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PUBLISHER: MojoWax Media, Inc. “Leave your ego, play the music, PRESIDENT: Jack Sullivan love the people.” – EDITOR-IN-CHIEF: Art Tipaldi CUSTOMER SERVICE: Kyle Morris Last May, I attended the Music Awards for the twentieth time. I began attending the GRAPHIC DESIGN: Andrew Miller W.C.Handy Awards in 1994 and attended through 2003. I missed 2004 to celebrate my dad’s 80th birthday and have now attended 2005 through 2014. I’ve seen it grow from its CONTRIBUTING EDITORS David Barrett / Michael Cote / Thomas J. Cullen III days in the Orpheum Theater to its present location which turns the Convention Center Bill Dahl / Hal Horowitz / Tom Hyslop into a dazzling juke joint setting. Today’s event features an all-access pass to every ticket Larry Nager / Bill Wasserzieher / Don Wilcock buyer. There is no VIP pre-party; instead there is an hour cocktail party featuring selected COLUMNISTS nominees playing for everyone. Beginning at / Roger Stolle seven, there is a sit-down dinner, award presenta- CONTRIBUTING WRITERS tions, and non-stop music from nominees until Vincent Abbate / Grant Britt / Michael Cala after midnight. The other biggest change is the Mark Caron / Tom Clarke / Kay Cordtz effort of the Blues Foundation to have as many of Ted Drozdowski / Robert Feuer / Rev. Keith Gordon the nominees and winners present. Brian D. Holland / Stacy Jeffress / Chris Kerslake Michael Kinsman / Karen Nugent / Brian M.Owens This year’s highlights were the pure soul show- Tim Parsons / Tony Del Ray / Phil Reser stoppers of and . They were Nick DeRiso / Pete Sardon / Richard Skelly the distilled essence of the blues. But there have Eric Thom / Mark Thompson been many other vivid moments. M.E. Travaglini / Bill Vitka In 1996, after Luther Allison won his third CONTRIBUTING PHOTOGRAPHERS Handy Award, warned, “Luther, you

Scott Allen / Robert Barclay / Mark Goodman TIPALDI ART better stay off my stage!” After he copped his Les Gruseck / Aigars Lapsa / Doug Richard © Joseph A. Rosen / Dusty Scott / Marilyn Stringer fourth, Allison ran out of words of gratitude and Jen Taylor / Susan Thorsen announced, “I’m gonna let my talk!” LUTHER ALLISON After his fifth, the guitar spoke Luther’s heart-felt SUBSCRIPTION INFORMATION MEMPHIS, 1997 gratitude for over an hour. PHOTOGRAPHY Phone Toll-Free: 866-702-7778 In 1997, Luther gave me the finest picture I Web: www.bluesmusicmagazine.com ever took. His leap is forever etched in the events of that night. An hour after I snapped E-Mail: [email protected] the shot, my camera broke and I have no pictures from the rest of the weekend. EDITORIAL QUERIES There was also the standing ovation for Johnny “Clyde” Copeland who received a E-Mail: [email protected] new heart on New Year’s Day. Copeland showed no ill effects as he tore through three BUSINESS AND CIRCULATION QUESTIONS songs. Tragically, he and Luther passed away within three months of that night. E-Mail: [email protected] In 1998, it was all . From her acoustic duet with Keb’ Mo’, her finger MEDIA SUBMISSIONS waggin’ gotta move from this neighborhood with Ruth Brown, and her “Walkin’ The Mail 2 copies to: Blues Music Magazine Dog” with . However, after the Orpheum cleared out for the jam, I found P.O. Box 1446, Bradenton, FL 34206 Ms. Raitt at the rear of the hall talking with her dear friend, the wheel chair bound ADVERTISING Jessie Mae Hemphill. Not many saw this simple act of kindness and respect. Phone Toll-Free: 888-565-0554 I’ll always remember the shivers from ’s guitar in 2002. I remember Web: www.bluesmusicmagazine.com E-Mail: [email protected] Johnny Adams in 1998 running from his sound check to the Peabody lobby to watch the ducks leave the fountain. One of my favorite memories was the 2000 pairing of Gov’t Mule with . As Warren Haynes and Milton exchanged guitar jabs, I was stopped walking out of the auditorium by a large, tie-dyed shirt.

“Who’s the dude with the Mule?”... “Huh?” Blues Music Magazine welcomes articles, photographs, and any material about the blues suitable for publication. Please direct “Who’s the dude with the Mule?”... “Which dude?” queries to [email protected]. Blues Music Magazine assumes no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts, “The black dude with the guitar?”... “Little Milton.” photographs, or illustrations. Material may be edited at the “He’s pretty good up there with the Mule.” discretion of the editors. To be credited and reimbursed, all submissions must be properly marked with name, address, telephone number, and e-mail of author/photographer/artist. Payment for unsolicited material is at the discretion of the publisher. “Let the music keep our spirits high.” All material becomes the property of Blues Music Magazine. Art Tipaldi, Editor-In-Chief Blues Music Magazine © 2014 MojoWax Media, Inc.

Blues Music Magazine is published bimonthly by MojoWax Media,Inc., 1001 11th Avenue West, Bradenton, FL 34205. Periodicals postage is paid at Bradenton,FL and at additional mailing offices. Subscription rates (for 6 issues) are: U.S.— $35/year, Canada & Mexico — $40/year, Overseas — $50/year. U.S.funds only, cash, check on a U.S.bank, or IMO, Visa/MC/AmEx/Discover accepted. Allow six to eight weeks for change of address and new subscriptions to begin. If you need help concerning your subscription, e-mail [email protected] or call 866-702-7778 Monday through Friday between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. EST, or write to the business address Blues Music Magazine, P.O.Box 1446, Bradenton, FL 34206. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Blues Music Magazine, P.O.Box 1446, Bradenton, FL 34206.

Blues Music Magazine 5 .HE¶0R opens his integrating himself into the local music ’ current , scene, especially its songwriting society. BLUESAmericana, with “The Worst Is “We moved here four years ago to Yet To Come.” The opening lines on this raise our son [Carter Mandela Moore] in a record, “Woke up this morning,” harkens better environment,” said Keb’ Mo’. “The back to the earliest blues verses. Those kind of scene here certainly keeps me on archetypal blues songs, recorded on 78s my toes. The biggest difference to me is or shared in juke joints after weeks of the songwriting community. It’s just stel- harsh labor supporting the sharecropping lar. The people, the writers, and the spirit system in the Delta, offered in which it’s done is just fantastic. The bar

some collective relief – the sun is gonna is so high. If I go to any ’ O shine on my backdoor someday. showcases, I don’t go to play, I go to Keb’ Mo’s song serves exactly the listen and learn.” same objective. He sings about concerns Because of that, these ten songs were like Americans losing factory jobs and more not dashed out in the studio during the immediate problems like cars needing work recording process. Rather Keb’ Mo’ crafted and one’s mate taking everything. Even the them over an extensive period of time. dog shows no respect. But through it all, “These songs were picked from over like the resolve in those 78s, there is the a year of different writing sessions. I like determination that if I can survive this, words, so the words come first for me. I will survive. I thought I ran out of musical ideas 15 Though he will object to the notion years ago [Laughs.] Lyrically, I feel I’m just that BLUESAmericana is a blues album, getting started. I have an idea that I take

the songs Keb’ Mo’ has written address to a writing session and generally ask, M the challenges of our modern world in ‘How about this?’ then we proceed to do the same way that , Skip our best to craft a song in a way where James, or sang about the that idea can be best relayed. issues in their world. These songs a “My first responsibility throughout the modern nerve of where people are in process is to be honest to myself and to the jobs, relationships, and economy in a song. Then I have to take that responsibility ’ very powerful way. Songs like “More For and craft it to the best of my ability so that Your Money” “For Better Or Worse,” people can really get the most out of it. “The Worst Is Yet To Come,” and “Move” “Once I have a song written and I all tackle the heavy, dark themes of think it’s finished, then, I’m ready to go into modern life. the studio. I don’t want to waste any great At the same time, Keb’ Mo’ counters spontaneity on a demo. So the demo and with songs about the strength that love and record process is all the same. The most companionship provides when one fights important thing is to pick a tempo for the the battle with the outside world. “I’m song. If I get the tempo right, that’s half the Gonna Be Your Man,” “The Old Me Better,” battle. I can always change small things, and “Somebody Hurt You” all address the but if I get the tempo wrong, the song power to fight against the world when love goes nowhere.” is at the foundation. With little workshopping, these songs “The focus of the new record is that go on tour ready to compete with Keb’ Mo’ every song tells it’s own story,” said Keb’ staples like “Henry,” She Just Wants To Mo’, “and the collective theme of all those Dance,” Shave Yo’ Legs,” “Soon As I Get stories is about a feeling. I didn’t have any Paid,” or “Dangerous Mood.” thematic thing in mind. I just wanted to tell “It’s hard because I have a history of stories about my life right there. There are songs that people have really latched

some really heavy songs on it. Then I onto. I could play ‘She Just Wants To EB went back to record ‘That’s Alright’ Dance’ for days. I have a lot of songs that because that’s the equivalent of going really work like that. So far, audiences back to something real. That’s the blues. have been receptive. I have a feeling that NHHSLQJLWVLPSOH That’s making the mark.” people are curious and open to this new Keb’ Mo’s last CD, The Reflection, record. This feels fresh and new people was recorded in 2011 and was nominated are paying attention. Instead of always for a Grammy for Blues Album of the Year. going back, it would be great to have this Recorded only months after he and his as a fresh start where I can grab two or wife Robbie Brooks Moore moved to three songs from the past that are crucial Nashville from L.A., Keb’ Mo’ is slowly to what I do and move forward.” K

6 Blues Music Magazine Every since Kevin Moore rechristened himself Keb’ Mo’ over 20 years ago, he has been speeding forward on the industry’s fast track. In 1994, I met him during the Beale Street Music Festival where he

handed out cassettes and shared the by Art Tipaldi Acoustic Porch with Bob and the Snowman – an hour performance, an hour off, all weekend. He says, “I put some songs together then that worked. It was a little bit of calculation and some dumb luck.” But it was much more then that. He was born in 1951 and grew up in Compton. “My early musical experience was playing steel drum in a steel band when I was 10. I played in that band all the way through high school. At the same time, I was playing the French horn in the orchestra, and I was playing guitar in a cover band at the school.” Yet a chance encounter with authentic blues sowed the seeds that would later mature. A little known singer, Taj Mahal, came to a high school in Compton in the late-1960s. In the audience sat one Kevin Moore. “I’ll always remember my drafting teacher in my senior year of high school because he had the foresight and wisdom to let me go see Taj twice. He singled me out because he knew I that I liked music. No one in the school, including me, had ever heard of him, but I was totally getting it. “Nobody knew who Kevin Moore was. I was virtually unknown. I made my living in L.A. playing a combination clubs, sessions, theaters, and film work. I played with Papa John Creach for three years on the road.” After leaving Creach in 1976, he began honing his song writing skills. In the early 1980s, he spent five years in what he terms, “Song Writing College,” working in a workshop setting with other writers for Casablanca Records. He came into 1994 with years of experience in the industry, working in a variety in L.A. bands, supervising demos for Alamo Music, and working in some theater productions. Today’s developmental standards suggest that to achieve mastery of sport or music, 10,000 hours of practice are necessary before an athlete or artist turns

PHOTOGRAPHY © DUSTY SCOTT Blues Music Magazine 7 20 years old. Imagine how many hours of practice and experience Keb’ Mo’ accumulated from age 20 to 40? Today, Keb’ Mo’ is twenty years into what he calls, “the start of my third career.” Thought there is a solid foundation, he is still working towards a mastery of an identifiable sound. That includes all aspects of the artistry. “Everyday, I’m working to become a better guitar player. Lately I’ve been working with a three piece, so I’m learning how to take the songs and figuring out how to make one guitar handle more in the . I feel much more freedom these days on my . Even on some songs that I’ve always done with my , I’m now transferring to electric and it’s working because I can translate better even thought they might have been done on the record with an acoustic guitar. “I’m not thinking so much about how I did a song on the record or with which guitar. It’s about creating the same feeling. An audience isn’t really concerned about whether I use the same guitar live that I used on the record. They just want to hear those certain signature licks or they want it to feel interesting enough that they may even like the live version better.”

Though Keb’ Mo’ calls his shows a soul “What you revival, there are many stringed instruments he uses to get the feeling of each song can conceive across to the audience. He’ll employ Dobro, National Steel, electric and acoustic , but it’s his signature slide on each that is and believe, most identifiable. “The slide fits into my sound because you can create.” I think that the is so important to the blues and the roots of what I’m doing. Slide is important to a lot of genres. So branching out musically, like I do, using a and slide is a reminder to me and the audience of where I come from.” In these twenty years, Keb’ Mo’, a three-time Grammy winner, feels blessed to have been included in so many artistic projects. His songs have been featured in numerous TV shows, he has performed in movies like John Sayles Honeydripper and he portrayed in The Search For Robert Johnson, and in theater produc- tions like The Rabbit Foot, a play adapted from three Zora Neal Hurston short stories at the Hartford Stage Company, and he wrote the original music for Keith Glover’s play, Thunder Knocking On The Door. In recent years has been invited to perform twice at ’s Crossroads Guitar Festival, been the voice of ’s 13 episode radio series, The Blues, in 2003, been featured on

8 Blues Music Magazine PHOTOGRAPHY © MARILYN STRINGER Martha Stewart Living, performed the opening song on Mike & Molly, been recruited for tribute for Jackson Browne and , and performed “Henry” at In Performance At The White House Red, White And Blues. “When I look back at the Grammys or being with Eric on Crossroads twice, doing work with Martha Stewart, the Honeydripper movie with John Sayles, or being at the White House, it’s amazing. “I like to keep my memory in the moment. Because the moment is what is creating all the things in the past. It’s like when Henry says, ‘I can see my future and I can feel my past when Henry plays his steel guitar.’ That’s the moment. That’s living in the moment. That moment is everything. I’m doing all those things right now in this moment. “A lot of people look at other people and think they are lucky and that I don’t have any chance of getting there. While they are saying ‘I can’t do that,’ they are making that come true. That will never be me. We’re all creating our own good fortune, our own opportunities in our minds. What you can conceive and believe, you can create. I don’t have any special skills. I try and let people know that they have this power.” The moment today is BLUES- Americana. It debuted Number 1 in the Billboard Blues Chart, Number 2 on the Billboard Folk Chart, Number 8 on the Billboard Independent Album Chart and Number 2 in Amazon’s Blues sales. “The acceptance of my original songs lets me know that I’ve touched listeners with my heart. When you have a record that reaches a high point of visibility, all the expectations go up. So I’m in the process of thinking of how I present the songs and what kind of band I can bring to do it. But it’s still hindered somewhat by finance. Having a great album means I need a certain amount of musicians to show the subtleties of the record. There’s a lot of prep time. I have to find the people who can do it; there’s rehearsal and production time to get it so it really works. That takes finance.” What does Keb’ Mo’ say about his encounter with Taj Mahal nearly 50 years ago? “If there was no Taj Mahal, there wouldn’t be a Keb’ Mo’. “Taj Mahal has been infinitely important to me and my journey. He’s infinitely inspiring to the making of Keb’ Mo’.”

Blues Music Magazine 9

“He’s . He’s the root doctor, by Phil Reser he’s all of it.”

– Keb’ Mo’ AHAL

keeping blues music alive, singer, M  composer, and musicologist, Taj Mahal has felt from the beginnings of his career that he was preserving his African heritage. Born Henry Saint Clair Fredericks in , New York, on May 17, 1942, he AJ was, from the start, influenced musically by his parents, his mother, a gospel- schoolteacher, and his T stepfather, a piano-playing West Indian arranger. He grew up hearing all kinds of music from his parents’ large record  collection and over the family’s short-wave radio.  Wandering around as

a young boy, he says, “There were all these  street players who played tambourines and sang, guitars and sang, ,  accordions, and just singing on the street. A live person playing the music was what I

remember. I didn’t have the distance of  hearing the music only through the recorded side of it or just on the airways. I heard it as

a living thing.”  Musicians from the Caribbean, Africa, and all over the U.S. frequently visited his family home, and he became fascinated with the origins of the various forms of music he  was hearing. So he threw himself into the study of older forms of African-American music, which the record companies of the day were largely ignoring.

“When I was growing up, there was  no difference in breathing and music, it was always a part of my family. What I didn’t know was it wasn’t a part of every family out  there. My grandparents didn’t speak with an

American accent; my mother spoke with a

Southern accent, and my father’s people  spoke with a Caribbean accent, although my

father had a little bit more of an American  accent put into it. “Nonetheless, once they started talking together, everybody sounded like they  were West Indians, and when I went to my other grandfather’s house, it was all deep Southerners. So, to me, all of it was a great

tradition in front of me. I’m just investigating  the lines of the music, culture, and traditions that came in to me.” 

PHOTOGRAPHY © JOSEPH A. ROSEN Blues Music Magazine 11 In addition to learning the piano, he begin playing the clarinet, , and , and loved to sing. He now plays more than 20 instruments, adding the , the National Steel, and Dobro guitars to his mix. “One of the first things I learned about the world is that you don’t really do anything when you live in a city. You’re led around by the nose, led around as a consumer. But if you live and work on a farm or ranch, you have to do it all. You milk the cows, feed the calves, clean the barn, and check this and that. So, if you have that kind of interest and history, as I did for a while in my life, you don’t think anything of the idea of spreading your knowledge and activity into more than one thing. “And if you go from being a city kid, raised in an urban setting, the tendency is to find that one thing you want to work at during your life. They don’t think about the natural ability of people to devote themselves to developing multiple skills. It’s all down to one thing, as opposed to planting the vegetable garden, haul out the manure, get the milk from the cows, filling up the silo, bundle the hay, all those things, not just one thing. “With music, if I didn’t play something and knew somebody that played a particular instrument, I’d have them show me, and I’d pick up the and just go for it. Like David Lindley, he’s a multi-instrumentalist; most of the guys, I’ve played with are talented in that way. “Look at George Benson. Everybody thought he was only a guitar player when his music became popular, and then one day, you hear him singing. And you find out he could sing all along. I’ve never let any producer tell me what to do or what I can do. This is what I’m out here for, to do my thing.” Mahal studied agriculture at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in the early ‘60s. He adopted the musical alias of Taj Mahal and formed a popular university party band, the Elektras. “Taj Mahal came from thoughts and dreams I had when I was a kid,” he says. “I was trying to figure out the world around me. I felt that even though there was nothing about my ancestors in the books that I was reading, it would be my job to get my story together and make my life mean something. “One of the questions I had was who are the good people on this earth? Back in the ‘40s, a person that impressed me was Mahatma Gandhi. He made no compromise with the negative forces in the world. That led me to an interest in India and the Taj Mahal, a well-known architectural structure. Well, I’m not your average bear and never have been. “As I admired and researched the old blues players, there was a rich tradition of these performers taking on signature names, which was useful to building their act. I figured that if you’re going to embark on a musical career, you need a name that draws attention. I think that if you look at what I’ve done with my music, throughout my life time, the body of work I’ve been able to contribute, there’s no argument, that I selected the correct stage name for myself.” Attending the in ’61, ’62, ’63, Mahal witnessed the folk and blues revival first hand. The opportunity to watch traditional blues players like , , Lightnin’ Hopkins, , Mississippi Fred McDowell, and others perform and meeting them in person reinforced a decision to devote himself to music rather than fulfill an earlier farming interest. In 1964, he moved to and formed the , which consisted of , , Jesse Lee Kinkaid, , and Kevin Kelly. After signing a contract

12 Blues Music Magazine with , the group broke up before releasing their appearances by musicians like , , Ziggy first album. Marley, and Angelique Kidjo. After the Rising Sons broke up, Mahal remained with One of his recent contributions to roots music has been his Columbia, signing a solo record deal. His first four albums, support and encouragement of the Carolina Chocolate Drops, Taj Mahal (1967), The Natch’l Blues (1968), and Giant Step and the Durham, band whose revival of old time black De Ole Folks At Home (1969) mixed his originals with updated, banjo music and bands of the ‘20s and ‘30s has become popular often funky versions of blues and roots music classics. The with today’s Americana fans. The band revives music that he has albums are widely considered to be the blueprint for his sound, been honoring for decades. and they are among the era’s best examples of updated blues. “They’re my babies,” he says. “When I came along with the “My main personal goal with my music is for people to have banjo, everybody was going to and soul. I didn’t have a lot of a more positive attitude toward indigenous music around the company. I was thrilled when I heard that band.” The Chocolate world,” he says. “They need to Drops represent what Mahal understand that the blues are a sees as missing in much of world-wide classic music that American music, a knowledge of has been out there for so much what has gone before and an longer than people are aware of awareness of what is going on and how much attention there outside of its own culture. has been toward it on an inter- “Every generation should national basis. learn the rudiments of the gener- “I never wanted to fall into ation that went before,” he says. the trap of complacency,” says “The music we hear, , Mahal. “Blues is a broad brush, is so narrow. It’s shameful that with lots of tones and colors to it. one of most powerful nations in I always wanted to keep pushing the world listens to the least my understanding of jazz, amount of music from other parts African, and Caribbean music. of the world. The international I wanted to explore all the con- language is music.” nections between different kinds A good part of Mahal’s of music from around the world. musical career is now available “My ancestors were taken with the release of Taj Mahal off the continent of Africa and – The Complete Columbia tossed everywhere around the Albums Collection. A deluxe box world as slaves. And so why set which includes all ten of his wouldn’t I want to have a clear original Columbia albums, plus view and connection to who and one movie soundtrack and the what it is that I am? Why would- two previously unreleased n’t I be interested in not only albums which comprised last what is happening in my own year’s The Hidden Treasures of country, but what’s happening to Taj Mahal: 1969-1973 package. my people in the Caribbean, Says Mahal, “I have

Central, and South America? In © AL PEREIRA PHOTOGRAPHY always been an outside-the-box all those different places and all composer/musician/performer of the music that’s a part of each of those places. and not always understood by the music industry, so it gives me a “You find the music and movement of these people in song phenomenal amount of personal pleasure to have Sony/Legacy and dance. All those rhythms – the tango, mambo, salsa, calypso, reissue my whole catalog of music. Musicians are offstage, until reggae, conga, mambo, ska – are the musical languages that were they’re onstage. To me, that’s what a musician is, being onstage. developed by people who were mostly kidnapped from their original And that’s it. But, it’s exciting that they put all of that out there culture and language and not allowed to keep their native customs.” for folks. My hope is that they develop an excellent promotional Mahal has recorded 50 albums and earned six Grammy nom- campaign, so that more people get to hear it and get to enjoy inations, winning two, in 1997 and 2000. He also recorded several the music. film soundtracks and has made multiple big screen appearances “These recordings remain alive in my mind and onstage; in several major motion pictures. His interest and passion for world there is hardly a song that I don’t have a history and connection music pulled him into exciting projects, resulting in collaborations with over all those years of putting them out. For myself, it’s great with international artists, and producing albums like Mumtaz hearing these songs in one collection again, freshly cut with all Mahal, recorded with Indian musicians; , which the original artwork. blended Hawaiian music and blues; and , recorded with “This is fabulous news for my fans who have always been African master musician Toumani Diabate. unfailingly loyal to me. This is the music we’ve shared for the And each musical endeavor has turned a new page in his duration of a wonderful and still on-going career of touring and creative resume. Mahal’s 2008 album, Maestro, was a highly playing live for fans around the world. I’m thrilled that this music is acclaimed collection of blues, R&B, and soul with guest finally coming to the light of day. I made it all from my heart.”

