect from the veteran blues-rocker, it leans more
towards Southern Rock and unbelievably sounds like a band who just came
off a stadium tour with a lot of bourbon whiskey and smoke bombs. The
aggression is palpable, there’s a hint of ferocity throughout which
drives the guitars and vocals – it’s hard not to believe the
players weren’t all onstage together shaking the floorboards while
recording this album. If you love ZZ Top this album will jump right to
front of your playlist. At times the songs sound like Crazy Horse only
with tighter musical phrasing, and a sober Ronnie Van Zant singing in
front. The title track, “Quarantine Blues,” mixed the vocals
as though through a megaphone backed by a vicious slide guitar lending
voice to the frustration felt by Zito being unable to get back on the
road. “Don’t Touch Me,” the track featuring Tracii Guns
– hints at the “golden” days of glam-rock-hair metal
stadium rock of the 80’s with convincingly blended electric rhythm
guitars cascading into the chorus, and what I take to be Guns’ soloing
like a guy who escaped from early Van Halen, or from Ozzy’s band.
The album opens with “Don’t Let The World Let You Down”
a mid-tempo rocker that should be covered by Neil Young, and closes out
with “What It Used To Be” an acoustic soliloquy that makes
you want to listen to the album again from the beginning. Zito’s
expert producer chops are clearly revealed on the high-energy up-tempo
“Dust Up” featuring some nice key-lifts in support of ace-in-the-hole
straight-ahead guitar work, cool drum breakdowns and vintage organ stabs,
and features some nice and crazy guitar work on the ‘too-soon-for-my-taste’
fadeout.
To listen and/or download your free copy of “Quarantine Blues”
head on over to www.mikezito.com
Be warned, the tireless Zito has already got plans for his next release
“B.B. King meets Lyle Lovett” he says—a big band blues
album for Ruf Records.—Conrad Warre
Rory
Block
Prove It on Me
Stony Plain 2020
Rory Block has always been first and foremost a preservationist, revering
and reprising the work of country blues artists (while also composing
an ample number of her own songs). In the aughts she embarked on a series
of deservedly praised tribute albums to seven legends: Robert Johnson,
Son House, Mississippi Fred McDowell, Rev. Gary Davis, Mississippi John
Hurt, Skip James, and Bukka White.
In 2018’s “A Woman’s Soul” Block switched her
attention to the female side of the blues by covering Bessie Smith tunes.
Another in her continual series of splendid albums, it garnered her a
sixth Blues Music Award as Acoustic Artist of the Year. Her latest release
again focuses on “Power Women of the Blues, Vol. 2,” this
time covering seven songs by relatively obscure women singers. Thrown
into the mix are interpretations of a song each by the well-known Ma Rainey
and Memphis Minnie, and one autobiographical original.
As she has done frequently in the last few years, Block purveys her music
as a one-person studio band. That is, she overdubs guitars – acoustic,
electric, slide – bass, and percussion, as well as harmony vocals.
Bass and percussion are fine, and her guitar playing remains masterful
throughout, plied with restraint and taste in service to each song. As
for her singing: count me an eternal enthusiast. She manages always to
express passion and double-entendre libido without mannered affect. Perhaps
her vocals sport a little less depth and more tremolo than ten or twenty
years ago, but if anything they are even more powerful and just as moving.
The songs that she has chosen in order to showcase these forgotten chanteuses,
like Arizona Dranes and Merline Johnson, range from pensive to zesty.
From the opening bars of the first track, a Helen Humes tune, “He
May Be Your Man (but he comes to see me sometimes)”, there is something
to bring a smile or a tear to every country blues lover. “Eagles,”
a Rory original and one of the longest tracks, limns her own musical journey
and rates on a par with the other gems of the set.
Listen to the second track, “It’s Red Hot,” a song by
Madlyn Davis. Davis recorded only ten tracks, in 1927 and 1928; this song
was recorded in 1928 with backing by the great Tampa Red on guitar and
Georgia Tom Dorsey on piano. Block’s version is terrific…and
the song’s title summarizes my opinion of this album.—Steve
Daniels
James
Harman
Liquor Parking
Bigtone Record 0s 2019
You know what you will get when you listen to a James Harman album: songs
with droll humor; unpretentious and skilled harmonica playing; an ensemble
of excellent musicians having a great time together; and outstanding singing.
