We aim to keep you up to date in the best of largely unknown music masters on a weekly basis, so check in and add us to your favourites now! Don't miss an issue! And your comments are always welcome, so long as they're relevant to the material and the music. ENJOY.
BRIDGET KELLY BAND
Forever In Blues
Alpha Sun Records
*****
Forever In Blues is the second album by the Bridget Kelly Band. Florida-based, the band has a full, rich sound with some great guitar playing by Tim Fik clearly to be heard in the mix while Kelly's voice is strong, powerful and full of soul. Mostly electric in nature, the slide-work here is excellent at times.
You sure get your money's worth with this one. Fifteen tracks, all strong with no dead-weight to be found here. This is simply a very good album that grabs the attention from the opening bars and rips along boldly with panache and clarity. You'll be sad when it reaches the end but fortunately it can always be replayed - time and time again.
The Bridget Kelly Band is a finely balanced ensemble that has a firm grasp of the music and a maturity that only comes from years of experience playing the clubs , juke-joints and bars of the US South. There's a great confidence in the self-written material and in its soulful delivery. At times, I was reminded of early - perhaps the best - work of Johnny Winter.
Overall, it would hard to fault anything about this release. It fair romps along from track to track with fine pacing and emotion. Highlighting the skill of the four musicians featured. An album for those who like their blues to rock their boat.
Website: www.bridgetkellyband.com
AARON BURTON
The Return Of Peetie Whitestraw
Autoprod
Arron Burton hails from Texas, a State with a long history of blues music mastery - Lightnin' Hopkins was certainly no slouch, after all.
This is Burton's fifth album to date, self-produced and promoted, it features fourteen self-penned tracks. Strong on southern drawl and laid-back acoustic guitar picking, this album is indeed so laid back that the guitar work at times comes close to being overlooked - a mistake, because the picking, though understated, is singularly soulful, sound and skillful, contributing effortlessly to a very finely honed sound that belies its own underlying complexity.
Burton is a guy who is self-taught, an autodidact with a background playing the bars and clubs of the Lone Star State and producing interesting material that touches all of the usual areas from love and heartache to death and misery. In other words a typical blues gamut of thought and emotion, underpinned by great guitar-work and a fine rambling, rumbling, drawling voice.
With fourteen tracks to choose from here, it's impossible not find something that should satisfy a blues lover's taste. This is a guy and a CD that is real surprise and a true discovery - an artist and material of genuine quality, well worth seeking out. Burton is due to record his next album over the next few months and I, for one, look forward to hearing his next offering.
Website: www.aaronburton.net
MATT WOOSEY BAND
On The Waggon
Autoprod
*****
This CD by English bluesman Matt Woosey marks a debut of real class and style. A wonderful mix of electric and acoustic material, driven throughout by Woosey's excellent vocals and sensitive guitar-work, it features a dozen self-written tracks that amply showcase Woosey's love for the music and his clear class. And while Woosey himself may well be a relative youngster, the performances here are mature and fully-formed.
The band already has a growing band of fans in the UK and has been tipped as an outfit to watch by many English observers and critics. I reckon, they're right. On the basis of this release, it should certainly be interesting to see how the band develops in future. With this twelve track CD they have shown they have strong writing capacities, fine musicianship and a real grip on the blues.
It's clear that this band has its roots firmly planted in the Delta/southern blues tradition, with northern, Chicago-like flourishes lifting it to the stars when needed. For me, this album is a clear five-star album, one that is never dull or repetitive. It's one of those great CDs that stands up well to repeated plays always seeming to have something new and refreshing in the mix each time. In short, this is a release that should satisfy most blues-lovers demands. The seemless mesh of electric, acoustic and slide-work here make this a truly great album deserving of a much wider audience.
Le site: www.mattwoosey.co.uk
BRIAN KRAMER
OUT OF THE BLUES &
FULL CIRCLE
Bullet Point
Publishing & BKB CD0007
Stockholm-based,
Brooklyn-born bluesman Brian Kramer seems a pretty talented guy. In an almost unprecedented move, Kramer
has boldly gone where few have gone before with the simultaneous release of his
first novel, ‘Out Of The Blues’ and a new CD, ‘Full Circle’. Launched at his
literal stamping ground in the Swedish capital, ‘Stampen’, a blues/jazz venue
where the man himself is often found leading jams and otherwise kicking up a fine
old blues-inspired shindig, the novel is published by Bullet Point Publishing
under his full name of Brian D Kramer.