Blues Music Magazine 13   by Hyslop Tom ILL H     IKKI  N  

was a Sunday afternoon in Duluth, Minnesota, Mighty Mike Schermer, for , who  in August 2013. Patrons at the 25th Bayfront Blues was scheduled next, arrived backstage shortly after Hill took  Festival had already heard from such luminaries as control. He listened approvingly to the R&B-singing fireball , with Anson Funderburgh and for a few minutes before leaning over to say, “I haven’t seen Little Charlie, and , and titled artists ranging from her before. She’s great. She’s like Lou Ann Barton!” The

 Chief (, of course) to Empress (in the comparison is apt vocally, as both singers have effortless person of ) and were anticipating the appear- control over that essential grind in their voices, and musi- ance of the new Queen of the Blues, Shemekia Copeland, cally, for both, steeped in tradition, lean on a repertoire that when Nikki Hill took the main stage and practically burned leans on roots music from across the spectrum, with R&B  it down. ballads, soul, and rock ‘n’ roll shading their blues. With assurance and verve, Hill strutted and shimmied, The question remained: Was Hill unheralded royalty or played off her guitarist (who also happens to be her an irresistible rebel leader? Just three years ago she was a

 husband, Matt Hill), and sang a tantalizing blend of wild young lady with a college degree and excellent, eclectic roots rockers, simmering soul, and hard-edged vintage-style musical taste, a music lover in a relationship with the Blues R&B. The set encompassed much of her CD Here’s Nikki Music Award-winning guitarist Matt Hill, and scarcely thinking Hill, augmented by scorching covers of , about singing. , and Bobby “Blue” Bland numbers. Today, everyone is talking about her, with good reason. Almost from the first notes of the and In 2014 she will appear at about 30 festivals, including

 classic “#9 Train,” much of the crowd was on Australia’s internationally acclaimed its feet, where it remained, dancing and transfixed, for the next hour, except “THIS IS MUSIC FOR EVERYBODY.”  for a brief interval when Hill, perhaps out of mercy, called for her stunning deep soul and the Main Stage at the Blues Festival. Her ballad “Don’t Cry Anymore,” a move that slowed the set’s precipitous rise is evolving as the natural result of tireless

 tempo momentarily, but did nothing to relieve its intensity. hard work, a deep love of music, and talent and charisma She closed with AC/DC’s “Whole Lotta Rosie.” The auda- (Don “T-Bone” Erickson flatly states, “Best stage presence cious choice seemed natural, an extension of what came anywhere”). before, and had the audience screaming its enthusiasm Felix Reyes, who recorded albums for both Nikki and and surprise. Matt Hill at his House of Tone studios, says: “She’s poised 

14 Blues Music Magazine PHOTOGRAPHY © AIGARS LAPSA to be something really great. They’re doing the roadwork right now, and they’re gaining fans all over the world. Nikki and Matt together, that’s like a one-two punch, it’s ridiculous. “What’s cool about them is that there’s a tremendous respect for the history and the tradition of the music they’re playing, but they’re not afraid to throw an AC/DC song in there at a blues festival as their encore. Which I thought was just the most brilliant thing I’d ever heard. It’s totally authentic to them, ‘cause that’s the music they grew up with as kids. It’s not a lie; they’re not just doing it as some shtick. That kind of honesty is really refreshing in the music biz.” A native of Durham, North Carolina, Hill shares Southern roots and a background singing in the church with many great American voices. “I think one time I joked with someone that it was a lot less of that Fender Rhodes church and a lot more of the scene from The Blues , you know? The super holy, rejoicing, on their feet, clapping, dancing, fainting–the full-on thing, it was the full-on thing. You feel the soul in it, it’s driving rhythm, it’s call and response. Gospel to me is just the formula.” Combine that with an enthusiasm for popular music. “Growing up I was a music fan. I would listen to anything. When I was a little kid, my sisters were pre-teens or teenagers, so they were always gonna listen to whatever was new and hip, but I’d get to drive to the beach with my dad, and he might turn on the oldies station, and it was like, ‘Oh man! Creedence Clearwater. I don’t know what this is, but it feels good.’ Felt good to drive too, felt good to hang out with my dad too, and felt good to fish too. Stuff like that, , the Stones, I loved it.” A music-loving crowd at school helped spark Hill’s interest. “I’d seen a pretty good mix of shows by the time I met them, too, everyone from to AC/DC, but they really introduced me to a lot of harder-edged music. I was on the edge of the generation still making mix tapes, and then it became CD trading. “So when I started really heavily listening to and Motörhead, for example, I’d go back and read about who they listened to, and you kept hearing about , and then paying attention to the covers the Cramps were doin’, and hearing the huge blues influence in a lot of AC/DC tunes, or hearing their cover of “Baby Please Don’t Go,” and then you go back and you see all the people that covered it, and man, you talk about explosion! And that’s just how it kicks off, you know?” Today even a brief conversation with Hill touches on a dizzying range of favorite artists, beginning with her primary inspirations (“Her voice peaks #1, she’s got

Blues Music Magazine 15 something that’s beyond human!”) and Otis Redding, and now to be on the road, having time to write, and also having the continuing through Little Richard, The Faces, Phil Alvin, Link Wray, chance to audience-test, too. The plan is to record again very and . “Eddie Hinton and James Carr: I’m a soul soon when a break comes up. There will be another album comin’ vocalist fan, big time. That’s good stuff.” out, which is kinda where I’m leaving it right now. Other touchstones are Booker T & the MG’s and , “People ask why I’m making certain decisions. A lot of time Toots and the Maytals, A Tribe Called Quest, , Jerry there’s not much thought to it. To me, the most important thing is Lee Lewis, , Lazy Lester, and (“He’ll kick to play. Getting in front of people is our goal, playing and pouring you off with that good voice and then that fuckin’ slammin’ guitar!”). out what we pour out, and hoping the people like it. And it’s really Live records by , , and B.B. King are just as simple as that. We’re out on the road, getting new faces special favorites. And “obviously into the clubs every time. It’s great Tina Turner, I think she could have to see fan response and see fronted AC/DC easily.” (It keeps people spreading the word with coming back to AC/DC. “Rock ’n’ us and for us.” roll and soul? Bon Scott nailed it Hill is justifiably proud of beyond nailed it.”) her band: drummer Joe Meyer, Hill’s musical awareness electric Ed Strohsahl, and makes her at once a traditionalist Nikki’s husband, guitarist Matt Hill, and an iconoclast who firmly who has two solo albums to his rejects any categorization, credit. Dubbed The Pirate Crew, although several cliques would the trio is the engine that makes claim her. Her own attitude is touring fun under any conditions more inclusive. “My bass player is (everyone in the group is a gonna wear his Notorious B.I.G. genuine hash tag wit and shirt sometimes. It’s not to be bon vivant). ironic, it’s because he fuckin’ “I consider them the guys. listens to Notorious B.I.G.. Those I can focus on the numbers and people that do like Notorious the press et cetera, and I can lean B.I.G. see us bein’ ourselves and on those guys musically. I don’t think, ‘OK, I don’t have to feel like think a lot of people are so lucky. if I don’t know all this music I can put out an idea, I can tell they’re playing, that I don’t know ‘em this is what we’re gonna do, anything.’ and I know they’re gonna do it “I want to reach those people, beyond better than I predicted. too. I want them to hear what I can just let myself fall into the we’re playing and for them to dig music, and I can really absorb it it. You can be an ‘Artist’ about it and put the passion into it. and say, ‘Nobody label me.’ At the “The Pirate Crew and I really same time, I don’t want to be one deliver something solid. I whole- of those ‘We’re a rockin’ soul- heartedly believe in that. And all I blues-a-billy-honky-tonk band.’ PHOTOGRAPHY A. © JOSEPH ROSEN can ever support it with is, just For me it’s important to capture all come see the show. Once they music lovers. I think a lot of us in scenes get really caught up in see the show, there’s not anybody that disagrees. And that’s the just playing for each other. And that is zero of what this has calling card, that’s the business model, and it feels good that we’re anything to do with. This is music for everybody.” able to do that. As bandleader and boss lady, Hill is keenly aware of the hard “I’m thankful I’ve got a great team on my side. It’s like I woke work that has gone into her success. Still, it seems sudden. “What up on January 1st, 2013, and it was ‘Alright, I’m a small business a trip! My very first tour was at the very end of 2012 and that’s owner, here we go!’ I can’t really ever say that was on my goal list, when everything started. I quit my job while we were on that tour, and then boom! it happened, and that became the and here we are a couple years later. That’s pretty much just how challenge. And things are goin’ great. it kicked off. I gotta give it up to the power of YouTube. That really “It’s good to work on the songs together, record them gave me the boost of hearing people asking, ‘Where’s the record? together, and listen to how they’re changing, and how tight they I wanna buy whatever she’s got.’ I didn’t have anything. I didn’t are, and then all our focus can just go into the show. And as have a thing.” cheesy as it is, it feels good to be able to do something that I love Since then she has recorded an EP that was folded into so much, and that my husband loves so much, and that we get to 2013’s full-length Here’s Nikki Hill CD, as well as a second EP, do it together. Soul Meets Country, a side project recorded in Memphis with “We got together not knowing at all that this would be the and the Bo-Keys. “Everybody really came result, but to be able to work with him and play with him and hear together and did a great job. I did miss my band, but man! if you his music getting better, hear me getting better, it is all so cool. can’t work with your own, I like to set the bar up there. A lot of my What more can you ask for than to be successful, just based on stuff has been written on the fly, not necessarily by choice. It’s fun you, based on how you give that to people?”

16 Blues Music Magazine one could have known it at the  time, but Andy T and Nick Nixon needed each other for a lot of years. Even they didn’t have a clue. & But four years ago when journeyman

by Kinsman Michael guitarist Andy Talamantez first heard James IXON “Nick” Nixon sing at a Nashville blues jam,

T he realized he was listening to a blues voice

N he needed and wanted. He’d already been in the studio off and on working on his debut CD with guitarist Anson Funderburgh, yet there were holes in the music and both knew it. A couple of singers were called in, but neither proved to be a good match. Finally, Funderburgh challenged Talamantez in 2010 at the King Biscuit NDY ICK Blues Festival in Helena, Ark. “You live in Nashville,” he said. “There’s a lot of good A N singers there, and I’m sure you can find one.” Talamantez already had Nixon in mind, but he wasn’t quite sure how to approach him. “I really didn’t think he would say yes,”

 Talamantez says. “I knew he liked singing as a hobby and that held me back.” Still,

 he’d gotten goose bumps the first time he heard Nixon singing at a Nashville blues jam and he trusted that first impression.  Nixon, who like Talamantez had set aside his music career years ago to raise a family, decided the time was right to give it  a shot. The result was the surprising Drink

 Drank Drunk debut CD that resonated with blues fans and promptly landed a spot among the top blues CDs of 2013. It also led  to an ambitious touring schedule and another date with Funderburgh at the studio

 controls. Their second CD Livin’ It Up was released in June on Delta Groove and builds on the first CD, depending on more original

 songs and basking in the confidence of a band that knows where it is going. The recent past has been period of growth for the 58-year-old Talamantez and

the 73-year-old Nixon. They count them-

selves fortunate that the blues isn’t as age-sensitive as most forms of music today. “I’ve always wanted to do this, and I never

 considered age to be a stumbling block,” Talamantez says. “If anything, I think my guitar playing is better than ever, and I  find myself playing things that I never  have before.

“Part of that comes from Nick. He’s so inspirational. You hear his voice and your own work to rise up with that. It’s really been  amazing in how our relationship has devel- oped and how well we seem for each other.” 

PHOTOGRAPHY © MARILYN STRINGER Blues Music Magazine 17 were enamored of local guitar hero Johnny Jones. It seemed that every guitar player in Nashville at the time wanted to emulate Jones. “All Jimi wanted to do was practice his guitar,” Nixon says. “All the girls were crazy about him, but he loved that guitar more.” Nixon says Hendrix grew disenchanted with Nashville, believing his guitar playing wasn’t appreciated. “It wasn’t that we didn’t like it,” he says, “but we didn’t understand what he was playing. It was so different from what we were used to. It sounded wrong.” Nixon kept at his music, but with a growing family decided he’d better find some- thing more stable to support it. He joined the Nashville Parks & Recreation Department, where he taught music to kids and while his personal music would become secondary. He and his musical partner Williford created PHOTOGRAPHY © MARILYN STRINGER an educational workshop that they ran for Nixon got his first exposure to music in a Pentecostal church, 15 years, eventually earning them a Keeping the Blues Alive where there was plenty of rhythm and percussion. By the time award in 2000 from The Blues Foundation. he got to high school in Nashville in the 1950s, choir director During his 35-year tenure as a city employee, Nixon built a Shannon Williford – himself a notable opera singer – heard home recording studio where he would produce 10 gospel and Nixon’s booming voice and recruited him. R&B albums with various groups, but never scored a hit. “He trained me to sing opera,” Nixon recalls. “I didn’t like it all Meanwhile, Talamantez was raising his own family in Los that much, but I was learning to use my voice.” He would spend Angeles. The guitar player really got excited by music when he saw many years trying to shed some of his operatic techniques. Cream playing on , an event that would even- “The hardest thing I’ve ever done was undoing that.” tually lead him to the blues. But music remained secondary in his life He eventually wound up in King James & the Sceptres, an inte- as he settled into a job working in an aerospace machine shop. grated R&B group that featured Nixon in the staring role. While that “I’d been playing music for a long time and always had friends band only lasted five years, it nurtured Nixon’s singing enough that in a band, but while I aspired to play music, reality set in and I he landed with another group called Past, Present and Future, who knew I had to get a regular job,” he says. would record a single, “Behind Closed Doors” for . By 1996, he’d grown antsy and began getting more involved In the early 1960s, he met up with two soldiers from Fort in music. Encouraged by his wife, Kathy Bolmer – now a member Campbell, Ky., who would spend weekends gigging on Nashville’s of the Board of Directors of The Blues Foundation – Talamantez Jefferson Street. Like Nixon, bassist Billy Cox and guitarist got more aggressive with his music career, playing in the band of

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18 Blues Music Magazine Mississippi transplant , who operated a Los Angeles club. That led to a fill-in role with Guitar Shorty that eventually turned into a three-year full-time gig. In 2003 Talamantez set his sights on his own band. “I had met Anson on the road and we became friends,” he says. “We had been talking about me making a solo album for several years and getting Anson to play on it. Eventually, he decided to produce it.” They initially thought Talamantez would handle vocals as well as guitar duty, but he quickly realized that his vocal skills weren’t up to the standards he wanted. Still, Funderburgh urged him to press on, realizing that they had laid down some intriguing tracks, and that they would simply be wasting money unless they found a vocalist worthy of the job. Funderburgh knew the issue Talamentez faced. He had founded Anson Funderburgh & the Rockets in the 1980s with Darrell Nulisch as lead singer. But when Nulisch left in 1986 for a solo career, Funderburgh had to fine a replacement voice. He recruited veteran bluesman Sam Myers to sing and play harmonica and what blossomed was not just a musical partner- ship but also an endearing friendship that lasted until Myers’s death from cancer in 2006. “I know it seems strange coming from a guitar player, but I’ve always been attracted by vocals,” Funderburgh says. “I love singers and I love words, and I’ve always built bands around a singer. It was that way with Darrell and Sam and John Nemeth. With Andy, we seemed to be going about this a different way.” Once he heard Nixon sing, Funderburgh was sold. “When I first heard him sing, I was blown away,” he says. “I said ‘There’s a hit in that voice,’” he says. “I’ve been in and out of Nashville for years and I’d never heard of him. I couldn’t believe that someone with a voice like that existed.” Nixon’s booming voice is perfectly matched with Talamantez’s flowing guitar work. Talamantez says he marvels every time he hears Nixon sing. “He’s never off-pitch. He has that great tone and amazing control. He sings like I wish I could sing.” They are hoping the in-roads they achieved with their debut will spill over to Livin’ It Up. The CD features 10 originals among the 13 cuts. Talamantez says because of the band’s constant touring, recording the CD was easy. “I think the first one surprised a lot of people,” Funderburgh says. “Our biggest challenge this time was that we’d had such success with Drink Drank Drunk that we felt we need to make one that’s better. “But we knew we had the right people after a year and a half of touring and that helped a lot. We didn’t have to worry about who would play on what. We were committed to using who we had in the band and that helped. There were no hurt feelings or tension. We all knew what we had to do.” With their second CD out, the band is happy to be on the road again, traversing the country to dates in a 1953 GMC bus whose history is as traveled as its occupants. Acquired from Funderburgh, the warhorse as been a Greyhound cruiser and then home to a gospel group and the bands of Funderburg and Bugs Henderson among others. It has an estimated four million miles on it and has been christened “The Funderbus.” Nixon has his own swivel lounge chair that he plops into drifts off just like he was at home in front of the TV. “He feels right at home, and for Nick that’s just what he likes,” says Talamantez.“I hope he likes that feeling for a long time.”

Blues Music Magazine 19 you have a passport?”  the old bluesman interrupted. Teenaged Selwyn Birchwood had waited six months for the opportunity to by Parsons Tim play guitar for , who stopped him in the middle of his song to ask the question which doubled as a direct and sudden offer for a job and an invaluable apprenticeship. A year later, 19-year-old Birchwood asked Rhodes why he had hired him on the spot when there were so many accomplished from whom to choose. “He just laughed and said I reminded ELWYN him of himself when he was younger,” said Birchwood, now 29 and with his own band S and a new deal with . Birchwood heard that comparison again IRCHWOOD after he assembled a veteran group, each a jazz aficionado but with many years of  experience with blues bands: Regi Oliver, B a baritone sax player, Donald “Huff” Wright, a bassist, and drummer Curtis Nutall.  “I’ve watched him grow at a startling rate,” 50-year-old Oliver said. “He’s very

serious about what he’s doing. He’s not  one of those shoot-yourself-in-the-foot, afraid-of-success musicians. That kind of

attentiveness and discipline reminds me  of a younger version of myself. “We pride ourselves in picking  winners and Selwyn’s definitely a winner,” continued Oliver.  He has the hardware to prove it. A year after reaching the Blues Foundation’s

2012 International Blues Challenge finals,  the Selwyn Birchwood Band won the 2013

IBC, and Birchwood, who plays electric and  lap steel guitars, was given the Most Promising Guitarist Award, which

doubtless led to more comparisons. Blues fans covet the exciting new, young gun- slinger, and the 6-foot-3-inch (not including

afro) tall Birchwood fills the bill.  “I don’t think he wants to be another ,” Nuttall said. “He wants to be a game-changer more than  he wants to take the place, or be in the pantheon, of those guys. I think he just  wants to take the blues to what his per-

spective is. Because when you look at the  genre, there are not too many people in his age bracket that are into blues. I like his

concepts and ideas because he’s trying to  take the blues to the next level.”