That’s what bluesman Harman has been delivering for almost six decades.
He grew up playing both piano and harmonica, the latter also an instrument
of his father. Originally from Alabama, with stints in Florida, New York,
and Chicago, since 1970 he has been based in Southern California. His
early 1970s Icehouse Blues Band backed many legends, and in 1977 he formed
his own band. Great musicians attract great musicians, which is why the
list of superb artists who have been in the Harman Band is jaw-dropping.
One of the best nights of my life was seeing the James Harman Band for
the first time in the mid-1980s, with dual guitarists Hollywood Fats and
Kid Ramos. Spectacular!
Years on, Harman continues to produce his unique amalgam of blues, a mixture
of Chicago style with a gospel tinge. On this outing he teams up with
co-producer Jon Atkinson, whose Bigtone label features “old school
analog” technology. Atkinson wields the deft guitar, providing consistently
spiffy licks. Bob Welsh rides the keyboard bench with tinkly prowess,
Malachi Johnson deals out steady percussion with flair, and Kedar Roy
and Greg Roberts alternate on bass, with usual Harman bassist Troy Sandow
appearing once.
The set kicks off smartly with “Done Deal,” a tune a la Little
Walter, with Atkinson sliding over the strings, saxophonist Eric Spaulding
making his only appearance of the album a notable one, and pianist Carl
Sonny Leyland also taking his only shot…thankfully for us; I share
Harman’s liner note that Leyland is one of the best blues pianists
ever. The ample hour-plus of music, fifteen tracks, proceeds by delving
into multiple mid-tempo shuffles, a brief but zesty uptempo “Boogie
Lovin’,” and a couple of really nice slow blues: “Lady
Luck” and the seven minute “Behind the Curtain.” There’s
even what Harman terms a “trance blues,” “(Ain’t
Gonna) Raise My Hand,” which indeed has a mesmerizing groove.
Harman doesn’t do cover versions of others’ tunes and has
deservedly won many songwriting awards. He claims in the liner notes that
these songs are all “head arrangements…me making up stories.”
Anyone who has seen him perform knows that’s credible; he typically
makes up lyrics on the fly from his fertile and quirky imagination. For
two prime examples, check out “Eatin’ Manatee” –
it’s not as politically incorrect as you might think – and
“Woman Took My Woman.” His harp playing is stellar without
ever being flashy. For me, his singing warrants the most praise; it’s
smooth, sly, and soulful, with just the right amount of drawl. When he
intones “Ooh, baby,” you feel that the spirit of the blues
has truly moved him. It moves me, too, and I think that it will move you.—Steve
Daniels
Crystal
Shawanda
Church House Blues
New Sun Records/True North 2020
This fourth blues release by indigenous Canadian singer Crystal Shawanda
cements her credentials as one of the most powerful and passionate female
blues singers.
Abandoning a promising career as a country vocalist, earlier this decade
Shawanda committed to blues, her true musical love. In the country genre
she had allegedly felt “like a fish out of water,” which became
the title of her 2018 album. It was preceded by 2017’s “VooDoo
Woman,” which I had the pleasure of reviewing in this magazine in
2018.
Instead of covering well known songs, as was typical of “VooDoo,”
this relatively brief set of ten tracks includes four penned by Shawanda,
and none of the rest by readily recognized figures. She is backed by the
same ensemble of musicians, unfortunately not identified on individual
tracks in the liner notes…but consistently present is her spouse
and the album’s producer, Dewayne Strobel. Give this guy props for
two notable accomplishments: the production quality of the CD is outstanding,
with separate instruments heard clearly and in an ideal mix; and his guitar
contributions are excellent throughout, whether providing rhythmic backing
or sparkling solo leads. Several tracks are augmented by classy harmonica,
saxophone, and keyboards, as well as backing vocals by Shawanda in overdub,
and several woman compatriots.
The forte, of course, is Shawanda’s singing. This woman has pipes!
Comparisons have been made, including by me, to Koko Taylor, Janis Joplin,
and contemporary blueswomen Cee Cee James and Hurricane Ruth, but Crystal
has a style of her own, able to purvey songs with both a gritty rasp and
a sultry croon. She is also comfortable with both ballads and rockers.