And in Scandinavia, a
region now leading the world in crime fiction, ‘Out Of The Blues’ fits nicely
into the genre with the added twist of blues music and dodgy dealing at its
heart and an author who certainly knows the business back to front and inside
out. But to say it’s a crime novel, does Kramer a disservice: instead it’s an
intriguing insider view of the world of the pro musician and the daily trials
and troubles that can all too easily beset the unwary player. The album is
themed with the book, and lyrics from it crop up repeatedly as prompts in the
book’s pages and chapters. It’s an
interesting idea that Kramer carries off with apparent ease. Anyone who has picked guitar as a
jobbing player or sideman will identify with the principal New York down at
heel character, his life and his problems. The strong whiff of biographical detail pulses at the heart
of the book, including the wistfully titled track, ‘Going Back To Brooklyn’.
‘Full Circle’, the
accompanying CD release, is an excellent little album. Themed around Kramer’s
quarter century as a pro player and his New York roots, It sure resonates with
me with its laid-back rhythm and material that ranges from Ragtime-Blues
influences to Brian’s beloved and sensitively picked Steel Guitar work. His electric playing is also showcased
with a fine bunch of backing musicians including Chuck Anthony on guitar, Mats
Quartfordt on Harp, another Swedish based US player, Bert Deivert, Steel
Mandolin, and some very soulful backing vocals from Maria Blom, Isabella
Lundgren and Fanny Holm. At times the groove here is reminiscent of the late JJ
Cale, with its deceptively laid-back melodies and clever lyricism.
You might be excused
for thinking that Kramer, who for many years provided back-up guitar to Eric
Bibb, both on the road and in the studio, and has also worked with Junior Wells,
Larry Johnston and Taj Mahal, would be struggling with writers block having laboured
to fruition and produced this highly readable novel. Well you’d be wrong: he
also wrote all of the material that features on this solid CD
JOE McMURRIAN
‘Get Inside This House’
Autoproduction
This is a very strong acoustic album from a
guy who knows his blues stuff. From Portland, Oregon, a town steeped in blues
music and stuffed fit to burst with blues musicians of every stripe, ‘Get
Inside This House’ is a showcase for McMurrian’s sterling guitar picking.
Always driving and skillful, it propels this thirteen track album along at a
fair pace.
McMurrian is a firm favourite on the
Portland Blues scene, playing gigs throughout the US North West, while also
performing and holding master-classes at The Portland Waterfront Blues Festival,
one of the biggest and most popular, annual Blues Festival events in the US.
This album is immediately gripping from the
first track with its stylish slide guitar to the tingling minor chording of
Skip James’s classic ‘I’m So Glad’, and the old standard, ‘I’ll Fly Away’, here
given an urgent Blues voice.
This album has a relaxed and measured feel
to it. Production is just right with McMurrian’s guitar (and sometime banjo) always
firmly in the driving seat, moving the music forward and making for a great
listening experience for lovers of traditional Deep South country-blues. His
roots are clearly on display here and with much of the material written by the
guy himself, it carries a strong and vivid aroma of Delta rhythms, style and
atmosphere.
An excellent album for all acoustic blues
fans.
Website: www.joemcmurrian.com
SOFIE REED
Simplicity Chased Trouble Away
Autoproduction
This is Sofie Reed’s second album,
featuring her fine, strong Harp playing alongside some solid Steel slide
work. Perhaps the most surprising
element of this artist’s music is that she also majors in Dulcimer, an
instrument not normally heard in blues saloons and bars but which here is
successfully pitched with an unexpectedly strong and successful blues groove. Certainly a first for me and,
refreshingly different, it works remarkably and surprisingly well.
The twelve tracks that make up this album
are mostly self-written. The album romps along at a fair lick with some sensible
and interesting changes of tempo from the excellent and upbeat opening track,
‘Glitter Girl’ through the near-Afro-vibe of ‘Human Every Day’ to the soulful vocals
and pounding underlying guitar and Harp –work evident on ‘Nobody Knows The
Trouble I’ve Seen’.