“I look at him with the perspective of  him being more than just a blues guitar 

20 Blues Music Magazine PHOTOGRAPHY © MARK GOODMAN player,” Wright added, “because the whole blues genre as we Rhodes’ captivating albums, and he tried to set up a meeting. know it is evolving. And it’s evolving to the point where it’s includ- Because Rhodes was on the road so often, it took a half-year ing a little of this style of music, a little of that style of music, yet it’s before Birchwood’s friend called and said the bluesman was at his assembled under the blues umbrella. Selwyn’s very versatile like house and wanted to see the young player. that because he is able to play different styles and the evidence of “I went over there and played a tune,” Birchwood said. “He that is on the new CD that was released June 10. That’s clearly all looked at his bass player and smiled and looked back at me and the evidence you need.” stopped me in the middle of a song and asked if I had a passport. Twelve songs written by Birchwood appear on Don’t Call I started doing gigs (as a rhythm guitarist) with them when they No Ambulance, which has a flavor of traditional blues in an Elmore were around home, and then when I graduated high school, I went James vein, but it’s also explorative and fresh. Each song has a on the road all through my college summer and winter breaks. different blues-based sound. The instrumentation is unique. “He really showed me what was out there and the ins and “I love the texture of high-screaming guitar and that low outs of surviving the business. He showed me how to be a band- baritone,” said Alligator Records President , the leader consciously or unconsciously just by watching him. It was a album’s executive producer. Birchwood said signing with Alligator very cool learning experience, and stuff.” is “sort of surreal.” Rhodes played bass behind and , A gravelly singing voice, onstage presence, phenomenal but he is best known for his skill on the lap steel guitar, which he musicianship, and business acumen make him seem much older encouraged Birchwood to play. Rhodes also told him to finish than his age. What gives Birchwood away is an exuberant countenance from a baby face and a tendency to finish thoughtful sentences with “and stuff.” The adolescent characteristic to exude boredom stoked an intellectual fire to blaze a trail toward high achievement. He started guitar at 13. “I was just playing whatever music was on the radio and what my friends were listening to at the time,” he said. “I got bored with it. It didn’t excite me. I was going to quit playing guitar, and then (at age 17) I heard (Jimi) Hendrix. I’d never heard anything like it, and I was really curious where the hell it came from. It was just bizarre sounds to me. “I did some research to see where TIPALDI © ART PHOTOGRAPHY he got his stuff from. He talks about a lot of the old blues guys, especially . Buddy just happened college. Birchwood, who went on to complete a Master’s Degree to be coming into town the very same week. Walking blindly into a in Business Administration, was able to look at his situation analyti- Buddy Guy , I didn’t know what I was in for. I couldn’t cally. “There was nothing else that I wanted to do but play guitar,” believe what I was seeing and what I was hearing, but I thought, he said. “But there’s so much competition in this business that you ‘That’s what I want to do.’” have to have something to fall back onto. I don’t know what this Music and were Birchwood’s passions, but he later business will look like in 10 years. There are a lot of clubs closing came to appreciate the poetry he was forced to read in English and who knows?” class. It helped build a songwriting foundation. He credits his Iglauer was intrigued when he learned Birchwood was mother, a painter, for encouraging creativity. “I always thought it mentored by Rhodes and has an MBA. He said he’s the first was interesting how people put words together and how they Alligator artist with a master’s degree. would tell a story,” Birchwood said. “There is nothing that bores me “The fact that he knows how much Sonny Rhodes made on more than hearing a song that’s just not saying anything. I can’t the road, that he had a Master’s Degree that certainly could get imagine sitting down and writing on a piece of paper and handing it him employed at something that might involve a suit and tie but to somebody and say, ‘This is my song,’ and the reading is just certainly would pay him more than he would be paid as a blues words. And it doesn’t mean anything. It doesn’t say anything. musician, and that he’s chosen to be a blues musician, says “So when I write a song, I try to have some sort of subject or something very important about the kind of person he is and his story or substance to it and try to word it in a way that’s just relat- determination and love for this music,” Iglauer said. able and gets the point across. I’ve always found it weird in this Birchwood was astute enough to volunteer to be the driver in genre that a lot of people are content playing other people’s order to get two more inches of leg room when the band rode a songs. I enjoy classic blues tunes and older songs other people Ford Fusion from Los Angeles to Detroit. He also learned lessons have written, but I can’t bring myself to just sit play other people’s about being a bandleader himself when he was in his mid-20s in songs all the time. I want to say something myself. That’s where Orlando. my head is at.” During that time, he won the Orange Blossom Blues Society Birchwood had known about his friend’s neighbor for a while, competition to play at the IBC. One of the judges was his future but when he was a senior in high school, he heard one of Sonny band mate Oliver, who also is highly educated. He said he used to

Blues Music Magazine 21 be ridiculed and called “college boy.” Nowadays, Birchwood and having to cut off the venue, stop letting people in, because so many Oliver’s favorite subject is Blues Vocabulary. people were coming out to see us.” “We’ll play a game with each other,” Oliver said. “I’ll call out a Crowd response is just one of the judges’ criteria. “We saw name, say Albert King, and he improvises sounds just like Albert where we were lacking so we went back to the laboratory and worked King. Or I’ll say Kenny Neal. You close your eyes and will swear on that,” Nutall said. “We needed a little bit more cohesiveness in Kenny Neal was sitting in front of you playing. He loves Elmore terms of the order of the presentation. I think we needed to be a little James and and can basically play just like those more upbeat, smiling, showing that we are having a good time. guys. When you develop and cultivate that kind of mastery it draws “And the musicianship, the technique part and also make sure you home. You know what you’re listening to. You don’t have to that everyone in the band got featured a little bit. So it wasn’t just guess, is this rock blues or ? You just know that it’s going up there and doing some tunes. It was showing the full scope blues. I lend a jazz sensibility to what’s happening.” of the band, what everyone can do and what everyone is bringing Cognizant of the importance of band chemistry, Birchwood to the band as a whole. Also, we had to time it where we could get sought the right line-up during the time when he completed his all of that in within 25 minutes. So we flushed it out.” degree at University of Tampa. Oliver introduced Birchwood to Iglauer was a judge for the finals in the Orpheum Theatre. Wright, who has recently left Joey Gilmore’s band. “As far as I’m concerned, he won them easily,” Iglauer said. “There “I look at him as a very, very mature 29-year-old gentleman,” was nobody else that brought that level of excitement and blues Wright said. “If I didn’t see that maturity in him, he would not have feeling to the stage. Plus he had the nerve to get down on his my services. First and foremost, he has a very good sense for busi- hands and knees with a microphone and work the floor like Howlin’ ness. He understands the roles of the people who he has working Wolf. It takes some balls to get on your hands and knees in front of for him. He understands what it takes to keep a band at its highest a theater crowd that isn’t ready for that. level, performance wise and business wise, and it’s just as impor- “I was impressed by that. And I was impressed by the fact that tant to have good chemistry between the people who are working he was doing all original material. I loved his playing. His singing for him and he clearly understands that. Those are the kind of was well developed already. He had a signature voice with a certain things that will take him further than he is now.” amount of gravel in it, but not as theatrical as like a Wolf imitator. Nutall agreed. “One thing that I like about him is he’s The vocalist he reminds me of most is Kenny Neal.” organized,” he said. “I’ve been a bandleader myself, so I know Birchwood’s channeling of Howlin’ Wolf was born in the Alley, what the job entails, and so far, so good with him. He’s been doing a blues bar near his native hometown Orlando. “We always have a a good job. He keeps us working, and he takes care of business. sold out crowd there and people are always buying drinks and stuff,” He’s a smart guy. He’s real bright.” Birchwood said. “Everybody knows what I drink, so they buy a shot. The band was intact by 2012 when it represented Tampa at I ended up a couple more shots in than I would like to be and I was the IBC. It reached the final round of nine and captured Iglauer’s doing “Creeping Green Gator.” I ended up putting my guitar down attention. “I was very impressed by his set at the finals and sought and just crawling across the ground like an alligator and everybody him out after the show. I found loved it. I read a bunch of stories that he was a very smart, articu- about Howlin’ Wolf. I was whiskey late, and nice person, and that he strong enough to try it out that night.” was extremely driven to make his The “Creeping Green Gator” career in the blues, but at that went on to become an artist for point he was still in college,” Alligator. “It’s good to be with a group Iglauer said. of guys who are poised and capable The IBC is a stressful musical of pulling something like this off,” version of the NCAA Basketball Oliver said. “Combine that with a Tournament where there is one beast of a machine like Alligator winner and more than 100 devas- Records, and the components for tated losers. But Birchwood used success are there. I’m elated about the experience to develop a win- our relationship with Bruce and our ning formula for his third trip to . The whole gang at Memphis. “If you go there thinking Intrepid Artists is working very hard, that you’re going to win, you are diligently presenting us all over the going to end up disappointed most planet. It’s a very good win-win likely,” Birchwood said. situation and we will do our best to “When we were done playing, make this happen.” I was just running around to Oliver was the final band every bar trying to talk to as many member to speak with Blues Music people as I could, shake as many Magazine for this article. He called hands as I could, and handing out from Washington Dulles Interna- my business cards, fliers, posters, tional Airport just before the group and CDs. I did that every year that flew to Norway for a festival. I was up there. By the time I got to Selwyn Birchwood is going 2013 IBC, a lot of people had places. It’s a good thing he has

already heard of us. They were PHOTOGRAPHY A. © JOSEPH ROSEN a passport.

22 Blues Music Magazine by Roger Stolle Jukin’

know I write a lot about juke joints or at money) at his namesake juke in Memphis. with the ladies after the main act begins, I least the music and musicians that call He’s passed on, but his joint still rolls on always with a beer in hand. His place is jukes “home.” Jukes are the blues clubs each weekend, which is a rarity since unique among surviving jukes since it – house parties, really – where the roots of most jukes go the way of the dodo upon features as much outdoor partying area popular music still live and breath, even if their proprietor’s demise. Wild Bill’s offers as indoor. Like other genuine jukes, it is, the breaths may not be as deep as they a deeper Memphis juke experience than less “up to code” than perhaps a modern once were. The simple truth is that today anything you’re likely to find on better- music venue might be. More on Gip’s in there are very few juke joints left in the known Beale Street. a moment. American south and even fewer that still Teddy’s is a bit down and out of the offer regular, live blues music. way in , but well worth seeking MISSISSIPPI For these reasons, you owe it to your- out. The owner has made the trip to AIN’T NOTHIN’ BUT A JUKE self to make a juke joint pilgrimage sooner Clarksdale several times is as colorful a rather than later. Tonight, you can still fall character as you’re likely to find. His place In Mississippi, there are three jukes left into an authentic juke joint experience. comes highly recommended for blues that get most of the headlines (when I can’t promise that tomorrow. Drop by my tourists headed to Louisiana. occasionally a headline finds them). Cat Head blues store any time you swing Then, there’s through Clarksdale, Mississippi, and we’ll Gip’s. Mr. Gip is the happily point you towards the real-deal. “Old Man” in the game. Now in his nineties, WHERE THE JUKES ARE he seems blissfully unaware of the math Starting on the fringes of Mississippi, you involved. Like a much might try a weekend night at Wild Bill’s in younger man, Memphis, Tennessee, Teddy’s Juke Joint he often plays the first in Zachary, Louisiana, or Gip’s Place in Saturday-night set Bessemer, Alabama. – awesome old blues Wild Bill, himself, was an old dude slide guitar numbers – who used to “hold the door” (collect the and is fond of dancing

GIP’S PLACE RED PADEN AND GIP GIPSON PHOTOGRAPHY © ROGERPHOTOGRAPHY STOLLE 24 Blues Music Magazine HIGHLY graveyard (technically, it’s catty-corner) and is backed by the Sunflower River in downtown Clarksdale, Mississippi. I’m not RECOMMENDED saying that makes “hiding the bodies” easier that at most jukes. I’m just sayin’. Red is the self-proclaimed “King of FOR BLUES the Juke Joint Runners” and deeply dedicated to keeping both the culture and the music of Mississippi jukes of yore TOURISTS alive in the modern age. He takes his job very seriously, even if he is quick to crack a joke (often at his patron’s expense). Blue Front Café in Bentonia, Po Monkey’s I like to tell blues visitors to Clarksdale Lounge near Merigold, and Red’s Lounge that a Saturday night at Red’s with a in Clarksdale. There is also the Queen of Robert “Wolfman” Belfour, Robert “Bilbo” Hearts in Jackson, and the occasional Walker, or Leo “Bud” Welch performing juke operating in the Hill Country region of is as deep a blues experience as you the Magnolia State, but basically, the first can have today. The combination of three are the ones to concentrate on. bluesmen who are 70 and 80 years old The Blue Front is owned and oper- at a juke that’s still like a juke – well, ated by the last of the culturally-connected that’s THE BLUES, y’all. players from the so-called “Bentonia School” of blues – a haunting style pio- A JUKE RUNNERS’ SUMMIT neered by Henry Stuckey, , IN BESSEMER, ALABAMA and Jack Owens. Blue Front owner Jimmy “Duck” Holmes is a true torch- Recently, one of Red’s customers (thanks, bearer in at least two ways. He inherited Don) brought Red and me over to Gip’s the family juke from his parents and his in Alabama, so the “King” could meet the style of blues playing from Owens. There “Old Man” in the game and check out his aren’t regularly scheduled shows at the operation. It was a riot, of course, and Blue Front, but it is still an essential stop involved buckets of alcohol, plenty of on the blues trail. And who knows? Spend women and more bull*** than a Texas a little time and money with Duck, and he cattle drive. They compared notes, con- just might pick up his guitar for you. gratulated each other on keeping the Po Monkey’s Lounge is – how should blues alive, and then went on to have a I say it – ridiculous! The owner, Willie damn good time. “Po Monkey” Seaberry, just wants to Gip has actually visited Red a couple everybody to have a good time, so his of times, now. He also played his mega- world is full of as much humor as it is old-school blues at an April blues festival blues. Thursday nights are his night in the you might like to hear about. Delta. His rural juke is lost to time, out in a cotton (ok, last year it was corn) field near JUKE JOINT FESTIVAL Merigold, Mississippi, but that doesn’t CELEBRATES THE ROOTS keep folks from finding him. His place was clearly built without the aid of an architect, In Clarksdale, Mississippi, we celebrate but don’t think it’s not a work of art. juke joints every April, featuring over 100 (Please just note the exits upon entering.) blues acts and the true stars of the show, Monkey’s is not normally a “live music” our local jukes. Red’s is a main attraction juke joint. Deejays only on Thursdays, but that weekend, but other lesser known occasionally, Delta State University nearby jukes join in the fun. From DJ Hype’s R&B will book some non-Thursday blues Lounge in an old gas station on MLK happenings. Either way, smiles abound. Drive to the juke-inspired Ground Zero Now, what can we say about Red’s? Blues Club downtown and 18 other true-blue venues, it’s an unforgettable “BACKED BY THE RIVER, weekend of jukin’. In 2015, plan to attend FRONTED BY THE GRAVE” Juke Joint Festival & Related Events from Thursday-Sunday, April 9-12. Details at In owner Red Paden’s mind, the slogan jukejointfestival.com. For hotel and other above is as good as any GPS coordinates. info, check out my “Clarksdale” web page His 30-year-old Red’s Lounge faces a at cathead.biz.

Blues Music Magazine 25 by Bob Margolin A Life In The Music

I joined Muddy Waters’ BOB: Terry, your photos and the Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, . When band in August 1973, songs you’ve written show how much you I met Muddy using the band’s bathroom at I met some of his friends. I remember the love the spirit of blues music, and you had Alice’s Revisited. He was regal and digni- first time I loaded my amp into Muddy’s so much access to it while the legends fied, but tremendously generous of spirit. I van, double parked outside of Paul’s Mall were still with us. Tell us more. took his picture, talked about how I dug in Boston as the band left to drive back to TERRY: I had the luck of being a Cream’s version of “Rollin’ And Tumblin’.” Chicago the day after my first gig with teenager in Chicago in the ‘60s, weaned But there was another level to the Muddy. Suddenly, Bo allure of the blues. These Diddley pulled up to load were the Civil Rights years. in for his own gig and My dad made sure I under- greeted and joked with stood and valued all that. his friends in Muddy’s And here were all these band. I realized I’d be guys who had gotten out of meeting legendary music Mississippi, and brought me icons through my new their music. It had weight, Muddy connection. history. I also met a young man The blues became my who was about my age religion. In college, I joined but had already been a group producing shows friends with Muddy for a with Furry Lewis, Jimmy couple of years: Terry Dawkins, and Hound Dog Abrahamson. Taylor. In ‘73, I moved to Terry hung out with Boston and brought Jim Muddy’s band often then. Brewer out on tour. And I shared his awe of the the more guys I had legendary blues musi- missed – Robert Johnson, cians we laughed with, , Sonny Boy and I enjoyed Terry’s Williamson – the more I musician-like sense of valued those who were humor – cynical, vulgar, still around, and became and quick to laugh at life’s obsessed with not just challenges. He had a seeing them, but knowing camera and used it often. them. I wrote songs with PHOTOGRAPHY © TERRY ABRAHAMSON © TERRY PHOTOGRAPHY In February 1974, when I FREDDIE KING AND MUDDY WATERS, RHODE ISLAND BLUES FESTIVAL, 1975 Muddy, fried chicken in a first recorded with Muddy motel with Hound Dog, at the last Chess studios in Chicago, Terry on The Stones, Yardbirds, and Cream. In sat in Homesick James Williamson’s had written some of the songs Muddy 1969, I went to see a band I’d read in the bed with him and his sister passing the recorded. newspaper did The Stones’ “Little Red moonshine jar, sat in ’s front After 1980, Terry and I sent an Rooster.” That was Howlin’ Wolf, the first room – just us two – as he played the occasional hello through mutual friends, real singer I’d ever heard: session he’d just done with Reverend but I didn’t see him much until the last few powerful, primitive, and totally rocking. Balenger; I still have the cassette. I cre- years when he showed me his new photo And somehow familiar: he had a lot of ated a Levi’s commercial for John Lee book, In The Belly Of The Blues. I was moves I’d seen from Mick Jagger. He Hooker and wrote the song he played. deeply impressed with how Terry had pre- roared through “Killing Floor,” “,” I even cast Willie Smith in a Bar Mitzvah sented his now historic photos, and his “Sitting On Top Of The World,” “Back Door video. And as sings in my soulful stories from a time we now call Man,” and the light went on and my life song “All That Stuff,” “back in the day.” This is not a review, I just was changed. want to introduce you to Terry, who deeply I went home, checked my record col- I started out when I was young, loves blues, other blues lovers, and the lection and realized the music of the And get ready baby, ‘cause I ain’t done. musicians, and shows you his memories bands I loved originated with a bunch of today in photos and recordings. Now I Black guys who were all in Chicago. I BOB: You told me at the Blues Music invite Terry to tell you in his own words. started going every weekend to see Awards that it’s a thrill for you to get back

26 Blues Music Magazine into the blues scene after decades of The greatest honors have been two pursuing other interests. Tell us about exhibitions running concurrently right In The Belly Of The Blues. now: at Willie Dixon’s Blues Heaven TERRY: was doing Museum at 2120 South Michigan Avenue Muddy’s bio around 12 years ago, and within the hallowed of the old Chess found me through you while looking for Studios; and down in Clarksdale at the undiscovered photos. You knew I always Museum, in the same exhibi- had the camera. The photos had, except tion hall as Muddy’s Stovall Plantation for maybe six on my walls, sat in a box on cabin. It opened down there on his birth- a shelf in a closet for decades. When day weekend. I’d still love to get them up Robert used a few, the Rock & Roll Hall on the walls at Fur Peace Ranch. Of Fame saw them and wanted to buy The book is available at some stores the negatives, but I was advised to keep around the country, at Shakespeare’s in control because I had “unique access” Paris, on Amazon.com, and through my as reflected in the intimate moments of website inthebellyoftheblues.com, where Muddy with The Stones, Taj Mahal, – if you turn up your speakers first, you Freddie King, and others. can also hear some cool tunes and enjoy The early ones of Muddy were some rare vidoes. PHOTOGRAPHY © TERRY ABRAHAMSON © TERRY PHOTOGRAPHY taken with an instamatic and a flashcube. FURRY LEWIS, 1971 BOB: Thanks Terry. You’ve had Then I graduated to a Minolta and a mini- some great experiences and the photos Chinon with Lincoln Continental suicide It’s gotten a tremendous response, you took show them to our readers in doors. There are roughly 100 photos in It’s part of the permanent collection of the a way that words alone can’t. Let’s con- the book, including a bunch with Muddy library of the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame, tinue in the next issue of Blues Music and the Stones at the Quiet Knight three and has inspired my live show, The Blues Magazine with more of your photos and years before the legendary Checkerboard LoveFest including rare video and music some stories about your songwriting with show. I self-published In The Belly Of The and the tales behind the photos. I’ve done Muddy forty years ago to Eddie Shaw Blues two years ago and am going into libraries, schools, and I’m doing a Mensa now. And let’s toast Furry Lewis because my second printing. gathering this weekend. he’s sure toasting us.