A good taste of what the album furnishes is exemplified by the first two
cuts. The set begins with the title tune, upbeat and danceable, and segues
to “Evil Memory,” a slow blues with beautiful piano riffs
and haunting, moody organ. Later on is another slow soul blues, “I
Can’t Take It,” that would have fit right into Joplin’s
vocal wheelhouse. Also deserving repeated listening is “Blame It
on the Sugar,” one of Shawanda’s compositions, a lusty uptempo
number with throbbing bass and ascending/descending organ curling around
each other, preceding a scintillating Strobel guitar solo. The satisfying
set ends with yet another high point, “New Orleans Is Sinking,”
Strobel plying slide renderings and Stephen Hanner wailing on harmonica.
I was enthusiastic about “VooDoo Woman” two years ago, and
Crystal Shawanda’s new album does nothing to diminish my admiration.—Steve
Daniels
Steve
Howell, Dan Sumner & Jason Weinheimer
Long Ago
Out Of The Past Music CD
East Texas-North Louisiana-based arch and flat-top, acoustic fingerstyle
guitarist and creamy baritone vocalist Steve Howell, accompanied here
by jazz guitar journeyman Dan Sumner and resilient bassist Jason Weinheimer,
extends an uncommonly productive run that has lasted nine albums to date
and is absolutely the definition of Easy Listening, albeit in an utterly
engaging way-back vein. As he puts it: “I am a lover of American
music from the first half of the 20th century. I like it rural, urban,
country blues, traditional jazz, Appalachian music, R&B and rock ‘n’
roll—I like it all!” And it shows—just to pick a few
plums I’d start with an incisive yet spacious rendition of Ella
Fitzgerald’s coasting “Angel Eyes,” an ultra-melodic
instrumental recall of “I’ll Remember April” with its
Spanish guitar feel (originally featured in a 1942 Abbott and Costello
comedy called “Ride ‘Em Cowboy”) and pays tribute
to blues poet Percy Mayfield with a pin-drop rendition of his signature
plea “Please Send Me Someone To Love.” Other notables tap
the rhythmic likes of Duke Ellington (“Do Nothing ‘Til You
Hear From Me”), Antonio Carlos Jobim (“Dondi”) and Dave
Frishberg with his witty “Z’s.” Timeless music.—Gary
von Tersch
The
Blues Express
Live at Antone’s
Blues Express Records
The Blues Express is a harmonica and roots rockin’ guitar-driven
band that plays an authentic electric blues style not unlike serious blues
acts coming out of the American Midwest and East Coast blues circuit.
However… they are from Norway! Their latest release Live at Antone’s
was recorded last year at the legendary Antone’s in Austin, Texas.
This is not the first time these gentlemen have recorded live at a historic
American venue. 2015’s Live at the Shack Up Inn was recorded at
that famous former plantation outside Clarksdale, Mississippi. 2019’s
Southside was a more normal studio affair recorded at home in Norway with
guests like BCBM contributor Dave Fields on guitar and the Red Hot Horns.
Live at Antone’s ten songs feature three originals written by guitarist/singer
Kai Fjelberg as well as “Henri’s Boogie” by pianist
Henri Herbert, who joins the four-piece for a number of tracks. You would
never know that these guys come from the Arctic Circle as the vocals by
Fjelberg and harmonica/singer Ronald Ottesen belie no accent.