Reed’s previous release, ‘Baby Boo Got
Gone’ was equally strong on song-writing and instrumental skill and style. She has a whomping sound, varied by
virtue of the at times unusual instruments she prefers, rhythmic foot-stomping and
the southern influences under-pinning the material. Her blues-base is more than
clear here to the ear.
So, while the instruments may at times be
eclectic, the writing and playing are solid throughout this fine album. Sweden
has a strong blues-fan base, with many good musicians plying their trade in
bars and clubs throughout the country. Reed clearly fits that Nordic mould
while incorporating crossover influences from US traditional music and
Americana. Now US based, she
certainly is one to watch.
Le site: www.sofiereed.com
ROB HERON & THE TEA PAD ORCHESTRA
Talk About The Weather
TP/Tea Pad Recordings
****
Heron and his band come from the North East
of England, an area known for its straight-talking, hard-drinking, sport-loving
residents. It's a part of the UK with a rich musical background and heritage
that spans many years of traditional folk music (Lindisfarne, for example) and
which, in the 1960s, saw one of the most enduring names in popular modern Blues
to emerge: Eric Burden and The
Animals.
Rob Heron is, like Burden in the sixties, a
young guy fronting a genuinely different sounding band, an outfit with charisma
and a spark of genius. A six-piece
band, fronted by lyricist and singer Heron, the Tea Pad Orchestra play a
louche, melodic style of blues based in the heady days of the 1930s with its
swing and ragtime influences clearly on display. If you know the US band Pokey LaFarge and the South City
Three, you'll have a fair idea of what to expect here. The similarities are
striking to me although Heron's voice fails to match the strident power of his
American counterpart, LaFarge. That said, it remains nevertheless more than
adequate for the material making up this CD, the band's second release to date.
Three tracks stand out, for me at least:
the opening 'Drinking Coffee Rag' is a splendid bit of writing and playing, followed
by 'Soliel' and 'Small Town Blues'. All three tracks use the full sound
opportunities of a variety of instruments that range from guitars and drums to
fiddles, trumpets, trombones and accordions. Although the material is a bit of
a pastiche of elderly musical styles and thirties grounding, the album is a
fabulously enjoyable concoction of masterly ragtime performance, feel and
energy. Definitely a band to catch live if possible.
GARY GRAINGER
First Takes &
Mistakes
Autoprod
This is British
player, Gary Grainger’s debut album.
Thirteen tracks that range from old blues standards such as ‘Nobody’s
Fault But Mine’ and Bo Carter’s ‘All Around Man’ to the Americana takes of the
old Doc Watson favourite ‘Goin’ Down The Road’ and ‘Goin’Up The Country’. There
is even a closing accapella track, featuring the old Janis Joplin wishful
special, ‘Mercedes Benz’.
Grainger is the sole
performer here, with good vocals and guitar picking and occasional Harp
flourishes. The album is what it says on the tin: no overdubs or fancy
production techniques, just simple first takes of all tracks. In reality, it’s
hard to pick out the so-called mistakes and the whole thing has the feel of a
neatly captured live performance to it.
There is some good,
crafted slide guitar work and an overall balance to the release that belies a
debut appearance. Grainger is
based in the North East of England where he is an award winning presenter of
local blues radio and gigs extensively. He is attracting increasing critical
acclaim and this CD should help secure a wider support for the man and his
music on the national and international stage.
First Takes &
Mistakes is a fine album of cool acoustic blues and traditional music. The whole package is accomplished,
relaxed and authentic; a very fine debut indeed. I look forward to hearing the
next one.
Le site: http://bluesshow.wordpress.com/gary-graingers-gigs/
BOTTLENECK JOHN
ALL AROUND MAN
Opus 3
CD23001
Bottleneck John, aka Johan Eliasson, is a
steel guitar, bottleneck master. This offering is little short of a masterclass
in saucy slidework, well-balanced arrangements of country-blues classics, and sharply
honed self-penned material.
Big in every way, Johan is that rare blues thing:
the real deal. A combination of vibrant, raw picking and a huge, throaty,
gutsy, bluesy voice that carries him from his native Sweden to the deep Delta
and all points in between.