BETWEEN MIDNIGHT & DAY

“This book presents, for the first time, many of ’s most significant photographs from his blues archive.” – Chris Murray

TO ORDER www.dickwaterman.com

Blues Music Magazine 27 and I was so exhausted from that week of rehearsals and gigs. It was a really & rewarding week, but it was very stressful and work infused. I lost my voice so that I couldn’t do interviews. , my Roy Weisman, and I were at the Montreux Jazz Festival eating Thai food next to JOE Taj Mahal. On paper it seemed pretty straight-forward. I know all the tunes, BONAMASSA I wrote some of the tunes, I’ve played

PHOTOGRAPHY © TONY KUTTER © TONY PHOTOGRAPHY them all live before, so this shouldn’t be that hard. By the time the first three piece gig at London’s Borderline was done, rarely takes a break. A look America’s finest songwriters for his next it was clear to me that this was going at Joe Bonamassa’s recent recording, Different Shades Of Blue. When to be more involved than I thought. touring and recording we spoke, Bonamassa was preparing to That was an intense gig in front of 200 schedule confirms that this self-professed play another sold out experience, his people, and now I have to wake up the guitar geek thrives on a non-stop musical blues tribute at Red Rocks Amphitheater. next morning and do the horn band at carousel. London, Vienna, Amsterdam, Shepherd’s Bush Empire. Then wake New York, his guitar cases could be Blues Music Magazine: What was the up the next morning and do Hammer- plastered with hundreds of travel stickers. artistic aftermath after your Tour De smith Auditorium. Then, I get a day At the same time he was completing the Force project? off and then do two sets, one of them exhaustive Tour de Force – Live In London with the acoustic band, at the Royal project, Bonamassa was taking time to Joe Bonamassa: We had all this press Albert Hall. By the time it was over, jet to Nashville to work with some of booked in New York City after the gigs I was spent. PHOTOGRAPHY © TONY KUTTER © TONY PHOTOGRAPHY

28 Blues Music Magazine BMM: What took you 90 minutes electric. Next to Nashville to co-write year, I’ll take the horn with songwriters Gary section out. Nicholson, Jerry Flowers, Jeffery Steele, James House, BMM: You always list the and Jonathon Cain? guitar and amps you use to record. What should our Bonamassa: A lot of the readers know about the organic songwriters have guitars you used here? moved out of New York and Los Angeles and Bonamassa: I have my go they’ve moved to to guitar tool kit, but on Nashville. I went there this record, I played more because I thought I owed Stratocaster and Telecaster it to my fans to do a pro- on a lot of the songs. I’ve ject where I’ve had a hand been a guy for so in the writing of the long. The vintage guitar whole record. I went there here is on “I Gave Up five times on the sly last Everything For You, year when I’d come home ‘Cept The Blues.” from my tour. I’d do I play a beautiful three-day writing sessions blonde over ash 1956 Strat with those guys. I went I got in Nashville on one of one more time this year my writing trips. For some before we recorded the reason, people like to hear record and really got me geek out on guitars. some of the best stuff. I’m Come to my house and it’s proud of the fact that I a guitar shop. stuck to it and was able to get this at the same time BMM: Now that this record I was recording the is complete, what are you London shows. of courtesy GOULD © RICK PHOTOGRAPHY J&R ADVENTURES working on at this moment?

BMM: What do you contribute to the studio and hash out the . Bonamassa: It’s a trial run where the writing of these songs? Things like, let’s put the chorus here or first set is Muddy Waters songs and the let’s start with this verse. We map it out second set will be Howlin’ Wolf songs. Bonamassa: It’s a lot like going to a and two or three takes later, the song is I’ll end the show with five of my songs dinner party. You gotta show up with finished. that I’ve gotta play or else the fans will something. Gary Nicholson, Jeffery be disappointed. I have an all-star band Steele, Jerry Flowers, Jonathan Cain, BMM: How did this experience recharge with , , and James House are lyric writers. Once your creative batteries? , Michael Rhodes, and Lee we had a title, and a good flow with the Thronburg with his horns. For me, to be verses, it’s much easier then if you just Bonamassa: It was really great to able to sing and play with that support is had a riff and nothing to say. Often, I’d recharge the batteries and to get writing awesome. We’re doing a secret show and come in with a verse or chorus. I had again. It’s been so long since I’ve had the play for an empty Rod Rocks the night the idea for “Love Ain’t A Love Song” time to write for a complete album. And before the full show and we’re gonna and Jeffery and Jerry added the chorus, being introduced to guys who are so film it. They’ll be about 50 people with cleaned up the words, and basically good at creating definitely helps. a special invite. gave it a structure. That’s how it all One of my fans gave us a very gets going. BMM: With so many songs using expensive guitar for my foundation and You need to prep for the studio. Lee Thornburg’s horns, what will touring wanted me to give it to a deserving kid There’s no worse feeling then to walk be like to support this record? who will really rock it. John Catt from into a studio and saying, “whatta got?” Blue Star Connection found the right hat just wastes everybody’s time. I don’t Bonamassa: Next year we’re gonna kid. At the rehearsal night before the want these guys just sitting around. travel with a horn section to play these Red Rocks show, we’re gonna give it to At the end of the day, Kevin has songs. This year, we’re committed to Austin Young. a lot to do with the arrangements. doing a split show where I play the first We make crude demos then get in the 45-minute set acoustic and then do – Art Tipaldi

Blues Music Magazine 29 Dave: We hold Big Bill in such high regard, there was really nothing to fight & about. I think the only heated discussion that we got in over anything was over an F sharp note that I wasn’t playing. Then he showed me, and I said, “Oh, you’re right.”

DAVE ALVIN BMM: You used to fight? Phil: The whole band fought. PHIL ALVIN Dave: We all grew up together. Phil was

PHOTOGRAPHY © MARILYN STRINGER © MARILYN PHOTOGRAPHY already playing with and when he was 16 years old. Guys like that were part of our child- hood – Lee Allen, the great tenor sax 1979, brothers Dave and Phil BMM: Before the one song in 2004, when player from who was on all Alvin were founding members was the last time you two had recorded the , Little Richard and of which gained together? records – we grew up international recognition playing with Dave: Phil and I hadn’t made a full with them. The Blasters, it’s a hackneyed bands like X, Black Flagg, the Cramps, studio record together since the Blasters phrase now but we were a family band and Queen. The music was called L.A. Hardline in 1985. Over the last few years and we would fight. punk roots and , but the broth- both of us have lost family members and ers learned music playing blues by men- very close friends. It just seemed like BMM: I hear Big Joe Turner in Phil, and tors Joe Turner, T-Bone Walker, and Lee time. We’d never done a full album both of your singing styles has the cadence Allen. Phil was 12 when he started har- together, just the two of us. It was always and delivery that you hear with blues. monica lessons with . The in relation to the Blasters in a band Phil: I never distinguished between Blasters’ best known song was a cover of concept. I just thought the sooner we . The first time I saw ’s 1959 tune “I’m Shakin.’ can get this done, the better because no Big Joe Turner it was just magic. I have a Jack White’s recent version of the song is one knows how much longer we’re loud voice and I used to imitate Joe basically a cover of the Blasters cover, hanging around. Turner. He gave me a piece of advice which is highlighted by Phil Alvin’s So I called Phil and shouting blues vocals. Dave Alvin left the asked if he wanted to do Blasters in 1986 to pursue a solo career some “ HE LASTERS and other projects. After a Phil survived a songs and he said, “Yeah.” T B , serious health issue in 2012, the brothers We did four songs and IT’SA decided to make their first record that sounded really good HACKNEYED together in almost 30 years. On June 3, (then decided to make a) PHRASE NOW Yep Roc released Common Ground: Dave whole album. He Alvin And Phil Alvin Play And Sing The [Broonzy] had not only BUT WE WERE Songs Of Big Bill Broonzy. great material, but mater- A FAMILY BAND ial that will stand all sorts AND WE WOULD FIGHT.” Blues Music Magazine: Is it true this of styles from ragtime, reunion was inspired by a close call with finger-picking blues to Phil? Chicago blues to urban Phil: I had a close call, a brush with blues to . death, in Spain in June 2012. And I guess There was a lot to choose that motivated David. I always liked play- from. ing with David, periodically, since the Blasters, and we did a song together on BMM: One of the songs his last record (in 2004), “4-11-44.” But I was “You’ve Changed.” think the imminent flat lining possibility How did your working probably motivated things a little bit. relationship change? Phil: Of course on BMM: How is your health, Phil? “You’ve Changed,” Phil: I am doing fine. I was doing fine I don’t sing, so that afterward. But they gave me a changed. And we tracheostomy so I had to let that heal didn’t have anything to before I could do anything. fight about.

30 Blues Music Magazine that was stunning. I think I was 18 when My other criterion was stretching a song. Big Bill also made records he said, “Why don’t quit embarrassing me the boundaries. He did a song like with Georgia Tom Dorsey in that style, and yourself and sing in your own voice?” “All By Myself” from about 1940, and and he was in the Hokum Boys. That was good advice. From that day on, I thought the music of “Long Tall Those were two songs that afforded I took off the affectation and sang in my Woman,” the guitar part, would work us to swap lines. voice. But I left the cadence and the Joe great underneath. Dave: He recorded “Stuff They Call Turner style of jump blues, blue shouting. Money” with Washboard Sam and they I think Big Bill was sort of a blues BMM: So you arranged hybrid songs? are swapping vocals and I thought Phil has shouter, too. I was into Big Bill before I Dave: Big Bill’s styles changed. On his the voice to pull off the hokum stuff. He’s was into Joe Turner. I think both of them early recordings, “Long Tall Woman” and got the voice to pull anything off, but I affecting my singing style quite a bit. “How You Want it Done” were structured thought for me to jump in on that we need around guitar. And later on, through the to approach it a different way. So instead BMM: Did Big Bill write all of the songs late ‘30s and ‘40s, he was in a band context of a hokum style, I did it sort of Jimmy on Common Ground? with a piano, sometimes , some- Reed. Big Bill, especially later in his career, Dave: They were all written by Big Bill. times saxophone, sometimes harmonica. felt comfortable enough to write social “” was co-written by I wanted to capture all those styles that he commentary and songs about race rela- Jazz Gillum. I was on the BMI site, and I not only played but what he influenced. tions. “Stuff They Call Money” is a playful went through everything. The songs I I chose “Southern Flood Blues” because social commentary but he did songs that picked were a mixed bag. when I was a kid, I liked the imagery of the due to our skin color we can’t honestly do. song. But what I am doing on the guitar is Stuff like “Get Back.” “If you’re white, it’s BMM: How did you decide which to use? a combination as if Big Bill Broonzy and all right. If you’re brown, stick around. If Dave: I was about 13, and he [Phil] was made a record together. The you’re black, get back.” He was one of the about 15, when Phil brought home a chords and the progression are Big Bill blues guys who dealt with some pretty big reissue album and there were certain chords, but the solo parts are all sort of issues. “The Stuff They Call Money” is songs on there, “Bill Bill Blues,” and Magic Sam. I was looking for things where pointed, yet playful, and I wanted to get “Feel So Good,” that Phil started singing I could stretch the boundaries. that part of Big Bill in. It’s also in that song immediately. He would perform them in Or you mentioned the song “You’ve “Just A Dream,” a playful, sarcastic look at the blues band he had as a teenager. Changed” which he cut as a pretty straight- how things be sometimes. So that one was a given. We have to do ahead, horn-driven, jump blues. I always some of those. dug the lyrics, but I thought one of his BMM: Was the arrangement on “Trucking more popular pieces Little Woman” a nod to Blasters fans? was a song called “Hey Phil: It’s going to sound like the Blasters Hey.” I thought “You’ve if I’m singing (with) guitar playing the Changed” is a more boogie-woogie licks. There’s not much you obscure song, but “Hey can do about it, and I wasn’t trying to do Hey” has that great gui- anything about it. But yeah, the Blasters tar part. So I figured deserve a nod there. we’ll take the guitar part Dave: It’s not like we set out and said, from “Hey Hey” and “We need one that sounds like the make it electric and Blasters.” It happened organically. When then use the lyrics from we were finished it was, “Wow, that “You’ve Changed.” sounds like a Blasters record.”

BMM: What about BMM: The album ends most appropriately, “Stuff They Call Money” I feel, with the instrumental “Saturday and “All By Myself”? Night Rub.” On those you sing a Phil: That was just to show what a Big dual back-and-forth. Bill Broonzy ragtime style was like as best Phil:We figured we’d we could. I don’t know if you’ve heard the have some dual things original. It’s just phenomenal. “Saturday in there and “All By Night Rub” is a magical song. I wasn’t Myself” was a good one involved in the sequencing, but I think to do with the paradox that’s a good place for it to have been. of not being all by yourself. I had never BMM: Will you be touring on this album? heard of “Stuff They Dave: Nonstop. Call Money” until David found it. It’s like –Tim Parsons PHOTOGRAPHY © MARILYN STRINGER © MARILYN PHOTOGRAPHY

Blues Music Magazine 31 SONNY LANDRETH Hugh’s Room , , Canada

Sonny Landreth has, long ago, surpassed what is expected of whether adding whole chords or fragments behind his slide a guitarist, having reinvented many of the rules and playing as he played, his right hand hammering, tapping or picking techniques through his endless exploration of the instrument. the strings for effect. Deep in concentration, the occasional He is one of Louisiana’s most explicit exports, creating original smile will appear as he succeeds in achieving something compositions which reflect a heady, distinctive sense of place particularly pleasing, otherwise impossible. “The Promise more accurately than any travel campaign could. His praises Land,” with a tip of the hat to hero Sonny Boy Williamson are shouted from the mountaintops by the biggest names in (the “d” dropped intentionally), lost a little steam in its pursuit the industry –lauding him for his jaw-dropping accomplish- of paradise, Landreth’s usually strong vocals weak in the ments and serious inroads into the musical process itself. The mix. Biting into Skip James’ “Cherry Ball Blues,” vocals opportunity to witness Landreth live satisfies the need to hear stronger, Landreth steered his styling back into the straight blues of his youth while “The Milky Way Home” underlined an absolute fleetness-of-fingers, Brignac lending a tasteful, tonal approach on drums. Song after song, a reordering of traditional compositional design committed to the satis- fying journey that only Landreth’s otherworldly, slide-driven approach and driving, Delta-born rhythms can offer. Yet, as stand-out as covers like Elmore James’ “” and Robert Johnson’s “Walking Blues” were, buttressed against his own raucously slinky “A World Away” and the PHOTOGRAPHY © ERIC THOM © ERIC PHOTOGRAPHY storm-warning known as “Blue Tarp Blues,” the music you’ve grown so attached to. It’s also a chance to it was the gentle touch of Elemental Journey’s “Brave New watch it unfold – a magic show unlike any other – devoid of Girl,” segueing into the head-spinning, grinding groove of deception, tricks or pretense. a hyper-blasted “Uberesso” that proved the true game- Some of these custom techniques already have names changer. The molasses-thick power shuffle of “All About You” – many do not. He creates new ones as he searches for just merged with a gentler “Back To Bayou Teche,” uniting the the right note, the ideal tone –while his accomplished band- voices of all three players, deeply steeped in Cajun soul. mates (Dave Ranson, bass; Brian Brignac, drums) set the A compulsory encore brought on the near-feral, always stage, maximizing his creative space through touch and ferocious “Pedal To The Metal” which, when it comes right feel – fueling Landreth’s inner flame as they respond to each down to it, is core Landreth – his high-energy assault a life- unconventional cue. Each composition is alive – an evolution- long tribute to the rich musical influences of his upbringing. ary process benefiting from ever-refined skills and the subtle To have reinvented the very nature of his instrument and nuances of live performance. There’s always something differ- the way music is played is suitable legacy – but only the ent to watch or listen for. Each song gets fresh girth under the beginning. watchful care of a perfectionist who seems unable to accept To meet the man after a show deserving of a full-bore, personal limitations in his quest to take things further, Saffir-Simpson hurricane rating is a surprise. This unassuming constantly raising his personal bar. musical giant remains completely ego-free and a soft-spoken, “Z. Rider” was the entry point into this 13-song, two-hour Southern gentleman – his generous persona reinforced by a set, replete with a scorching encore. “Native Stepson” personal elegance. continued his fluid assault with a dizzying display of artistry, – Eric Thom

32 Blues Music Magazine TOMMY CASTRO Festival International du Blues De Tremblant Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada PHOTOGRAPHY © ART TIPALDI © ART PHOTOGRAPHY

In 2012, Tommy Castro disbanded his my old songs and play them with this new bands and I thought it was time for me to highly successful band and returned to band. Now that we have the new material do something like that. his early musical roots. Gone was the created by this group from my album, “This requires more from me as a six-piece R&B unit augmented by punchy The Devil You Know.” guitar player. So I’m playing more slide horns. Castro scaled down to an edgy, Castro’s set, the mid-point of this guitar, using pedals, using different sounds four-piece band with led by original ten-day, idyllic Canadian festival, was a and even learned some slightly different Painkillers, Randy McDonald (bass), thoughtful fusion of the old with the new. styles I can use with different songs.” Byron Cage (drums) and newcomer Fan favorites like “Memphis,” “Serve Castro also played “Leavin’ Trunk” for James Pace (Keyboards). Somebody,” and his slide guitar salvo Mahal, “Nasty Habits,” and closed out his “It the old band was awesome. We “Serves Me Right to Suffer” mix seam- show with “Keep On Smilin’” for Jimmy Hall. had a great time, and I loved everything lessly with current favs like “”The Devil You After the set, Castro looked out over we did, but it was time to do something Know,” “When I Cross The Mississippi,” the Mont-Tremblant ski village venue and else,” said Castro. “What different for me is “She Wanted To Give It To Me,” and “Two spoke of having McDonald back in the that I feel like a kid again playing with my Steps Forward.” band. “He pushes me creatively. When I’m friends. “It was a matter of the sounds I was ready to settle for something, he’ll push me “When I first switched gears and hearing in my head, said Castro. “I was creatively. He knows how I work and can started this new group, we hadn’t released listening to guys like and Taj tell when I’ve given it my best.” the new songs, so we had to go back to Mahal with a trio and numerous four-piece – Art Tipaldi

Blues Music Magazine 33 DENNIS GRUENLING WITH DOUG DEMING AND THE JEWEL TONES Papa Mojo’s Roadhouse Durham, North Carolina

Sleek, cool, and sinister, dapper and dangerous, Dennis Gruenling looks like a harp player’s supposed to. Shoulder length hair slicked back into a fancy ponytail, sporting coke bottle dark glasses, and a blue velvet smoking jacket over corduroys and lizard skin cowboy boots, Gruenling looked fit to kill for the June gig at the recently closed Papa Mojo’s Roadhouse in Durham, N.C., and proved he was there to do just that. At first glance, cohort Doug Deming and his band the Jewel Tones and Gruenling are an improbable match. Deming’s trio looks like a rockabilly band, pompadours and vintage ‘50s-era clothes, while Gruenling comes across as a hipster/knife fighter, a street-wise cat you wouldn’t turn your back on in a bar. But even with distinctly different looks and

styles, the two compliment each other. Deming is a © GRANT BRITTPHOTOGRAPHY ferocious guitarist, fiery but clean, with a crisp, clear tone reminiscent of ’s style. Gruenling Deming says that the Cajun food, now sorely missed, he ate sounds like a big band horn section filtered through , at Papa Mojo’s tonight put them in the mood to play “Saturday back-alley Chicago blues that knocks you down and sticks a Night Fish Fry,” from Gruenling’s latest, Rockin‘ All Day. It’s knife in your ribs. raucous big fun, fish grease splattering all over the place. The group dumps a handful of genres in a big blender and The band treks back into rockabilly territory for the stomper switches it on high. “Put It Down” is Deming’s reworking of what “Mama Didn’t Raise No Fool,” from ‘09’s Falling Through The he labels a “blues rhumba,” an original that sounds like Slim Cracks, Gruenling blowing more hillbilly than hip on this one, but Harpo goes Latin. Deming’s “I’m Ready” is more like a hillbilly with all his teeth plus an extra set of lips. “An Eye than Fats Domino. Gruenling steps in like Little Walter walking For An Eye” is also from Deming’s latest, a deep Delta groove into a saloon in the middle of a rockabilly throwdown, injecting like Muddy’s “I’m A Man,” Gruenling letting out great whooping some Chicago bad-ass swagger into the mix. WAAAHs like Cotton on harp. The stuff Gruenling does with a Gruenling’s harp sounds like a bari sax on “A Pretty Girl, harp is magical. Several times during the set, your ears fooled A Cadillac, and Some Money” from Deming’s latest, What’s It you into thinking he was playing a chromatic harp when he was Gonna Take. Deming’s solos again evoke Charlie Christian: coaxing notes out of a diatonic. crisp, clean jazz-infused guitar with snippets of ’s “Whisper” is the loudest, most raucous tune in the set. “O Pretty Woman” sprinkled in. Gruenling works the upper end for this one but manages to get down and slither as well. Deming demonstrates he’s got plenty of funk luring underneath that jazzy exterior, tossing in some slashing Albert King licks. “We’re feeling it,” Deming says “so we’re not going to take a break but play straight through,” he told the sparse but enthusiastic crowd. “Blues is a language we can all speak, so let’s speak it loudly,” says Gruenling, as he and owner Mel Melton engage in a harp blowoff with Lazy Lester’s “I Hear You Knockin’,” Melton on top and Gruenling holding down the bottom like a horn section. And when it’s time to go, Deming has an interesting pitch for the band’s catalog. “The weight is really hurting our gas mileage, so won’t you help out and buy some?” It’s worth a wheelbarrow full. Live and on record, this stuff is just too good to pass up.