The set opens with a couple of Fjelberg originals, “Roller Coaster
Ride,” a minor chord 12-bar progression and “King of My Castle”,
both showcasing Ottesen’s formidable harmonica chops. The boogie
woogie piano showcase “Henri’s Boogie” follows, an energetic
tour de force. There’s two Little Walter covers on the album, “Nobody
But You” and “Mellow Down Easy,” and the Blues Express
show reference to the master’s brand of Chicago blues, down to the
distorted vocals sung through perhaps a Green Bullet harmonica mic. The
band shows some nice dynamics on “Mellow Down Easy,” breaking
it down real “mellow” and crescendo’s it back to a strong
finish. A highlight is the album closer, Fjelberg’s “Supergirl”,
a SRV-style house rocker. Herbert throws down some nice honky tonk piano
on this one. Kai Fjelberg’s “phat” guitar tone is the
glue that holds the Blues Express together, along with the backbone rhythm
section of drummer Kare Armundsen and bassist Trund Hansen. The blues
may be an American art form, but Live at Antone’s proves you don’t
have to be from the U.S. shores to “do the blues right”! –
Bob Monteleone
Lisa
Mills
The Triangle
Melody Place Music CD
One of those few concept projects that work. Barn-burning soul/blues vocalist
Lisa Mills’ The Triangle rousingly extracts constantly mesmerizing
music from the vaunted triangle of Memphis, Muscle Shoals and Jackson,
Mississippi with both legendary and local musicians joining in on the
fun on fourteen numbers—soul/blues classics as well as little-known
nuggets. Two of my immediate favorites bookend affairs—“Greenwood,
Mississippi,” originally recorded by Little Richard in the
early ‘70s in Muscle Shoals, is here given a dynamic, Bobbie Gentry-like
treatment by Mills while it’s just Lisa and her guitar on a belonely,
intimate recall of the doo-wopping Prisonaires 1953 classic, “Just
Walking In The Rain,” on a bonus track from Sun Studios in Memphis.
Other eye-openers from Alabama’s Fame Studio include totally immersive
versions of “Tell Mama” and Little Milton’s “I’d
Rather Go Blind” while Royal Studios in Memphis, Tennessee features
dynamite renditions of both “That’s How Strong My Love Is”
and the Porter/Hayes classic “Same Time, Same Place.” Finally,
a stopover at Malaco Studios in Jackson, Mississippi yields the likes
of pungent covers of “Members Only” and “Someone Else
Is Stepping In.” More please.—Gary von Tersch
John
Lee Hooker
Documenting The Sensation Recordings 1948-1952
Ace Records
The son of a Clarksdale, Mississippi sharecropper, one-man band, John
Lee Hooker, rose to stardom playing his transfusionally throbbing electric
guitar and tapping feet-based reworking of the stark Delta blues he grew
up with as a youth, eventually also encompassing other elements such as
his often overlooked “talking blues” titles and nascent Mississippi
Hill country blues forays, into his one-of-a-kind approach. This three
CD project is Hooker at his earliest, in a series of recording sessions
for Detroit entrepreneur (a la Sam Phillips in Memphis) Bernie Besman
for his Sensation label. The abundance of alternate and extended takes
included reveal that, although nearly illiterate, Hooker, right at the
outset of his lengthy career, was already a master at interpreting traditional
material to suit his raw, percussive style as well as, more and more as
his career widened, composing his own, often personal and free verse songs.
As liners author Peter Guralnick comments: “Hooker was an anachronism
from the time he first arrived on the scene, calling up the deepest wellsprings
of the blues tradition and, like his counterpart Howlin’ Wolf, never
abandoning them.” Picks are everywhere—from his classic “Boogie
Chillen’,” “Henry’s Swing Club” and “War
Is Over (Goodbye California)“ from 1948; a wonderful extended take
of his club name-dropping “Hastings Street Boogie,” “Miss
Sadie Mae,” “Momma Poppa Boogie” and “Burnin’
Hell” from 1949 and four alternate takes of “Boogie Chillen’,”
“John L’s House Rent Boogie,” “Huckle Up Baby”
and “Grinder Man” from 1950. 1951 continues the treats with
four takes of his downbeat “I’m In The Mood,” “Grinder
Man,” “Tease Your Daddy” and “Walkin’ The
Highway” while 1952 includes material recorded with his Detroit
buddy, Little Eddie “The Gypsy of The Blues” Kirkland, on
second guitar— including “I Got Eyes For You,” “It
Hurts Me So,” and the rocking “That’s All Right Boogie.”
All in all, Ace’s exhaustive research has turned up 19 takes not
previously available on this landmark project that reveals that Hooker
had it all from the beginning—he didn’t need any bass or drums
or rhythm guitarist or piano player or horns backing him up. Hooker fans
will definitely want to add this one to their collection.—Gary von
Tersch
Books
The
Blues Come To Texas:
Paul Oliver and Mack McCormick’s Unfinished Book
Alan Govenar and Kip Lornell
Texas A&M University Press
Wikipedia boldly defines Texas blues as “a regional style with its
original form characterized by jazz and swing music (?) with later examples
often closer to blues rock and Southern rock.” So much for Wikipedia.