All Around Man kicks off with an old oft
overworked standard, Lonesome Valley, here played with feeling and sensitivity, setting the tone for a
splendid take on the Robert Johnson slide essential, Come On In My Kitchen.
Tony Joe White’s classic Out Of The Rain and Tom Waits’ gospel-sounding Jesus
Gonna Be Here fit well into the mix and Bo Carter’s eponymous title song adds
levity to an otherwise solid disc of traditional and classic blues.
Best track maybe: Do You Call That A Buddy
– a great bit of soulful playing with perfectly understated vocal
accompaniment. An excellent all
round album. Recommended for anyone who loves resonator/steel and acoustic
blues with a touch of class and style.
Website: www.bottleneckjohn.com
DOUG MacLEOD
There’s A Time
FreshRR: RR130
Slide/resonator master Doug MacLeod’s
latest album is a genuine bit of brilliance, with changing tempo, skillful
picking and thoughtful, laid-back lyrics. Indeed, so good, that it has just swept the board at the Blues
Foundation’s awards 2014 in Memphis in May.
MacLeod’s work is always strong and sound;
music that is always eagerly anticipated by acoustic blues fans everywhere.
With this latest CD, he has cemented his position as the foremost resonator
player on the global stage today.
Supported by leading bass player, Denny
Croy, and possibly the foremost blues drummer in the USA, Jim Bott, this
release captures the very best of MacLeod’s playing. Released on the recently
established Fresh recording label, a wonderful offshoot of US label Reference
Recordings, and produced jointly by MacLeod and Reference’s Jan Mancuso,
‘There’s A Time’ should satisfy every blues-lovers thirst for quality
performance and playing. This is one of those great albums that you will return
to time and time again, always with pleasure and satisfaction.
Definitely – and most of Memphis agrees – a
five-star winner.
Website: www.dougmacleod.com
JOHN HIATT
Terms Of My Surrender
New West Records
*****
John Hiatt needs no introduction. One of
the best singer-songwriters in the world of Americana music, he has been at the
top of the country-music tree for many years, always a favourite in Nashville
and a US festival evergreen guaranteed to attract hordes of fans and solid
album sales.
Interestingly this release is reflective
and intriguing in equal measure. Over
the years, Hiatt's material has been recorded by artists as diverse as Bob
Dylan, Bonnie Raitt (Thing Called Love), Iggy Pop and the Jeff Healy Band,
among many others.
With Terms Of My Surrender, Hiatt returns
to both his roots and basics with a stripped-bare mostly acoustic album locked
in gravel-throated vocals and blues influenced material which mirrors his own
genuine love for the blues as a musical form: this is the man who wrote 'Riding
With The King' , a track that spawned the Grammy award-winning album of the
same name by BB King and Eric Clapton.
The album is a triumph, with Hiatt's clever
lyricism covering a host of old familiar subjects: redemption, ageing,
relationships and heartache and pain.
Pretty standard blues fare really.
Eleven tracks make up the CD' every one is
a little masterpiece in its own right. A consummate example of showmanship and
elegance in form, and a bravura performance of blues-bending genius from a true
American master storyteller and gorgeously groovy guitarist. European release date, July 14, 2014.
Website: wwwjohnhiatt.com
MIKE GREENE &
YOUSSEF REMADNA
TAKE IT ON
Independent release
The first thing to say
about this 13-track album is that it’s good. A great blend of traditional and modern blues, it has the
feel and sound of the best of
1960s R&B at its heart.
The two musicians here are likely to slip below the wire because they’re
based in the South of France and are therefore largely unknown outside the
country.
Kicking off with the
old Willy Dixon standard ‘I’m Ready’, the duo include fresh takes on ‘Come Back
Baby’, JB Lenior’s ‘Mojo Boogie’ and Blind Willie Johnson’s great ‘Nobody’s
Fault But Mine’. There’s even a lesser-known Dylan song, ‘From A Buick 6’
included in the stew.
Greene is a US-born
bluesman who moved to France many years ago. His guitar work is deft, soulful
and deceptively simple and understated. At all times, it’s bang on the money,
though. The guys share vocals, while Remadna’s guitar playing is eclipsed by
his cracking Harp work.
Take It On, is well
worth taking on. If you like your blues raw but refined, with more than a hint
of class, this CD should fit the bill. At times, it reminded me of early UK
R&B: The Stones and Keef; Alexis Korner; Cyril Davies; The Animals. There
are shades of all of these in this package.