PHOTOGRAPHY © GRANT BRITTPHOTOGRAPHY – Grant Britt

34 Blues Music Magazine THORBJØRN RISAGER & THE BLACK TORNADO Harmonie Bonn,

Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado, Copenhagen’s outstanding blues, soul, and rock ‘n’ roll combo, took to the road this January in support of their latest creation Too Many Roads, hitting , , Norway, Belgium, , and Germany by the time the weather warmed up and the album was officially released in Europe and the U.S. The conservatory-trained bandleader – who possesses a tough, gritty voice com- parable to that of Ray Charles – perfected his blend of styles on this, his fifth studio album, then steamrolled across Europe fronting a seven-piece unit that seems to get better from year to year. Fittingly, their springtime appearance at the Harmonie in Bonn, Germany, drew twice as many folks as the year before. There was still plenty of space for dancers to move in front of the stage, but enough attentive bodies in the room to energize the band, which in turn ignited the crowd with tight, dynamic ensemble playing. The give-and-take between the musicians and audience on this memorable Thursday evening was just sensational. Leavening their intelligently structured songs with a healthy dose of humor, Risager and his mates started strong and got progressively better over the course of two unforgettable sets of music. These included a handful of covers and some staple cuts from the back cata- ABBATE © VINCENT PHOTOGRAPHY logue, but for the most part, the focus was on Too Many Roads. and drummer Martin Seidelin were rock Stones-esque “High Rolling” – and was The septet’s execution of the intri- solid regardless of whether it was time to highlighted by another polished gem cately arranged material provided a study boogie, shuffle or just lay back and groove. from the new record, “Drowning,” with its in teamwork. Singer/guitarist Risager is The band is truly remarkable for the haunting, Gypsy- influenced horn lines. undeniably the ringleader, but his playing amount of stylistic ground they cover. Nowhere was Risager’s love for Ray and singing is never over the top. Instead, We’ve all seen blues musicians play two Charles more evident than on “Single he applies his skills economically and is hours of mid-tempos, up-tempos, and Tear,” a standout cut from the 2012 more than happy to let the musicians slows with varying degrees of commitment. release Dust & Scratches, delivered here around him handle the heavy lifting. Sec- In Bonn, Risager & The Black Tornado with knockout force. Hard to top, but the ond guitarist Peter Skjerning delivered nifty moved easily from churning Delta blues to band matched it at least on the raucous slidework throughout. Keyboarder Emil jazz-tinged ballads, from boogie-infused “If You Wanna Leave.” Balsgaard added deft touches on organ rockers to classic R&B. And not once did The encore with “Let The Good and shot off a few lightning quick piano you get the feeling they were mailing it in. Times Roll” could not have been any solos as well. Horn players Hans Nybo They brought the funk early with “Paradise” more appropriate in summing up what and Peter W. Kehl complemented each and offered their breathtaking reinvention of Thorbjørn Risager & The Black Tornado other beautifully and when their respective ’s “China Gate” before clos- put down over the course of two glorious number was called, honked and squealed ing the first set with the guitar-driven, high- hours. Great musicians playing with this like there was no tomorrow. With so much powered groove of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Ride.” kind of spirit is all it takes. Lassez les bon instrumental firepower, a rhythm section is The even more compelling second temps rouler! easily overlooked: bassist Søren Bøjgaard set started off with a bang – the – Vincent Abbate

Blues Music Magazine 35 LAZY LESTER Metropolitan Kitchen & Lounge Annapolis, Maryland

Dave Edmunds, The Kinks, and The Baltimore Blues Society’s mainstay Fabulous Thunderbirds are some of the Larry Benicewicz) soared during musicians and bands who found inspi- “Who’s Tonight?” luring a ration (not to mention profit) in mining few couples onto the intimate dance material associated (if not created) by floor. He also treated us with some of one Leslie Johnson, aka Lazy Lester, his better known material, like “I Hear the unquestioned celebrity in this room You Knocking,” Lightnin’ Slim’s “Baby, tonight. Some among the audience Scratch My Back,” and “Jambalaya,” were drawn by admiration, familiar with which prompted him to comment about the man who personifies . how much he loved and There were a few, curious younger performers like Hank Williams and patrons who responded mainly to Jimmy “The Singing Brakeman” Rogers songs covered by the aforementioned while growing up in rural Louisiana. acts like “Scratch My Back,” “Bright With his recent Blues Foundation Lights, Bright City,” and “I Hear You Hall of Fame induction, one couldn’t Knocking.” help but note how few men of his With the supremely adroit backing pursuit remain. Who shall succeed him? of “Big Joe” Maher (drums, vocals), for- Might there be someone in his extended mer Nighthawks guitarist Pete Kanaras, family, perhaps? Lester started to say and electric bassist Tommy Hannigan, no, but then his eyes flashed. “Yeah, I Lester took us all through the musical do,” he said, smiling. “I got a little grand wormhole that is the link to his past as nephew (in Louisiana). I didn’t ever get a young man growing up in rural his name (and) I never saw him. But Louisiana. It’s said that a chance meet- (they) sent me a little video. YouTube, ing with Lightnin’ Slim put Lester into or whatever you call it. He’s three and Excello’s recording studio. he’s bustin’ on the harmonica,” he said, So what accounts for this 81-year- laughing. “So he might be one (some) old’s tenacity in nailing another top- day.” FESTIVAL drawer performance? Maybe it’s simply Big Joe, who has seen and heard that this man loves doing what he does, Lester many times, was almost rever- entertaining. He certainly does act like ential when we chatted in the afterglow CONSULTANT that, offering an occasional jibe to liven of Lester’s show. He thought Lester up a brief chat with your Blues Music had rendered a superb performance FOUNDER OF THE Magazine representative, who asked particularly by surprising us all with two NORTH ATLANTIC BLUES FESTIVAL permission to take photos during his numbers he doesn’t often perform: performance. “Who gets the reward?” David ’s “Almost Persuaded,” Paul E. Benjamin he challenged. We’ll determine that a country weeper infused with regret after the pictures are posted on the about a barroom temptation; and the Rockland, ME post office wall, was one response. rollicking, old-timey bluegrass style “Hunh,” he snorted “Right next to number “New River Train,” on which 207-596-6055 yours?” Point, set, match to the star. Lester adroitly picked out the melody “I’m not as good as once was, but on his electric guitar. After which, the [email protected] I’m as good once as I ever was,” this lanky octogenarian sporting the Excello recent Blues Foundation Hall of Fame tee and cap was through. He had given inductee shouted out to the audience us a wonderful evening in the space- before jumping into “Blues Keep time continuum that is music. Now, Knockin’ At My Door,” followed soon after his third show in four days, it was after by “Sugar Coated Love” and “I’m off to Norway, proof that Lazy Lester is A Lover, Not A Fighter” (comprising, anything but. incidentally, both A and B sides of one It should also be noted that a nice of his Excello singles). Lester’s singing performance by opening act Dean style is characterized by languid, Rosenthal and his blues band, local to slurred voicings, which helps put the Annapolis, put the us all in the proper “swamp” in his music. His brand new frame of mind to engage with a legend. harmonica (a birthday gift from – M.E. Travaglini © www.dustyblues.com

36 Blues Music Magazine DOWNLOAD! If you are not already a subscriber, you can join the Blues Music Magazine community by either going to the website www.bluesmusicmagazine.com or calling toll-free 866-702-7778. Blues Music Magazine is featuring a Digital Sampler for download in every issue. Please go to www.bluesmusicmagazine.com/BMM5 to download this Digital Sampler 5 and visit the artists’ websites. Enjoy! Jim Liban with The Joel Paterson Trio –“I Say What I Mean” from the album I Say What I Mean on Ventrella Records. Singer, , and harmonica player Jim Liban joins forces with Chicago’s Joel Paterson, who has distinguished himself as a talented guitarist who is expert in all forms of American music. www.americanbluesband.com Jim Byrnes –“Somebody Lied” from the album St.Louis Times on Black Hen Music. Byrnes takes listeners on an intimate journey through St. Louis’ place in American music. This song is Byrnes’ homage to the musical legacy of and features John Hammond on harmonica. www.blackhenmusic.com Lisa Biales –“Graveyard Dead Blues” from the album Belle Of The Blues on Big Song Music. On this offering Biales is, as advertised, the Belle of the Blues. “Graveyard Dead Blues” is a deadly love song. With the help of some mighty fine Dobro work from Tommy Talton, Biales belts it out Bonnie Raitt-style. www.lisabiales.com –“World Gone Crazy” from the album on Forty Below Records. In 2014, John Mayall celebrated his 80th birthday with the release of his first studio album in five years. Joined by guest C.J. Chenier and Mayall’s touring band, Mayall has recorded classic songs on this album by Jimmy Rogers, Albert King, , and Jimmy McCracklin. www.johnmayall.com –“You’re Gone” from the album 444 on EllerSoul Records. Now in their fifth decade of recording, Mark Wenner and The Nighthawks continue to follow the band’s unique blueprint to reinvent blues and rock ‘n’ roll. Led by founding member Mark Wenner, 444 is a jam-packed record of blues, soul, roadhouse country music, and rock ‘n’ roll performed through the trademark Nighthawks sound. www.thenighthawks.com Jimmy Carpenter –“Walk Away” from the album Walk Away on VizzTone. For over 25 years, Jimmy Carpenter has lived in the music. His tenor has been a constant part of the bands of Walter “Wolfman” Washington, Jimmy Thackery, , the Honey Island Swamp band and many, many others. www.jimmycarpenter.net Raoul and The Big Time –“High Roller” from the album Hollywood Blvd on Big Time Records. Canadian harmonica player and singer, Raoul Bhaneja thrives in recreating the harmonica-driven styles from the 1950s Chess catalogue. This record features guests , , , , and others. www.raoulandthebigtime.com Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and Terry “Harmonica” Bean –“Lonesome Church Bell” from the album Twice As Hard on Broke & Hungry Records. Together guitarist Jimmy “Duck” Holmes and harmonica Terry “Harmonica” Bean continue the Delta guitar/harp legacy as they recreate the blues of Jack Owens and Bud Spires. www.brokeandhungryrecords.com featuring Steve Krase –“Every Side Of Lonely” from the album Royal Oaks Blues Café on Connor Ray Music. On the heels of her 14th record, Trudy Lynn was nominated for her fifth . On this cut, Steve Krase adds harmonica and Jonn Del Toro Richardson brings guitar behind Lynn’s expressive vocals. www.trudylynnblues.com David Vest –“That Happened To Me” from the album Roadhouse Revelation on Cordova Bay Records. Recorded live at a house concert just outside Edmonton, Canada, this cut is a gritty blues shuffle that gets its depth from Vest’s dynamic piano. www.davidvest.ca Madison Slim –“Close But No Cigar” from the album Close But No Cigar on All About Blues, Inc. Madison Slim bought his first harmonica after hearing Little Walter. He has toured with , , Jimmy Rogers, and many others. This is Slim’s first recording under his name. Bad Brad & The Fat Cats –“Leghound” from the album Take A Walk With Me on Fat Cats Entertainment. Bad Brad represented the Colorado Blues Society at the 2011 International Blues Challenge in Memphis as its Youth showcase entrant. www.fatcatsofficial.com Now in their fifth decade, The Nighthawks, led by harmonica master and vocalist Mark Wenner,continue to hang close to the music that initially inspired this iconic band.

THE NIGHTHAWKS 444 EllerSoul

The first time you hear it, you’ll think somebody’s put the wrong record in the sleeve. Until Mark Wenner jumps in on harp, “Walk That Walk,” sounds like a rockabilly band doing doo-wop. The cut is from the ‘50s gospel- turned-R&B group the Du Droppers, and is way out of line from The Nighthawks’ usual fare. But as soon as Wenner jumps in with his Little Walter-style harp contribution, he puts it firmly back in their sack of blues. The group quickly gets back into recognizable Nighthawk territory with “Livin’ The Blues,” an apt description of the band’s five decades on the road promoting that genre. The current lineup of ten year alumni Paul Bell on guitar and bassist Johnny Castle with five year vet Mark Stutso on drums is one of the tightest units the group has ever had. As an extra-added attraction they all sing, making for smooth four-part harmony on several cuts. Castle penned the title track, a twangy rockabilly number glazed with a thick coat of Wenner’s bluesy harp varnish. Stutso contributes “You’re Gone,” a bluegrass number written by his brother-in-law that Stutso vocalizes on and Bell renovates with some shimmery guitar. Wenner’s “Honky Tonk Queen” sounds like a Dr. Hook translation of the Stones’ country honk style. There are a couple of Elvis tributes. “Got A Lot Of Livin’” is from Elvis’s second film, 1957’s Lovin’ You, capturing Elvis in his rockabilly years. The ‘Hawks replicate it perfectly from ’ backing vocals to Scotty Moore’s twangy guitar licks. The Hawks’ version of “Crawfish” is a bit different than the version Presley performed in ‘58’s . His was a duet with a female street vendor taking the high parts on the chorus, while the ‘Hawks harmonize smoothly on the chorus and clone Presley moaning like Hank Williams on the swampy verses. As is customary on any Nighthawks project, Muddy Waters gets a turn on “,” done here in lockstep with Waters’ ‘59 version. As usual, The Nighthawks are still dead on, preserving the blues tradition in a way that never gets old. – Grant Britt

38 Blues Music Magazine EXCLUSIVE (THE NIGHTHAWKS) ILLUSTRATION © TIM POWER

Blues Music Magazine 39 I’ve had the opportunity to talk with Németh on several occasions about the JOHN NÉMETH long history of Southern recorded by the famous and the obscure. Memphis Grease He is a devoted and knowledgeable fan Blue Corn who can’t learn enough, and it is reflected in his music. Németh fans, as well as fans John Németh’s 2007 Blind Pig debut of harp-slinging soul singers like Tad Magic Touch and his four subsequent Robinson and Curtis Salgado, will want albums were prologues to this scintillating Memphis Grease. So will fans of South- set of soul-blues that includes ten origi- ern soul. It is among the year’s very best. nals and three choice covers. Now living – Thomas J. Cullen III in Memphis, Németh recorded his dream- Willie Dixon’s “I Love The Life I Live.” come-true album at producer/bassist Shepherd says Waters’ vocals intimidated Scott Bomar’s Electraphonic Studios with him so much he didn’t sing for years the Bo-Keys (drummer because he wanted to sound like Muddy of the legendary Hi Rhythm Section, gui- KENNYWAYNESHEPHERD and couldn’t. But here, his Muddy Waters tarist Joe Restivo, keyboardist Al Gamble, vocal impression is spot on. Walsh flays trumpeter Marc Franklin, tenor saxophon- Goin’ Home the flesh off the melody with ’s ist Kirk Smothers, baritone saxophonist Concord harp Little Walter-ing off the walls. Art Edmaiston, and veteran vocalist Shepherd brings in Robert Randolph for Percy Wiggins). It must be tough having been a child another Waters’ tune, the hill country The predominant sound is a seam- prodigy. Get a few years on you and drone of “Still A Fool” broken up by less mix of muscular funk and Southern people start sayin’ stuff like, “Yeah, he’s Randolph’s frenzied string manipulations. soul testifying with a touch of the blues good, but you should have seen him Shepherd’s cover of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s (provided by Németh’s raucous and when he was 15.” But with Kenny Wayne “When The House Is Rockin’” sounds slashing harmonica). Each song is a gem Shepherd, that’s not a problem. As his like it’s about to fly off the rails. Double and Németh sings with passion and latest on Concord demonstrates, at 36, Trouble pianist Reese Wynans’ electrify- poise throughout. One important indica- Shepherd still blazes as hard as he did ing boogie-woogie piano is captured tor of a soul singer’s fervor is the deep as a prodigious teen. perfectly by Osbourn, with Shepherd ballad and there are three magnificent, On Goin’ Home, Shepherd covers a paying homage to Vaughan’s fiery, transcendent ballads that lay bare wide spectrum of guitar heroes. The three twangy glory with some of his own Németh’s soul: the lilting “I Wish I Was Kings, B.B., Albert, and Freddie, are pyrotechnics. Home,” the gospel-tinged “Testify My included as well as Buddy Guy and Junior Shepherd says he felt like he was Love,” and Roy Orbison’s ethereally Wells, Muddy Waters, Magic Sam, Stevie retracing his steps here, going back and plaintive “Cry.” These last two tunes were Ray Vaughan, , and Johnny listening to artists and songs that inspired gripping showstoppers during Németh’s “Guitar” Watson. him to master the guitar as a child. Obvi- recent Philadelphia performance. The The selections are impressive ously he’s learned his lessons so well that other covers are the Howard Tate pleader enough, but the guests Shepherd assem- this could be a tutorial for the next genera- “Stop,” also a showstopper live, and Otis bled to help him really take it over the top. tion: keeping the tradition alive while Rush’s “Three Times A Fool,” which is Warren Haynes steps in for Al Jackson inserting your own interpretations without given a funky arrangement so unlike the Jr.’s “Breaking Up Somebody’s Home,” compromising the integrity of the originals. original. A few other favorites are “Her recorded by Albert King. Shepherd had – Grant Britt Good Lovin’,” a slinky slab of percolating played the tune with Gov’t Mule in a cou- funk, “Sooner Or Later,” a ple of their shows, and their blistering ren- stroller, and Song of the Year contender, dition here mixes the best of the Allman “Elbows On The Wheel,” an infectious Brothers, Mule, and King for an electrify- RONNIE EARL boogaloo twister about life on the road. ing performance. Shepherd follows that with B.B.’s “You Done Lost Your Good Good News Thing Now.” Shepherd says King has Stony Plain mentored him since he was 15, becoming a father figure for him. There’s as much Hot on the heels of his triumphant return piano here as guitar from Shepherd’s to Memphis as the 2014 Blues Music keyboardist Riley Osbourn, but Shepherd Award Guitarist of the Year, Ronnie Earl manages to get in enough King-style has given his world of fans another guitar to firmly establish B.B.’s personality stunning reflection of his deep soul. before tossing in a fistful of fiery chunks of Though he’s been nominated 18 times his own design. as Guitarist of the Year, Earl has only Joe Walsh steps in on for an inter- won three times, 1997, 1998, and 2014. pretation of Muddy Waters’ version of That record speaks of the critical acclaim

40 Blues Music Magazine Earl’s playing generates. His mostly Blues And Forgiveness Live In Europe, instrumental outings feature Earl’s sharp provides seven minutes of Earl’s instru- phrasing and tight, compact lines crest- mental testimonial for this friend. ing to emotional crescendos that ebb The CD ends with Limina’s torrid B-3 and flow into fresh musical vistas. This as the support, Earl’s “Puddin’ Pie” which effort continues to deepen Earl’s journey again eradicates the blues-jazz bound- into the connection between spirituality aries followed by Ilana Katz Katz’s very and artistic output. moving “Runnin’ In Peace” which is dedi- Though he rarely tours outside of his cated to the Boston Marathon bombings New England base, he is prolific in the and vividly captures the emotions of that studio, recorded nine records since 2000, horrific day. keeping his legions of fans around the Earl spent most of his days in world enthralled. As on his past six Stony Memphis sharing his inner joy through of the fraternity that binds the band with Plain recordings, Earl’s emotional medita- his peerless playing; Good News the audience that night. There is a bit of a tions are supported by his veteran Broad- announces that joy to the world. theme to some of his songs with titles such casters band, Dave Limina (piano and – Art Tipaldi as “My New Old Lady,” “My Next Ex-Wife,” B-3), Lorne Entress (drums), and Jim and “Never Trust A Woman.” After bringing Mouradian (bass). His guests include the music to a fever pitch, Estrin wisely Diane Blue (vocals), Nicholas Tabarias chooses his final song to be a more tradi- (guitar), and Zach Zunis (guitar). tional and softer blues rendering Sonny Each song explores human passions. RICK ESTRIN Boy Williamson’s “Too Close Together” His opening “I Met Her On That Train” AND THENIGHTCATS that has Andersen jettisoning his versatile features the heavy thumb picks on the YouAsked For It...Live! electric guitar for Lorenzo Farrell’s stand E-string augmented by a twangy, country up bass – a perfect way to dismiss the marching drum beat. Here Zunis handles Alligator riled up audience without incident. the first guitar solo Tabarias the second, Sporting Clark Kent-style glasses, a – Pete Sardon and Earl the third. On ’ “In The pencil thin moustache, custom made Wee Hours,” Earl, Zunis, and Blue deliver threads, and a combination smile and a slow blues knockout performance. Blue sneer, Rick Estrin leads his Nightcats in sings of the darkest hour while Zunis’ han- a memorable live concert on his October TORONZO CANNON dles the first solo until Earl’s guitar playing birthday in 2013 from ’s bends, dives, and soars through his own Biscuits and Blues Club. John The Conquer Root dark meditations. Limina’s after hours Estrin’s Nightcats address the audi- Delmark piano oozes a similar sensibility. For more ence with a sound that would be the envy then ten minutes, these musicians have of any blues artist. Enough can’t be said Despite Toronzo Cannon’s fine songwrit- transformed the deepest emotions into for the guitar talents of Kid Andersen, ing and excellent musicianship circa notes on a canvas. By following that with who also mixed and co-produced the CD. 2013, there’s something retro about him, the swinging title cut, Earl provides the The night showcases with clarity his facile too. Like many of everybody’s favorite artistic euphoria of tension and release. ability to coax virtuosic sounds from his blues heroes past and present, Cannon Blue and Earl take Sam Cooke’s “A Epiphone guitar that can replicate jump, has a day job as a city bus driver. Change Is Gonna Come” into rarified air swing, and traditional blues. The 13-song In addition, like Robert Johnson, with their stirring voice and string give and set list includes all of Estrin’s most popular Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, and a host take. “Marje’s Melody” has Earl exploring songs like “Clothes Line,” “That’s Big,” and of other bluesmen, he uses the world of within a jazzy trance for over six minutes. “Smart Like Einstein.” Finally, near the end voodoo and magic as a leitmotif. In this With the church-like B-3 of Limina, there of the set, the audience yells out in unison case, the opening track – with reprise – is almost a gospel quality to every note, for a rendition of “Dump That Chump.” is drenched in old school blues hoodoo. bend, or run. And Earl’s “Blues For Henry,” Opening the set with the shuffling Then, he pays superb, creative tribute to a song originally recorded on 1995’s “Handle With Care,” Estrin produces a his forbears from Texas and Mississippi full sound via a chromatic harp and then all the way to Chicago, marking nearly a allows each of his fellow musicians to century’s progression in rich and inven- showcase their chops. Throughout the tive guitar licks, in your face vocals, set, Lorenzo Farrell switches from organ, superb arrangements, and a percussion piano, and synthesizer and also provides and horn section the envy of any South the bass via a standup instrument. And side blues band. Cannon praises blues drummer/vocalist J. Hansen gives Estrin musical history from early electric a break as he handles the vocals on his Chicago to New Orleans and down to “Baker Man’s Blues.” offering up props to blues fusionists like Estrin’s commentary and slick lyrics Stevie Ray Vaughan. are worth the price of this CD alone and This is definitely not all straight the recording invites the listener to be part Chicago by way of the Delta.