Over the space of 15 years, the team of Oxford Englishman Paul Oliver
and Texan Mack McCormick collaborated on what they envisioned as an exhaustively
definitive history and scholarly analysis of the blues in Texas while
employing primary sources that included field recordings and, at times,
remarkably incisive interviews with blues musicians from all over the
Lone Star State and the surrounding greater South. But the intended manuscript
was never completed. When McCormick lost interest in the project and Oliver
became ill, folklorist Alan Govenar and ethnomusicologist Kip Lornell
picked up the traces, contextualizing and DOCUMENTING the pairs’
extant MASSIVE manuscript for publication. Divided into a pair of volumes,
the first picks up the story in the first few decades of the 20th century
covering the regional variety of songs that were heard in Texas in the
seminal period when the blues emerged, largely in the songster tradition,
as illustrated by various song folios and, perhaps most interestingly,
in chapters titled Old Country Stomp, Silver City Bound, San Antonio Shout,
California Bound, The Houston Kick and a fascinating, closing Juneteenth
commentary. The second volume opens with the saga of one-of-a-kind, George
“Bongo Joe” Coleman, who magnificently played his three tuned,
self-fabricated 55-gallon oil drums on Texas beach boardwalks while hypnotically
accompanying his shouting style of chanting, neither singing nor speech,
to get his, often topical, lyrics across. Further fact-packed chapters
explore African Echoes, Chock House Days, the Boll Weevil Blues, Texas
Easy Street, String Bands, the Denomination Blues and Shadowland Blues.
As Govenar and Lornell put it in an opening essay: “Blues grew out
of the hope of Reconstruction as well as the complex musical diaspora
that formed in the United States when slavery brought black Africans to
this country (often by way of the Caribbean) for many decades beginning
in the seventeenth century. By the end of the Civil War, the slave trade
also legally ended, but the collision of these diverse cultures incubated
the unique African American musics that spawned not only the blues but,
more recently, soul, funk and hip-hop.“ Here’s the whole story.—Gary
von Tersch
Harlem
Of The West:
The San Francisco Fillmore Jazz Era
By Elizabeth Pepin Silva and Lewis Watts
Heyday Books
This tightly edited, slice-of-life project, with its 220 archival images
and prescient oral accounts from both residents and musicians captures
a magical era in San Francisco, before the Redevelopment Agency demolished
the area in the 1960s, as it transports readers through a nearly forgotten
interracial, twenty block neighborhood that, in addition to over a dozen
jumping clubs also boasted a bevy of restaurants, pool halls, hotels,
record shops, theaters and stores, many of them owned and run by African
Americans, Japanese Americans and Filipino Americans. As the authors comment:
“For close to twenty years, the 1940s and 1950s, the entire neighborhood
was a giant multicultural party pulsing with excitement and music.”
They continue with some specifics: “Billie Holiday singing at the
Champagne Supper Club, Chet Baker and Dexter Gordon jamming at Bop City
and T-Bone Walker rubbing shoulders with the locals at the bar of The
Texas Playhouse.” Also putting in appearances, I might also mention
the likes of Johnny Otis, Saunders King (who was known as Fillmore’s
King Of The Blues), Sugar Pie Desanto, Johnny Mathis, Sam Cooke, Lena
Horne, Slim Gaillard, Little Willie John, the Ink Spots, Robert Mitchum,
Louis Jordan, bar-wall muralist Harry Smith and John Handy to only cite
a few. The “memory” paragraphs by Sugar Pie, Otis, Handy,
Frank Jackson, Danny Duncan, Earl Watkins and Philip Alley, the various
club owners and the area’s photographers and archivists are particularly
illuminating, especially for this reviewer, who grew up in the City. Plus,
I’ve never seen most of these vintage images before and appreciate
how large they are. And speaking of images, don’t miss the shot
of T-Bone Walker and his high-flying friend on page 94. Highly recommended.—Gary
von Tersch
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