Website: Mike Greene Facebook.com
+(1).jpg)
MALCOLM HOLCOMBE
Pitiful Blues
Autoprod
This is Holcombe's
tenth release so far. Like those before, it features his rasping vocal delivery
coupled with good, strong acoustic guitar picking. For me, it's probably his best offering to date.
Based in North
Carolina's Piedmont region of the USA, Holcombe's guitar-work reflects the
quality and driving style of his home-area in the Appalachians with a skilful
mix of 1930s style picking and cross-over Americana and Bluegrass
influences. A sort of 'backwoods
blues' in sound and feel, the kind of thing you might expect to find being
played on a sleepy southern porch on a hot, steamy day.
As always with this
guy, the lyrics are strong and emotive. The entire ten-track album is chock-full
of powerful and raw emotion, stripped-down sounds that jump from the disc to
grab you by the throat. Holcombe is not a man to be ignored. Both the voice and
playing demand and warrant attention.
From the opening title
track to the close of the album, Holcombe's stirring lyrics and at times
dirge-like vocals carry this album out of the shadows into the light and easily
earns it a place on any acoustic blues-lover's collection. This is a guy who is
always interesting, daring to be different and staying well clear of the mainstream
blues world.
Pitiful Blues would be
worth having for the wonderful thumping guitar bass runs and jangling treble
solos with the drawling vocal delivery evident on the eponymous title track
alone. Due for European release, August 4, 2014.
BERT DEIVERT
Kid Man Blues
HDCD02
Autoprod
*****
Bert Deivert is a US bluesman living in Scandinavia, where much of this very fine twelve-track album was recorded and produced. Despite living in Sweden for around forty years, Deivert remains a true US acoustic blues picker at heart. And it shows and shines clearly on this great CD.
Material ranges from some own-compositions to a raft od excellently interpreted old standards from the likes of RL Burnside and Son House to Sleepy John Estes and Skip James. For me, one of the finest and most striking tracks is Deivert's take on that old wonderful blues standard 'Come Back Baby', here done in a new, refreshing and genuinely interesting way. The title track is also a minor masterpiece, featuring Deivert's Yank Rachell-inspired resonator mandolin work to full effect.
Throughout this CD, resonators feature strongly with Deivert playing both Guitar and Mandolin with ease and class. But this is not an album dominated by slide - it's beautifully produced with subtle emotive playing. Even the vocals are fine, with Deivert throaty and full of gutsy groove, clearly enjoying the whole performance.
Stockholm based, Us-born bluesman Brian Kramer - another big resonator fan - also plays in support here and the backing, support vocals are pitched just right. Deivert's take on Skip James's Cypress Grove is faultless, contributing to make this album a full five-star beauty.
Website: www.deivert.com/blues
Toby Walker
What You See Is What You Get
LTW103
‘What You See Is What You Get’ is the
latest album from US East Coast bluesman, Toby Walker. Sixteen tracks, recorded without
overdubs or second-takes, it is little short of a tour de force of solo blues picking
and skillful, sweet guitar work. Featuring only Walker on a range of different
guitars, the material ranges from old blues standards like ‘Baby, Please Don’t
Go’, ‘Statesboro Blues’ and ‘Good Morning Little Schoolgirl’ to new,
self-penned pieces, including the jaw-dropping virtuoso brilliance of ‘Swing
Bean’ and a great Blind Blake inspired instrumental, ‘Putting On The Blakes’
Walker seldom disappoints and in recent
years his output has only got better and better. His gutsy vocals hold-up well on this CD, which also includes
a slick version of the old Mississippi John Hurt standard, ‘Got The Blues,
Can’t Be Satisfied’. His playing
encompasses a wide variety of styles from blues, ragtime, country and rock to
jazz and even bluegrass. His
versatility is widely admired
internationally with Hot Tuna frontman and former Jefferson Airplane
guitarist, Jorma Kaukonen, a noted fan.
I’ve been listening to Walker now for about
ten years or so and WYSIWYG is easily his best offering to date. It’s
accomplished, well produced and engineered and the material is top quality.
Website: www.littletobywalker.com
No comments:
Post a Comment