Blues Music Magazine 41 equally adept at wringing the deepest blues or exacting the hippest jazz from his strings. Specter has long understood WALTER TROUT that his talent is fingers on strings, thus, like Earl, Specter has always called upon The Blues Came Callin’ the finest Windy City vocalists like Tad Provogue Robinson, Lynn, Jimmy Johnson, Barkin’ Bill Smith, and many others to This isn’t an album surrounded by the augment his musical messages. light-filled redemptive power that it might On Message In Blue, his tenth have had today. After all, when Walter album on Delmark, Specter enlists Trout was in sessions for The Blues Came Chicago soul icon to deliver Callin’ last year, the bluesman’s health On “Cold World,” for example, we get the emotional essence on three soul was failing as he desperately awaited a more of a taste of mid-20th century blues classics. The massive Chicago liver transplant that seemed like it would R&B (a riff on Sam Cooke’s “Mean Old Horns coupled with Specter’s Cropper- never come. Then, less than month before World”), with stellar horn work from like guitar riffs provide a Stax feel to the scheduled June 2014 release of this Dudley Owens (sax), Kenny Anderson Clay’s leathery “Got To Find A Way.” already completed, scorching new project (trumpet), Jerry Di Muzio (sax), and Clay and Specter next pay tribute to on Provogue, that miracle happened. Norman Palm (trombone). Listen to the Bobby “Blue” Bland on his timeless Trout is recovering his health, even as excellent backing vocals by Kay Reed, classic “This Time I’m Gone For Good.” fans await what at one point looked like it Theresa Davis, and Vanessa Holmes Clay’s tour de force voicing of the Wilson might be his final musical testament. that add additional texture and depth. Pickett classic “I Found A Love” is a The Blues Came Callin’, then, is a On the other hand, “Gentle Reminder” is masterful blend of Specter’s succinct peek inside the roiling emotions of some- more blues-rock, offering up a nod and guitar jabs with Clay’s pleading vocals. one facing dark prospects, a certain doom, wink to -rock icon Vaughan, Keyboardist Brother John Kattke han- and it plays like that. Don’t come looking especially when it comes to the guitar dles the vocals on three other tunes, for messages of happy uplift on songs like riffs on this catchy track. Don Nix’s “Same Old Blues,” Lonnie “Wastin’ Away,” “The World Is Goin’ Crazy Some standout tracks include a Brooks’ “Watchdog,” and Specter’s (And So Am I),” or “Hard Time,” moments swing-style tribute to Big Ray Bop and name checking tribute to his hometown, that push back against that sad fate with a the Latin-tinged “Shame.” For a nice “Chicago Style.” ferocious tenacity. Trout, who was in fact change-up, “Been Better To You” opens The other seven songs are Specter wasting away, was determined to go down with a big horn blast in New Orleans-style originals featuring guitar and keyboards swinging, and The Blues Came Callin’ is funk that has us easily convinced that vocalizing the emotional colors. “New that kind of record. There are times when Cannon knows much about a lot of blues West Side Stroll,” a remake of his 1995 doubt creeps in, as on “The Bottom Of The and jazz musical idioms and has the “West Side Stroll,” opens the record with River” when Trout becomes entangled in chops to write and perform an album that a healthy dose of the Chicago blues an inexorable current, one that’s dragging even jaded Chicago fans are going to like. championed by Magic Sam, Otis Rush, him ever deeper. Later, he ends up in the – Michael Cala and others that has always been at the belly of “The Whale.” More often, though, center of Specter’s music. Adding Bob Trout lands blow after blow after blow with Corritore’s harmonica to “Jefferson his suddenly fraying voice, with his still Stomp,” a vivid Chess-styled blues, and muscular guitar upon the forces working “Opus De Swamp,” a slow blues medita- against him. By the time Trout settles into  tion, Specter further establishes his place the impassioned groove of “Nobody Message In Blue among the finest guitarists in the genre. Moves Me Like You Do,” a furiously con- But, like Earl, Specter can also coax a nective assertion of life-long love, it’s easy Delmark variety of stringed approaches. With its to see how Trout made it through these Like his mentor Ronnie Earl, Dave funky underpinnings, Specter erases the unimaginably difficult times. He’s a fighter. Specter is an expressive guitarist who is lines that separate jazz and blues on – Nick DeRiso “Funkified Outta Space.” Ditto the tenor sax guitar jazz featured on “The Specti- fyin’ Samba.” While the title cut has faint phrasing references to Jimi Hendrix instrumentals. Dave Specter knows his place is to allow his strings a freedom of expression that, like the finest vocalists, can capture every human emotion from the fervor of a gospel sermon to quiet contemplations of love. – Art Tipaldi

42 Blues Music Magazine to his leading swing/blues outfits in Chicago (“Tomorrow” and the ballad “Big Bill Blues”). They include such aber- rations as Broonzy’s quasi-bluegrass Emergency Situation flat-picking masterpiece, “How You Want Blind Pig It Done?” The Alvins always add their own stamp, revving up “Trucking Little When Rod Piazza steps back in time, Woman” into electric Blasters-style rock- he causes quite a stir in the old audible abilly, as Dave quotes Paul Burlison’s vibrations. For his latest, Emergency “Train Kept A Rolling” guitar licks. Situation, Piazza has one foot in the Broonzy’s biggest hit, “Key To The High- past, one in the present. He reaches way,” is done Brownie and Sonny style, back to the ‘50s for the opening cut, a relentlessly into the future by Piazza Phil blowing harp. Broonzy cover of New Orleans native Wee Willie and his quartet featuring wife Honey on was Muddy Waters’ idol and Dave’s Wayne’s “Neighbor, Neighbor.” What barrelhouse piano. menacing take on “You’ve Changed” Piazza comes up with has a jump blues It’s another solid performance by shows the connection. base, but when Piazza jumps in, his harp Piazza, but seems a little low in energy. That eclecticism creates a fitting leaps up to the stratosphere, bouncing Maybe a live record next time to really homage to the versatile Broonzy, whose around like a comet pinballing in a capture the power and glory of Piazza uncanny ability to tailor his approach to gravity free zone. and his band. his audience inspires disdain from some Except for some low-key harp – Grant Britt blues purists. What they overlook is moaning on the outro, Piazza’s cover Broonzy’s mastery of everything he played. on ’s “Milk And Water” is Common Ground is a fiery, varied set of note-for-note, his vocal as smooth and great songs performed with passion that laid back as Milburn’s original. If Piazza DAVE ALVIN & PHIL ALVIN should please Broonzy and Alvin fans ever wants to come south, he could have alike, and send us all back to the original another career playing this one for shag- Common Ground records for renewed inspiration. gers who would eat up the laconic shuffle. Yep Roc – Larry Nager His own composition, “Frankenbop,” moves a whole lot quicker than its sham- It can be argued that the first rock ‘n’ roll bling zombie namesake, with Piazza run- band was Big Bill Broonzy’s right thumb. ning around harpily like an over amped The primordial thump that country-blues TERRY HANCK creature shrieking at the heavens while giant’s opposing appendage brought to the enraged citizens pound along behind the bass strings of his guitar was power- Gotta Bring It Home ToYou him with torches aloft. ful enough to rock any house, from the Delta Groove Covering Sam Myers’ ‘57 classic Mississippi jukes of his 1920s’ boyhood, “Sleeping In The Ground” is a task few to the European clubs and theaters that Calling his style “Greasy Soul Rocking would dare to undertake. Myers’ bends saw his final gigs in the 1950s. Blues” this sexagenarian sax player is the reeds so hard on his first solo you can Powerful enough, in fact, to inspire accurately pitching his product. Half of the actually feel them lying down and weeping the most fractious brothers in Americana songs on this ten song CD are over five in protest. But Piazza matches him lick – lead guitarist/singer/songwriter Dave minutes long and he penned four of them for reed-stretching lick, then puts some Alvin and singer/rhythm guitar man Phil, and shared co writes with Kid Andersen bottom on it as well. It’s a great tribute. founders of seminal band and JoJo Russo on another. Having toured Unfortunately, Piazza’s cover of “Ya The Blasters – to reunite for a Broonzy for ten years with , Hanck Ya,” sung by Mighty Flyer guitarist Henry tribute, their first studio album in almost started his own group in 1987. Accordingly, Carvajal, doesn’t fare as well. It just does- 30 years. The dozen songs here span the first cut is Elvin Bishop’s “Right Now Is n’t have the punch and quirkiness of Lee Broonzy’s amazing career, from his early The Hour” and this opening song sets the Dorsey’s original. Piazza usually is able to ragtime picking (“Saturday Night Rub”) mood for nine more joyous tracks. take old rockers and breathe new life into Hanck can hit high notes on his tenor them like he does in his live shows with just shy of a dog’s hearing range, yet he “Rockin’ Robin,” but “Ya Ya” needs to go manages to honk his horn in a unique back in the vault, it’s just too hard to style that never results in dissonant improve on the classic. squealing. Such command of this instru- But Piazza gains it all back with his ment earned Hanck the 2012 Blues Music original, “Colored Salt,” a reed-buzzing, Award for “Instrumentalist Horn” and the instrumental tutorial on how to make a nomination again this year. Hanck’s harp talk. Piazza makes that harmonica vocals resonate in a style that one can do everything but stand up on its hind feel his emotion in the lyrics legs and bark on a tune that sounds Guitarist Johnny “Cat” Soubrand dis- T-Bone Walker inspired but driven plays a style that has you appreciating

Blues Music Magazine 43 gritty Jimi Hendrix-styled guitar over Muddy’s male posturing lyrics. This one song immediately connects the blues from ’s 1941 original joined with Muddy’s rework in the ‘50s then strung Brotherhood through Jimi’s psychedelic ‘60s guitar and Alligator vocalized by Clark, 2014’s blues torch- bearer. As storied as this threesome is, The From there, Clark follows with three Holmes Brothers are still the most under- from his critically acclaimed 2013 Blak & rated band on the blues circuit. I say that Blu record, “Next Door Neighbor Blues,” because their deeply soulful sound clicks “Travis County,” and “When My Train Pulls with a telepathic smoothness that tran- the craft of a talented musician. Hanck’s In,” his modern blues statement showcas- scends blues, classic R&B, country, and core band includes Soubrand, Tim Wagar ing both the range and power of his guitar gospel while staying true to their live on bass, and Butch Cousins on drums. acrobatics and articulate vocals. Just when sound honed from their rural Virginia Andersen and (two of the you think the blues train might have left the roadhouse roots. “Friends” in the title) add their expertise station after guitarist King Zapata and Clark Brotherhood is their 12th album in as well. sped guitar all over the map on “Don’t Owe 25 years and one of their best. Most note- “Jam It Up” and “T’s Groove” grace You A Thang,” he brings the crowd back to worthy is their seven-minute version of the CD with very listenable instrumentals the deep blues with the warm tones of “Amazing Grace,” the traditional gospel that make one want to keep hitting the B.B. King’s “Three O’Clock Blues.” Clark’s mainstay they render at the end of each repeat button on the CD player. He covers every note rings late night melancholy and concert. Other than Mavis Staples, there a whole palette of pleasing sounds with the each syllable he sings pleads forgiveness. is not another act in blues that more com- Cajun sounding “Pins And Needles,” a B.B. The first disc ends with two more from fortably blends the secular and sacred, King-esque, “Whole Lotta Lovin’,” and an Blak & Blu, “Things Are Changing,” Clark’s whether it’s on the Booker T standard “My early Electric Flag sounding “My Last modern R&B tune, and “Numb,” a crashing Kind Of Girl,” the mournful Ted Hawkins’ Teardrop.” His skillful rhythm section allows mash-up of fuzz, distortion, and hardcore song “I Gave Up All I Had” or in the eight Hanck the room to have his horn sounds noise not for the faint of heart. originals including Wendell Holmes’ tomes soar at will when his lips are on the reed. Amid four more Clark originals from about the vicissitudes of relationships. Delta Groove certainly has added Blak & Blu, including the title cut and the Produced by three different veterans a thoroughbred to their blues stable by heavy blues-rock of oft-recorded “Bright whose credits include such disparate acts having Terry Hanck recording for them. Lights,” the second record features three as Olabelle, Seal, and David Bowie, this – Pete Sardon special covers: Albert Collins’ “If Trouble album lives up to its title by every nuance Was Money,” attacked more to honor of the various definitions of the word Magic Sam’s “All Your Love” than Collins, Brotherhood. Their three-part harmonies Clark’s ten-plus minute nod to Jimi and are a near perfect blend of fraternal GARY CLARK, JR. Little Johnny Taylor on “Third Rock From brother Wendell Holmes’ gruff tenor, The Sun/If You Love Me Like You Say,” with brother Sherman Holmes’ baritone, and Live Johnny Bradley’s bass solo and Johnny honorary brother Popsy Dixon’s flawless Warner Radelat’s drum spot, and ’s falsetto. “When The Sun Goes Down,” surprisingly Universal but never generic, The For the past three years, the blues buzz stripped down to only Clark with guitar and Holmes Bothers are as comfortable to the has been centered on Gary Clark, Jr. harmonica. If a talent like Gary Clark, Jr. educated blues listener as Muddy Waters, Problem for most blues fans is that Clark can encore on this song with only guitar familiar in their delivery to the casual lis- no longer can play your local blues club or and harmonica and compel audiences to tener without being predictable and under- even your favorite blues festival. His listen to time honored blues like this, then rated in their superb musicianship. recent notoriety has his career accelerat- maybe the blues is gonna survive. Wendell is facile in his ability to glide from ing directly into the musical fast lane. – Art Tipaldi gospel piano to electric guitar with effects. For everyone who missed out on those musical growth spurts a decade ago in the blues haunts of Austin and find his current mega-festival appearances difficult to frequent, this double disc, live recording easily captures Clark’s art. Recorded over his tours during 2013 and 2014, the set list includes ten Clark originals augmented by another six blues classics. With a deep, personal reverence for the blues, Clark opens the record with Muddy Waters’ “Catfish Blues,” utilizing a

44 Blues Music Magazine Sherman is rock steady on the bass and drummer Popsy is squeaky tight while never becoming a metronome. The reason is so raw but right is that she woodshedded with The Holmes Brothers for years at Dan Lynch’s in the Big Apple. The reason the Brothers have shared recordings with everyone from to Bruce Spring- steen, Merle Haggard to is because they attract talent like the mag- nets of universal good that they are. This album should go in every blues emerged with something more complete The opener, “If It’s Gonna Be Like fan’s permanent collection. than before, in the sense of this album This” is a good ole shit kicker about a – Don Wilcock and of this band. As they trade vocals, relationship that isn’t going well. The trade licks, and trade songwriting credits, lyrics, “I was waiting at a café on a these guys give new weight to the last crowded afternoon. Whiling away the time word in their band name, even as they and thinking was I too late or too soon,” ROYAL SOUTHERN continue to make good on the other two. tell a wistful story. “Fine By Me Good BROTHERHOOD – Nick DeRiso Bayou” is a lively song infused with that swampy Louisiana theme including HeartSoulBlood voodoo, magnolia wine, and cypress Ruf trees. It’s obviously influenced by her time DEANNA BOGART in New Orleans making the record. “Col- This album begins with a telling song: larbone” an instrumental is a tight, moody “World Blues.” That opening title is as just a wish away piece full of soulful horns and Bogart shin- good a description as any of what unfolds Blind Pig ing on sax. In keeping with Bogart’s on HeartSoulBlood, the Royal Southern diverse style, the end of the disc finds the Brotherhood’s incendiary blending of cul- There may be some blues on Deanna ‘70s hit “Hot Fun In The Summertime” tures, sound, and themes. Its members Bogart’s latest, but her music is such an (Sly and the Family Stone) and the jazz may be famous enough in their own right eclectic mix of jazz, country, slow ballads, standard “Bye Bye Blackbird.” for this amalgam to be dubbed a super and something akin to smooth standards She does have blues credibility. group, but there’s too much authenticity, that she’s hard to pin down. Some call it Bogart three times won Blues Music too much gravitas and grit associated “blusion.” Awards for Horn Instrumentalist of the with these 12 original songs for that often- just a wish away has a New Orleans Year, and is featured in the Legendary deflating tag to stick. feel attributable to recording the disc at Rhythm and Blues Revue, from the blues Instead, the Royal Southern Brother- Dockside Studios in Maurice, Louisiana, cruises with the Tommy Castro Band and hood plunges a ladle deep into the Deep with a host of local talent, including Char- . She also played for U.S. South’s bubbling gumbo pot of musical lie Wooten (Royal Southern Brotherhood), troops in Iraq, Kuwait, and Egypt as part influences. They arrived there not as dilet- Scott Ambush (Spyro Gyra), and Bon- of the Bluzapalooza tours. tantes, but as respected practitioners of erama Horns. The CD was produced by – Karen Nugent the musical culinary arts. The group is JoeBaby Michaels, who recruited the anchored by , son of Gregg; locals to create the broad range of styles. , of ; and Bogart, a Detroit-born vocalist- blues dynamo Mike Zito. Drummer Yon- pianist-sax player who grew up in Phoenix JOSH HOYER rico Scott and bassist Charlie Wooten and New York City and later spent much & THE SHADOWBOXERS augment this core trio. Together, Heart- of her time playing around the Washington SoulBlood charges past the typically sta- D.C. area, impresses on piano and sax Self-released tic genres of funk, rock, blues, and reggae throughout the 11-track disc. Her deep, like a farm truck between shotgun-blast introspective songwriting talent is obvious The resurgence of soul music continues rows of cotton, corn, and soybeans. Push in the seven originals, which weave inter- to flourish, maintaining its position as a the pedal far enough down, and all of it esting story lines into melodic songs. “kissing cousin” to the blues. Lincoln, tends to blend together in the rearview as Something like a blues song emerges Nebraska, may not be anyone’s choice as they do here. about halfway through, on the funky a hotbed of soul, at least until you hear How these guys came to this place is “Tightrope,” written by Doyle Bramhall and this debut release from singer Josh Hoyer a story of happenstance and hard work. Stevie Ray Vaughan. Otherwise, there’s a and his crack nine-piece band. They The Royal Southern Brotherhood have lot of slow, easy listening music here, with blaze through eight Hoyer originals, each followed up their well-received debut with a few ballads early on. It’s a melting pot of one packed with in-the-pocket rhythms, scores of collaborative dates worldwide, several genres that mainly showcases punchy horns, and the leader’s muscular in between their main gigs. They’ve Bogart’s talent as a lyricist. vocals.

Blues Music Magazine 45 church, Singleton self-released the album Heartfelt in 2011. That disc caught the attention of regional blues fans and DELTA GENERATORS critics alike while B.B. King’s Bluesville channel on SiriusXM spun three songs Get On The Horse from the album in regular rotation. Self-released Singleton’s time had come. He would go on to win Guitar Center’s, “King Of The The devastating 1889 flood in Johnstown, Blues” contest for the state of Missis- Pennsylvania, was tragic enough, but the sippi, and receive the Jackson Music Delta Generators make it even more Award for Blues Artist of the Year in haunting with singer-songwriter Craig 2012, as well as Local Entertainer of the Rawding’s imagined back story in “Night The band plays with a confident Year in 2013. He also competed in the Of The Johnstown Flood.” Rawding swagger on tracks like “Illusion” and International Blues Challenge in 2011, incorporates his rich story-telling flair with “Dirty World,” the horns blasting away 2012, 2013 and 2014. At the 2013 IBC, a parable about the death of one brother, over the tight interplay between Benny he was scouted by Bruce Iglauer, the while the other suffers survivor’s guilt Kushner’s guitar riffs and Hoyer’s swirling president of Alligator Records, and all pushed along with guitarist keyboard work. “Close Your Eyes” has a signed with the label in late 2013. Charlie O’Neal’s deep blues throughout tastefully layered arrangement with In October 2013 and January 2014, the seven-minute masterpiece. Hoyer’s baritone sax booting things Singleton and his band recorded at PM The song comes about halfway along, joining Mike Dee on tenor and Music in Memphis. Iglauer and Singleton through the New England based band’s Tommy Van Den Berg on trombone. co-produced. The results of those third album, Get On The Horse, a well- Hoyer doesn’t pull any punches on sessions are recognized on this CD. produced mixture of blues, rock, soul, and the opener, “Shadowboxer,” his rough- Displaying a searing guitar tone and a bit of country that captures everything hewn performance tempered by the nimble soloing skills, Singleton leads an from great songwriting to tight arrange- sweet backing vocals from Hanna outstanding band of superb players that ments on this 12-track disk of originals Bendler, Kim Moser, and Megan Spain. include James Salone on organ, Ben produced by Grammy winner David Z, of The band’s funky nature emerges on Sterling on bass guitar and John “Junior” Prince, Clapton, and Buddy Guy fame. “Everyday And Everynight” as Justin G. Blackmon on drums through twelve high The four-member powerhouse Jones lays down some Latin percussion. octane originals that highlight his lead gui- band consists of brothers Charlie and The emotionally charged “Just Call Me tar prowess and gutsy, alpha male vocals. Rick O’Neal on guitar and bass, singer (I’ll Be Sure To Let You Down Again)” Whether he’s blazing glorious on and harpist Rawding, who penned all finds Hoyer using his distinctive voice to the six strings on “Refuse To Lose,” of the tunes, and the ever-steady Jeff try to put an end to broken relationship. “Purposely,” “Keep Pushin,” or “Come Armstrong on drums, percussion, and The band gives “Til She’s Lovin’ Someone Wit Me,” funking it up on “Gonna Let Go” piano. This record has the added voice Else” a rollicking New Orleans-style strut and “Hero,” waxing the blues on “Crime of Keri Anderson on backups and John anchored by Brian Morrow’s fat bass line. Scene,” “Hell,” and High Minded,” or Cooke on organ. On a disc full of highlights, “Make paving new ground with the songs “Spider Bite” is a hard-hitting blues- Time For Love” stands out as a stone- “Suspicion,” “Blame Game,” and “Sorry,” rocker with a nod to . Charlie cold classic, utilizing a strong Memphis- Jarekus and company are in a total con- O’Neal did two takes of the solo, and his style groove mixed with plenty of attitude temporary blues-rock zone. At age 29, band mates dug the chaotic sound of both as Hoyer pleads for understanding. Don’t Singleton and his band have the chops, at once. “Diablo Rock,” toward the end of let this one slide by – it comes highly swagger and talent to make a real name the record, is a fun, danceable blues- recommended! for themselves in the music world and rocker about the devil stealing God’s – Mark Thompson with a debut album as fiery and satisfyin’, Lincoln and driving it to Mexico to start a as Refuse To Lose, you need to check band. A slow, sexy blues called “The More him out. Good stuff. I Find Out (The Less I Want To Know)” – Brian M. Owens was inspired by Albert King’s Lost Session JAREKUSSINGLETON album. Rawding successfully channels King’s delivery and sense of humor, while RefuseTo Lose Rick O’Neal excels on stand up bass. Alligator Charlie O’Neal picks up a banjo (and uses an e-bow on his electric guitar) on Clinton, Mississippi native and electric “Against The Cold” which swerves toward blues-rocker Jarekus Singleton busts out the folkie side of the street, although of the gates with fervor and intensity on enhanced by Rawding’s harp and soulful his national debut, Refuse To Lose, vocals. He really has an outstanding released on the Alligator label. Formed in vocal range and wonderful emotional 2009, featuring band members drawn expressiveness. After little more than a from the musicians he played with in year as a band, the Generators made

46 Blues Music Magazine THE BEST OF THE EUROPEAN BLUES CHALLENGE 2014

Anyone looking for proof that the blues is alive and well and living in Europe need look no further than this year’s European Blues Challenge, organized by the European Blues Union and held in Riga, Latvia, on the second weekend in April. There, 18 acts – each of them a winner of their respective national competition – showcased their talents on two consecutive nights of 20-minute live performances. The event felt less like a contest than a celebration: An enthusiastic crowd made up of locals, visiting fans, and participating musicians cheered each band in a spirit of community and fair play. On the surface at the top 10 at the 2009 International least, no one seemed to care much about winning. Blues Challenge in Memphis. They have steadfastly improved and matured to a In the end, a panel of industry insiders gave Spain’s A CONTRA BLUES well-honed, talented group. top honors. The abundant talents of this five-piece outfit from Barcelona are – Karen Nugent apparent on their 2013 CD release Chances. The opening two numbers, “A ” and “Just Arrived” – the former rooted in rockabilly, the latter in Elmore James-style blues – show off the key double-barreled weapon in their arsenal: Héctor Martín Díaz and Alberto Noel Calvillo Mendiola, two DOWNCHILD equally gifted guitarists who create an exciting and playful tension. In contrast to the band’s previous album, which relied heavily on classic covers, Chances Can You Hear The Music shows off impressive songwriting chops. “Barkin’ Dog,” for example, is a tense Linus and gripping acoustic track immediately followed by an exhilarating swing workout, “Don’t Do That City,” recalling Brian Setzer’s finest moments. The Downchild Blues Band changed its The singing of Jonathan Herrero Herrería is rather heavily accented, but his name simply to Downchild many years phrasing, tone, and feel for rhythm make him a riveting front man. back to avoid the stigma and perceived limited appeal of the genre. But this leop- Dark-haired, tattooed Finnish singer INA FORSMAN was surely a visual ard hasn’t changed its spots. It’s still your highlight of the weekend in Riga, and what she lacked in vocal finesse, she utilitarian band founded more than made up for with her undeniable spirit and energy. As she did at more than four decades ago by guitarist the EBC, Forsman teams up with harmonica veteran Helge Tallqvist on and harp player Don Walsh, who was Ina Forsman With Helge Tallqvist Band, an entertaining collection of covers smitten at age 16 when he first heard recorded in the summer of 2013. The material here paints a pretty clear Jimmy Reed in the mid-60s. They are to stylistic picture: Several cuts by Magic Sam, , and some popular Canada what The Nighthawks are to the tunes made famous by Etta James. The cheeky video clip to “What Have I United Sates blues scene, stalwart meat Done,” easily located online, provides a glimpse of what these Finns have to and potatoes electric blues based on post- offer both the eyes and the ears. war Chicago blues but, with double the manpower six strong, there’s some jump The EBC’s strongest country blues entry came from Denmark by way of Brazil, blues thrown in. Walsh runs the show. He Marc Rune aka BIG CREEK SLIM. The Danish singer and guitarist is produces, writes most of the songs, and inspired by the first generation or two of recorded bluesmen – Charley Patton, plays guitar, slide guitar, and harmonica, , Muddy Waters – and has a voice rough and tough enough to pull but doesn’t sing. He’s had the same engi- it off. Ninety-Nine And A Half, recorded in 2012, is a solo effort showcasing neer for 30 years, and the current lineup Slim’s unique feel for the old-school blues. And he’s not just copying, either: solidified 15 years ago. This is a good “Biggest Leggest Woman” and “Should I Chase The Wind” are excellent band. To be a great band, they’d need examples of a young inhabitant of the 21st century tapping into a well of more soul than I hear, although vocalist musical history 100 years old. Chuck Jackson does rise to the occasion, particularly on the slower, simpler num- Overlooked somewhat and thus deserving of a very honorable mention here: bers like “This Road” and “Don’t Wait Up DAVID MIGDEN & THE TWISTED ROOTS, the hard-to-categorize For Me” with its fundamental Elmore representatives of the U.K. in Riga. Voodoo blues? Jazz-inflected soul? James-styled slide with piano filigree. Whatever you call it, the quintet’s current release Animal & Man is a gem. Walsh calls “One In A Million” a Every tune is laced with compelling imagery and chock full of atmosphere. guitar melody different from anything he’s The playing is top-notch without once going over-the-top and the production written with a juicy slide guitar sound and lets it all shine through – above all, Migden’s soulful voice, which is almost too almost gospel feel: “My crutch when I’m pretty for the blues. This brilliantly executed album belongs in the hands of limping. My compass when I’m lost. anyone for whom music is the ultimate medicine. One in a million is what you are.” – Vincent Abbate – Don Wilcock

Blues Music Magazine 47 the scene. All that hard work paid off when signed him in late 2013. Castiglia enlisted the Songs From The Road multi-talented Dave Gross, Ruf who recorded and produced Solid Ground, to add his Few people have mastered the art of blues guitar by playing the expert guitar behind instrument left handed and strung backwards. Albert King comes Castiglia on nine tunes. His to mind and so does Coco Montoya. Originally a drummer for touring band of Bob Amsel Albert Collins, he developed a passion for the guitar and learned (drums) and Matt Schuler it as he says, “by feel.” (bass) are also on board. Songs From The Road is a double CD compilation of two The CD opens with two stellar Song of the Year candidates. live at the Triple Door in from 2012. Montoya’s “Triflin’,” is Castiglia’s bare boned, guitar and percussion-centered touring band includes Nathan Brown on bass, Rena Beavers on criticism of urban meddlers and liars. The shufflin’ “Keep You drums and vocals, and the Around Too Long” features Castiglia and Fields tradin’ guitars over stellar Brant Leeper on key- Jeremy Baum’s lush piano accenting the song’s overdue mes- boards and vocals. Montoya sage. Long known for his sense of humor onstage and in song, handles the guitar and main Castiglia calls on Debbie Davies to sing and swap riffs on his “Put vocals. Each disc holds Some Stank On It,” a male call for his lady to up her attitude. seven songs, but some cuts Castiglia’s deepest blues surface on “Sleepless Nights” and take almost a ten-minute Walter Williams’ classic “Bad Avenue” where Amsel’s heavy ride which more than allows emphasis on the backbeat is reminiscent of early Chess record- each musician to showcase ings. His energetic guitar workout on Jimmy Oden’s “Going Down their talent. One standout Slow” provides Castiglia room to explore the depth of a blues song song is “Good Days, Bad over 70 years old, yet still relevant. While his own “Hard Time” Days” which has a sublimely combines Castiglia’s acoustic slide guitar and Field’s mandolin to lovely piano/organ solo by explore 2014’s struggles. Leeper that has the audience applauding and then, not to be out- His partnership with Miami songwriter Graham Drout, whose done, Brown plies his bass playing talent in a solo that earns him songs are major components of Castiglia’s earlier work, continues the same accolades. Montoya finishes out the song with his well here. In Castiglia’s hands, Drout’s three songs “Celebration” articulated and pleasing guitar notes and then gives these two (originally on Castiglia’s 2008 record These Are The Days), “Just musicians a shout out as the band has taken this song to a higher Like Jesus,” and “Searching The Desert For The Blues” are perfect plane through their expertise. examples of the modern bluesman as singer-songwriter. His appre- If you’ve had the pleasure to see Montoya play live, than you ciation of his Cuban heritage surfaces on the instrumental “Little are aware of how each note or guitar phrase is evidenced on his Havana Blues,” while his love of Stones blues-rock is apparent on facial features. There are five photographs in this CD package their 1971 “Sway.” that catch him in an array of musical ecstasy that proves, as Dave With this fresh start on a major blues label and his touring on Van Ronk once said, “I cannot sing a lie.” Montoya co-wrote three the Ruf Caravan throughout Europe in 2014, is of the fourteen songs – two with Doug MacLeod. His softer blues poised to show off his world-class blues. renderings, “Too Much Water,” “I Wish I Could Be That Strong,” – Art Tipaldi and “The One Who Really Loves You,” on this double CD offer an emotive timbre to his voice that is not only pleasing but also infec- tious. If your current blues library lacks a spot for Coco Montoya, Songs From The Road would be a wise purchase to fill that JONN DEL TORO RICHARDSON vacancy. & SEAN CARNEY – Pete Sardon Drivin’ Me Wild Tony’s Treasures Productions

ALBERT CASTIGLIA The 2005 International Blues Challenge brought guitarists Jonn Richardson and Sean Carney together, Richardson per- Solid Ground forming with , and Carney with , Ruf Carney recalls in the liner notes to this spirited collaboration. Since then, the veteran IBC award winners (band and guitarists) Albert Castiglia is a Southern Florida guitarist with a pretty have recorded a trio of Blues Cures studio jam CDs with some impressive resume. His stint as the guitarist in Junior Wells’ last all-star guitar players. band took this guitarist into the heart of the blues at an early age. On Drivin’ Me Wild, the duo take turns on lead vocals on Since then, Castiglia has released five critically acclaimed albums a 13-song set dominated by originals written by Carney or and cemented a reputation as one of the finest young guitarists on Richardson. But the emphasis here is more on playing than

48 Blues Music Magazine singing, with the guitarists sparring back and forth on solos, giving the per- formances the spirit of a live recording, empha- sized by Carney when he shouts “Here we go!” before an instrumental break on “Cloud Nine.” The format is rooted deep in the blues tradi- tion, such as on the title cut, a shuffle by Carney that sounds immediately familiar, a tried-and-true blues structure that offers plenty of space for these guys to show off their chops. On a few tracks, guitarist and fellow International Blues Challenge Albert King Award winner JP Soars joins the proceedings, adding yet another distinctive voice to the lead guitar attack. Singer Omar Coleman lends his lead vocal growl to a pair of songs he co- wrote with Richardson (“A Man Like Me” and “Hold Me”) and one of his own “Slow Down.” Coleman also guests on harmonica on Richardson’s soulful ballad, “Peace Of Mind,” one the album’s most moving cuts, thanks to Richardson’s mournful vocal. The album’s one cover song is an inspired choice: ’ “Chocolate Jesus,” a tune from the latter-day catalog of songs Waits wrote with his wife, Kathleen Brennan (misidenti- fied in the notes as “Katherine.”) Richardson and Carney might consider throwing a few more left-field choices into the mix next time around to punch up that comfortable groove they inhabit so well. While the good-time style blues can be comforting, lacing it with a bit of dark humor and perhaps an acoustic touch (bass player Sam Van Fossen uses an upright on this track, as he does on the instrumental closer “One For J.B.”) can be so refreshing in a genre that too often plays it . – Michael Cote

VANEESE THOMAS Blues For My Father Segue

Back in the first half of the ‘90s when I was music editor at the Memphis Commercial Appeal, Rufus Thomas and his family were everywhere, even the phone book. Yes, you could pick up the White Pages and dial the man who gave Sun and Stax their first hits and who fathered some of the city’s most talented musicians. But though Marvell and Carla Thomas were very much part of the local scene, Rufus’ youngest, Vaneese, was the missing Thomas. With Beale Street in ruins and Stax long gone, she’d headed to New York years earlier, becoming an in-demand singer for

Blues Music Magazine 49 national jingles like Pepsi and doing backup for the era’s biggest pop and R&B stars. But blood will tell, and this is her musical journey back to the Home of the Blues. GENE “DADDY G” BARGE However, “back home” doesn’t mean “downhome.” This is not her father’s blues. The sleek professionalism that made her Olio a busy session singer in the ‘80s and ‘90s is much in evidence Wildroot here. Most of the 12 songs were recorded at her studio in New York with some of the area’s best session players, including The raucous tenor sax solos by “Daddy G” on Gary U.S. Bonds’ David Letterman bassist Will Lee. string of LeGrand hits in the early 1960s were a call to rowdiness Vaneese is a wonderful singer, with a soulful, raised-in-the- for me and my hormonally challenged pre-teen buddies. church sound that’s equally at home duetting her father a la Nat Suffice to say the diverse music on Olio is somewhat mellower. and Natalie Cole on “Can’t Ever Let You Go” (a 1991 session Self-produced on his Wild- Rufus did at ) and singing with Carla on “Wrong Turn,” root imprint, 88-year-old which also features her keyboardist brother Marvell, their parts sax legend Gene “Daddy G” recorded at Royal Studio in Memphis, fittingly with Willie Barge recruited some spe- Mitchell’s son Boo at the controls. cial Windy City guests like Other than the Rufus duet, the only other cover here is vocalists Otis Clay, Willie Vaneese’s appropriately swampy take on John Fogerty’s “The Rogers, and Eric Thomas, Old Man Down The Road.” That’s the biggest surprise here, guitarists Buddy Guy, Criss what a fine songwriter she is. “Southern Central Blues” opens Johnson, and Will Crosby, the album with the declaration, “I got the blues,” and she goes and baritone sax stalwart on to decisively reclaim that birthright, from the numerical put- Willie Henderson for this down of a cheating love, “10X The Man You Are”; the slow burn set of nine originals and two of “On the Corner of Heartache and Pain”; the autobiographical covers (an instrumental “Southern Girl”; and the gospel-tinged acoustic closer “Blue version of Bonnie Raitt’s plaintive ballad “I Can’t Make You Love Ridge Blues.” Through it all, Vaneese Thomas does her Me” and Buddy Miles’ rollicking “Them Changes” featuring daddy proud. Johnson on vocals and guitar). Most of the originals are jazz, – Larry Nager both smooth and funky, and classic soul. The slinky

50 Blues Music Magazine “Shame On Me, Shame On You” is the lone blues: a vocal duet Mississippi, especially after with Guy whose acerbic licks intensify the torment of love gone his father passed away bad. The non-ballad soul tunes are the horn-heavy funk grinder in 2009. about a fortune telling femme fatale, “Reader Woman,” and the Now Cotton is back with lilting “We’ll Be Friends” with Clay, Rogers, and Barge (all friends a new release that highlights for over 40 years) sharing the vocals. The upbeat instrumentals all of his talents as a singer, are “Safe Sax” and “Sweetness,” a tribute to Chicago Bear great songwriter, and musician. Walter Payton. Barge’s glorious sax is heard in abundance DeChamp Records was throughout this eclectic album whose main appeal will be to sax formed by Grady Champion, and soul fans. a talented artist in his own – Thomas J. Cullen III right. Champion plays har- monica on two tracks. Other members of the band include Myron Bennett on bass, Samuel Scoot Jr. on drums and percussion, and Carlos Russell on harp on EDDIE COTTON two cuts. Producer Sam Brady, who also engineered the recording sessions, appears on four songs playing organ. Here I Come The opening strains of the title track make it clear that DeChamp Cotton has a bad case of the blues, laying down a smoldering groove punctuated by fiery guitar solo. “A Woman’s Love” slows Ten years ago, I saw Eddie Cotton at the Mississippi Valley Blues the pace even further as Cotton offers an incisive testament to festival. Playing on the bandshell, Cotton electrified the crowd the strength of his love for his woman. Bennett’s popping bass with a set that featured his fine vocal skills and impressive guitar establishes the funky driving rhythm on “Get Your Own,” as playing. An added bonus was that I was able to purchase a copy Cotton paints a vivid portrayal of a bluesman’s financial plight. of Cotton’s hard-to-find recording, Extra, that he had released the Champion blows some mean harp over the propulsive, driving previous year. Since then, Cotton simply vanished and, except for beat on “Leave Love Alone,” then fills in behind Cotton’s lusty an occasional mention in a blues publication, he was missing in singing on “Berry So Black.” action. A search of the Internet revealed that he had spent much “Pay To Play” is a toe-tapper about a woman tired of being of his time working with his father, a pastor, to run their church in mistreated. Cotton fires off a steady stream of staccato notes that

Blues Music Magazine 51 drive home. The downhome, country feel on “Back In A Bit” offers a different mood with Russell’s harp echoing Cotton’s multi-tracked vocals. Slipping into a slinky, infectious groove on “My Boo,” Cotton uses his honeyed voice to convey his excitement over his woman’s new hairstyle. Cotton’s taste- fully layered vocals take you to church on “No Love Back,” with a hint of reggae capping off a memorable examination of love’s transformational power. It may be early in the year, but you can bet this recording will be getting plenty of attention come awards time. It is great to have him back. Don’t miss this stellar recording. – Mark Thompson

ANDY T & NICK NIXON Livin’ It Up Delta Groove

The list of people who can successfully cover a Delbert McClinton song is a short one. Put Andy T and Nick Nixon at the top of the list. “Livin’ It Down,” from their latest has that signature salty, snaky, funky groove McClinton built his career on. Nixon’s vocal combines the gospel feel of the Holmes Brothers’ Popsy Dixon and the bluesy vocals of B.B. King with some King-style guitar courtesy of Andy T (Talamantez). Pianist Larry Van Loon sprin- kles some Professor Longhair over the top and around the sides to enhance the second line backbone. Anson Funderburgh is back producing once again as he did on their last release, Drink Drank Drunk, and playing rhythm guitar on one track, “Oh Baby.” Funderburgh coaxes an easygoing vibe out of the band throughout the disc, Andy T’s guitar reflecting his T-Bone Walker influence on the shuffle “Baby Right Now.” The Jimmy Reed-flavored “Best In Town,” written by Nixon, glides along on greased rails aided by Christian Dozzler’s harp. “My Baby Is Now On My Mind” shuf- fles along smoothly, combining T’s Albert Collins guitar treat- ment with a B.B. King-flavored vocal by Nixon. “Last To Leave,” co-written by T and saxophonist Dana Robbins, is a Jerry Lee Lewis-style rocker with some frenetic -style honkin’ from Robbins. “Whatever You Had You Ain’t Got It No More” features Nixon and sounds like it crawled out of church and through the window of a juke joint to rest in the lap of a two timin’ Jezebel who’s finally getting her comeuppance for her sleazy ways. If this music don’t cure what ails you, you might as well check in at the boneyard. Do yourself a favor and write yourself an Andy T – Nick Nixon prescription for the best music this side of the grave. – Grant Britt

52 Blues Music Magazine IAN SIEGAL Man & Guitar Nugene

Ian Siegal is best known for his most recent work with his brethren, Kimbroughs, Burnsides, and Dickinsons. In that setting, Siegal expanded his blues-rock trio base into the groove laden, hill country styles. This current disc presents Siegal in a totally different environment, light years from the land where the blues began. Seated in London’s prestigious Royal Albert Hall and armed with only his acoustic guitars, Siegal has recorded an exquisite set of traditional music. Siegal opens the early afternoon gig with his high flyin’ cowboy tale “The Silver Spurs.” After some banter with the audience, Siegal accelerates the traditional “Mary Don’t You Weep” at a pace that’s more Springsteen the Aretha. Both tunes were originally part of Siegal’s 2008 acoustic record, The Dust. His “Mortal Coil Shuffle,” recorded on his Swagger album in the Chicago blues style of Muddy’s “Long Distance Call” is presented here acoustically in the same arrangement as Clapton’s “Walking Blues” from his Unplugged record. Siegal calls Charley Patton “the greatest guitarist” then flies into Patton’s seminal “.” Patton’s original style on guitar and vocals is tough to replicate, yet Siegal’s heavy thumb picking and gruff vocals augmented by falsetto are enough for the casual fan to appreciate. His other blues standards are a ragtime flavored “T’ain’t Nobody’s Business,” (performed a la Taj Mahal) and a medley of Son House’s “Preachin’ Blues,” the Sensational Nightingales’ spiritual “Live So God Can Use You,” and Mississippi Fred McDowell’s “You Got To Move.” His gospel placement should remind of the separation of blues and gospel in the minds of Delta blues originals. Siegal’s humble “Falling On Down Again” offers the sad tale of the fall that every human faces. His anguished plea to stand up again amid life’s downfalls touches deeply. For me, this was the night’s finest performance. Siegal ends the night with “a song from the fifties, the 1850s,” Stephen Foster’s “Hard Times (Come Again No More).” His pristine finger pick- ing, ringing slide, and weathered voice center this universal song in a timeless world. A second highlight. For one special night, Ian Siegal has expertly connected the blues and of the rural American South with the lordly posh Royal Alberts. (And don’t miss Siegal’s hilarious comment about his front row seat at a Kris Kristofferson show.) – Art Tipaldi

Blues Music Magazine 53

Goodman. Besides doing all of the lead vocals on the ten songs, Hill also tracks KELLEY HUNT her own voice as one of the backup vocalists. The Beautiful Bones Catfood’s , The Rays, 88 Records add just the right touch of organ, piano, guitars, and a tight rhythm section. More than the bones prove beautiful on Smooth would be proper way to describe this scintillating release by one of soul’s their sound. Hill’s vocal range can glide best-kept secrets. Bulletproof originals from softness to a full forte sound that like the funky “Golden Hour” to the high- showcases her depth as a singer. torque, torrid of “Release Fittingly she includes “Damn Your Eyes” And Be Free” prove Kelley Hunt’s time to breaks fresh ground – a soulful epic and in the set list, as she wanted to pay shine is here. She’s been belting out her deeply introspective opus that pushes homage to Etta James. She has two version of blended with skyward like an aerial ballet, driven by original songs, “I Got A Voice” a tribute to barrelhouse blues, funk, and R&B for the some of Hunt’s most powerful vocals her daughter and “Nobody Cared” which past 20-plus years – her delicate fusion of ever. This is the true evolution of a talent speaks of her life’s journey. styles ever-evolving. who only grows more cherished each If this was intended as an audition for Yet it’s her voice that has grown time out. even better songs to come, Catfood even larger over time, maturing with the – Eric G. Thom Records would be wise to record Hill soulful, velveteen finish and finesse that again as her voice is one that has earned only comes with time-tested talent. The more than just a back up role. Beautiful Bones represents two things: – Pete Sardon first, it’s a culmination of all the music the DAUNIELLE HILL Kansas City native has grown up with, and two, there’s something entirely fresh Daunielle going on as she takes a firmer hold on Catfood JJ THAMES her own voice. The addition of John Jackson on Currently touring with Huey Lewis and the Tell You What I Know guitar has injected the band with a News, Memphis’s own soul/blues singer DeChamp refreshing twist in both the band’s and Daunielle (dawn-yell) Hill took the time to Hunt’s sound. Her seasoned players record her debut album at Catfood JJ Thames possesses a marvelously (Bryan Owings, drums; Tim Marks, bass; Records in Texas. Given the sonic foun- expressive voice that gets a full workout Mark Jordan, B-3) distinguish themselves dation of The Rays, a nine piece band on her debut recording. Thames has done by their ability to adapt to whatever that sports four horn players along with backing vocals on stage for everyone Hunt throws at them, stylistically – and the requisite guitar, bass, drums, and key- from Marvin Sease to rock bands like Beautiful Bones covers a broad musical boards, Hill’s vocals clearly shine through Fishbone and the English Beat. Right landscape. Take the funky, wah-wah this full sound and the purchaser will find from the start, she makes it clear that her guitar-laced, horn-backed, piano-driven this an eminently listenable CD. talents deserve the spotlight. testifying of “This Time” with its tasty The outstanding track “(Your Love On the opener, “Souled Out,” she McCrary Sisters’ back-up vocals to the Has Lifted Me) Higher And Higher” will moans and shouts with gospel intensity gentle, heartfelt ballad “Let It Rain,” with force you to stop and listen and feel the over sparse percussion and backing its lightly-caressed piano notes as Jack- energy of her phrasing as she starts out vocals. “Hey You” is another original that son’s guitar recalls ’s cover slowly and then finishes with a wonderful borrows the familiar guitar figure from of “.” Front and up-tempo rendering of this classic. Having “Smokestack Lightnin’” to create a hyp- center, vintage Hunt, her vocals capable been a backup singer herself, Hill gets notic hook while the singer explores the of light and dark and all tones and assistance on six of the songs with vocals breadth of her tonal palette. textures in between. From the by Reba Russell and Tameka “Big Baby” The title track acknowledges the church-schooled gospel of “Release And road Thames has traveled, with her Be Free” to the more aggressive, horn- voice taking on a husky tone that threat- driven sass of “When Love Is At The ens to overpower the lush arrangement. Wheel,” Hunt takes full control, earning “I’Ma Make It” and “I Got What You those countless comparisons to big- Need” features harp from Executive name singers who work half-as-hard. Producer Grady Champion. The later Yet, it’s the new path taken which awak- track also gets a boost from a three- ens you to the fact that Hunt’s talents piece horn section, giving Thames a know no earthly limits. From the ethereal, solid platform for her saucy performance. drug-trippy “Gates Of Eden” to the sweet, Label mate Eddie Cotton plays guitar on gentle soul of “I Want You There,” it’s the three tracks, including “No Turning transcendental “Miracle” which truly Back,” as Thames’ vivid tone rides the

Blues Music Magazine 55 attention throughout, no matter the particular song’s style or provenance. It takes a few measures’ worth of instrumentation (measures filled sweetly WITH HAMMIE NIXON by Brandon Santini’s magnificent harp playing) on the shuffle, “Brunette Woman” Live In Japan to get to Jensen’s verse, sung in a gruff, Delmark strained blues style: “I got a pretty little woman/her hair turns red in the sun/ The blues has always had its share of everything was beautiful until the unforgettable musical duos. The more preacher said ‘We are one.” Hmmmm. memorable include Butterbeans and An interesting premise, there. Suzy, Leroy Carr and , rich organ tones courtesy of Sam Brady. “Good Bye Portland,” another of his Lonnie Johnson and , Her meticulous phrasing on ballads like compositions, is a gentle, piano-backed Sonny Terry and Brownie McGee, Buddy “Rhinestones” creates layers of emo- tale of Jensen’s departure from that City of Guy and Junior Wells, and Sleepy John tional depth. Perhaps the finest moment Roses and arrival in Memphis, his home Estes and Hammie Nixon. The latter is an inspired cover of Ray Charles’ for the past few years, where he teamed began their lifelong friendship and musi- “I Believe.” The singer takes a measured up with the superb musicians included cal partnership in the 1920s that lasted tone that gradually shifts to a grittier here: the aforementioned Santini (harp), until Estes’ death in 1977 (Nixon passed approach as her sense of betrayal Bill Ruffino (bass), James Cunningham in 1984). grows. (drums), Chris Stephenson (organ), and Like many blues performers, Estes By the end of this recording, you will Victor Wainwright (piano). and Nixon were forced by changing times have reached the inescapable conclusion Jensen does a passable and compli- to cease recording after their heyday, that JJ Thames is one of those rare com- mentary cover of Tom Waits’ “Heart Attack which ran from 1929-1941, and return to binations – a singer with huge voice and & Vine,” also the title song of Waits’ final lives that were difficult and impoverished. the understanding of how to use it to record on the Asylum label. Not an imita- Fortunately, however, they were ultimately accentuate her material. You can bet we tion, but he gets the famous Waits growl swept up in the big blues revival net that will be hearing more from her for years and intonation down and frames the unfurled in the 1960s and revived the to come. verses with a spare electric guitar solo. careers of so many great blues talents – Mark Thompson A spry original instrumental shuffle called too numerous to mention here. “Pepper” could easily have come from a After a couple of false starts in the and Les Paul collaboration. 1950s with unreleased Sun and Ora Nelle Which is to say there’s more thrum sides, Estes was lured back into the JEFF JENSEN than strum in this briskly paced track. recording studio in 1962 under the aus- A provocative treatment of Willie Dixon’s pices of ’ Bob Koester. RoadWorn&Ragged “” wherein it’s played Accompanied by pal Nixon, Estes recorded Swing Suit against a beat put down in military march- and toured for more than a decade in a ing style on a snare drum shows there’s great second act for both men. What I usually note at the outset when room yet for creativity within the outlines Live In Japan is an excellent exam- first listening to a recording is the of that blues standard. ple of what the duo sounded like in the performer’s voice (assuming someone “Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You?” 1970s, performing for sold out Japanese sings). Don’t know why. Musicianship is affords Jensen the opportunity to demon- audiences in four big tours across Japan certainly something I listen for as well, strate his grasp of jazz standards with between 1974 and 1976. Despite advanc- along with the melodies, tempo, and gentle fretwork evocative of Grant Green ing age – Estes was in his mid-70s, Nixon overall coherence. On all points, Jeff or perhaps George Benson. This song is was 10 years younger when these record- Jensen has presented us with a superior a true classic, composed by Andy Razaf ings were made – the duo displays an product in Road Worn & Ragged. and Don Redman (uncle to Dewey energy and enthusiasm that belies Jensen’s voice grabbed and held my Redman and great-uncle to Joshua advancing age. Redman). Jensen’s voicing is respectful and subdued, putting him in the company of so many other great interpreters of this venerated number. Geoff Muldaur’s and the late ’s are a couple of versions I particularly admire; Jensen’s is not quite up to theirs, but close. If you aren’t familiar with Jeff Jensen, this recording serves notice that it’s time to get to know him. His ability and tastes demand it. – M.E. Travaglini

56 Blues Music Magazine Opening with “Corinna, Corinna,” the duo demonstrates a synthesis of talent that spanned half a century at that point. With Nixon alternating with Sleepy John on vocals, and accompanying him on blues harp, jug, and kazoo, this tune has a call-and-response quality that surprises those of us used to the Blind Lemon or versions. This symbiotic playing is evident throughout, punctuated numerous times by spontaneous audience applause. Also contained on this 21-track recording are reprisals of tunes the duo had performed at the peak of their careers, including “The Girl I Love,” “Broke And Hungry,” “Divin’ Duck,” and “Stop That Thing,” [all Delmark] and “Rats In My Kitchen,” which Estes had recorded for in 1952. Given their long history together, the men play seamlessly, with Nixon effortlessly accompanying Estes’ acoustic guitar and vocals on every tune, alternating among blues harp, kazoo, and deep-down vocals that complement Estes’ lighter voice. Other tunes reprised by the duo include “When The Saints Go Marching In,” “Holy Spirit, Don’t You Leave Me,” and Nixon’s version of “Fox Chase.” The last four tracks – “Sleepy John’s Twist,” “Love Grows In Your Heart,” Brownsville Blues,” and “Jesus Is On The Mainline” – feature the Japanese blues band Yukadan backing Estes and Nixon with taste and reserve. – Michael Cala

GILESCOREY Giles Corey’s Stoned Soul Delmark

Guitarist-singer and bandleader Giles Corey is a Chicago-based musician who just happens to also be the guitarist for . Upon graduating from the University of Chicago in 1997, Corey joined and the Sons of Blues. This was his first exposure to national and international touring. In addition, Corey played shows and recorded with and Buddy Miles around that time. In 2001 Corey was hired by his long-time guitar hero, Otis Rush, to play in his band. Corey toured with Otis Rush until the elder guitarist’s 2004 stroke sadly made live performances impossible. Whether Corey is putting his stamp on one of those well-played covers or delivering his own righteous guitar driven blues-rockers, he and his band (that also includes bassist Joewaun Scott), ignite the stage that they’re standing on with an unmistakable electrifyin’ vibe. Corey’s vocals are every bit as good as his guitar slinging too. It’s a mixture of high quality Cuban tobacco, finely blended Southern whiskey, and a naturally innate sense of emotive talent. This guy is no Stoned Soul is Corey’s newest band stranger to the blues world, but it is his He advertised this, his latest album, on and this self-titled disc is his debut album time to shine and shine he will. the back page of this magazine. And then not only for the Delmark label but for – Brian M. Owens in January 2014 at age 53, he died. GCSS. It’s immediately apparent that “Give me a little bit, just a little more Corey is a superb guitar player. His tone, time. Don’t draw the curtain on this life chops, and technical ability are above of mine,” he sings on “Curtains.” He reproach as he blazes through eight well- JEFF STRAHAN dedicates “The One” to his mother and penned originals and five well-chosen sings, “I don’t want to be the one to say covers like ’s smash single, Monkey Around goodbye when we’re done.” His website “Don’t Let The Green Grass Fool You,” Squaw Peaks biography says that he “had to beat a Gary Clark Jr.’s inaugural hit, “Bright terminal illness and regain his strength Lights,” the songs “Right On!” and “Watch Jeff Strahan gave up a career as a to perform, tour, write, record, and Myself Go Crazy” written by fellow Stoned successful trial lawyer to become a compete in the IBCs.” And although no Soul band members, keyboardist Marty fulltime Texas blues rocker. He was a cause of death is listed there or in his Sammon and drummer Rick King and the five-time semi-finalist in the International obituary, one source was quoted in a Cedric Burnside tune, “That Girl’s Bad.” Blues Challenge from 2005 to 2009. local newspaper article saying he had

58 Blues Music Magazine double pneumonia, a stroke and liver failure. Listen to his lyrics before knowing his back-story, and it’s easy to pass off his thoughts as I’ve-got-the-blues clichés. Listen again after you know the back- ground, and you realize this guy was the blues, in more ways than one. I remember hearing Elton John sing “Candle In The Wind (Goodbye Norma Jean)” at a memorial service following the death of Princess Diana. I heard the song in my mind’s ear completely differently than on the single. The reality of that song in specific context took on a much heavier tone. Blues is very good at capturing a heavy tone. Monkey Around is not a great record by technical standards. It almost sounds like it was never mastered. And a casual listen to this Texas troubadour finds him lacking the kind of energy we’ve come expect from the “blistering guitar” we’re promised in his ad. His faster numbers like “Can’t Change Me” and “” have a garage band rawness to them. But what rises to the top with an informed listen is the weathered weari- ness of a man forced to live his life in half time and determined to get his emotions out in spite of his growing limitations. I want to call “Curtains” lachrymose, but then I hear the knowingness of a Dr. John. I hear the wisdom of a man who has one foot over the line. – Don Wilcock

DEBBIE BOND AND THE TRU DATS That Thing Called Love Blues Root

Alabama singer/songwriter/guitarist Debbie Bond has an impressive resume. She has been active in Alabama since the late 1970s, co-founded the award- winning Alabama Blues Project, and has worked with , Jerry McCain, Eddie Kirkland, James Peterson, and Willie King among others. She recorded her third album live at OmegaLab Studio, a M.A.S.H.-style tent on a mountaintop outside of Nashville, backed by the Tru Dats (keyboardist/ producer/songwriter/husband Rick Asherson and drummer/percussionist Dave Crenshaw). There are six originals

Blues Music Magazine 59 who enjoy their music at a leisurely pace; however, I would prefer a bit more fury in her slow-burning soul-blues fire. – Thomas J. Cullen III

SHAUN MURPHY Cry Of Love Vision Wall

and two covers courtesy of the Holmes After fifteen years, Shaun Murphy decided packs plenty of grit plus a melodic guitar Brothers, “You’re the Kind of Trouble” to leave for a solo career that solo from Kenne Cramer. “Gotta Mind To (penned by Adam Wright) and “Feed My will concentrate on blues music. After Travel” is an up-tempo shuffle that Soul” (penned by Wendell Holmes). several excellent releases, her vocal talent matches the fleet-fingered guitar work of The music herein is sweet, soulful, was acknowledged October 2013 when Shawn Starski with another of Murphy’s and reflective, often reminding me of a she received Blues Blast Magazine’s potent vocals. “Broken Things” and “Some- female version of fellow Alabamans Eddie Music Award for Female Blues Artist of the where Between Right And Wrong” reveal Hinton and . There is a blues Year and Contemporary Blues Album for Murphy’s exceptional control as she elo- feel throughout, but overall this is more of her Ask For The Moon release. quently gives voice to the heartache and a Southern soul album with jazz and coun- Now she has shifted gears, releasing pain in both ballads, the latter number a try nuances. Asherson’s electric piano is a collection of songs that have a special vivid lamentation on cheating bolstered by an essential component and he also con- place in her heart. Murphy is a consum- fine keyboard work from John Wallum. tributes keyboard bass; his nimble playing mate singer able to effortlessly glide from a Several acoustic performances fea- often reminded me of another Alabama whisper to shout, utilizing her remarkable ture the country-style harp playing of Tim soul music legend, Spooner Oldham. range to illuminate new emotional dimen- Gonzalez. Murphy’s sassy nature shines Bond’s mellifluous vocals are comparable sions in classics like “Nickel And A Nail” through on “Go Back To Your Used To to Bonnie Raitt and while and “I Wouldn’t Treat A Dog (The Way You Be,” telling off a hard-drinking lover over a her spry, intricate guitar playing is similar to Treated Me).” Backing the likes of Bob solid rhythm from Randy Coleman on Raitt’s. The title track, a ballad concerned Seeger and Eric Clapton have taught bass and Tom DeRossi on drums. with the vicissitudes of love, best captures Murphy the art of just letting her voice flow, Producer TC Davis has worked his the prevailing mood of the album. The avoiding the trap of relying on excessive magic once again, putting together a strik- most upbeat songs are the mid-tempo embellishments to create an impact. ing package of performances from a truly “You’re The Kind Of Trouble” and “I Like It She summons up the spirit of exceptional vocalist. Cry Of Love makes it Like That” while “Steady Rolling Man” has on “I’m A Woman,” her deep- clear that Shaun Murphy is in a class of a turn of the 20th century honky-tonk feel. throated vocal trumpeting a fierce, soul- her own. Don’t miss this one. A heartfelt album of love songs for those shaking attitude. A rendition of “Cry To Me” – Mark Thompson

60 Blues Music Magazine punctuated with horns wielded by Steve Herman (trumpet) and Jim Hoke (sax). SEAN CHAMBERS If you like (and really, deep down, who doesn’t) you should check out The Rock House Sessions Chambers’ current touring dates. Blue Heat – M.E. Travaglini

I knew nothing about Sean Chambers, so I went to Wikipedia. Here’s the skinny. Sean Chambers is about 46 years old, he sings VARIOUS ARTISTS and plays guitar, and he’s pretty well known and liked in the greater Tampa Bay The Bluesmasters Volume 3 region. If his sound mimics that of Stevie Direct Music Distribution Ray Vaughan, that’s because that’s what he does. He acknowledges SRV as a Initially a vehicle to feature the former major influence; even fronted a tribute vocalist of the Jefferson Starship singer band that toured playing SRV songs. What Mickey Thomas, the Bluesmasters are back sets him apart from other SRV-influenced with their third CD. The standout song on guitar slingers? , perhaps. Bluesmasters Volume 3 is Eddie Money With whom he toured for a number of and James Lyon’s, “Baby Hold On” which years, starting around 1998. From there, Thomas nails and the backing musicians hit he wound up meeting and sitting in with the their stride in full on this final cut of the CD. likes of , Gregg Allman, Kim Lead guitarist Tim Tucker addresses his Simmons, and Tab Benoit. instrument with call and response tones So, what’s this new recording, The with the two vocalists and seems to find his Rock House Sessions, like? Well, it’s kind of true comfort zone when playing the Eddie like a Stevie Ray Vaughan recording. No Money tune. The prior nine songs are in the surprise there, especially when it was pro- blues genre and offer two other vocals by duced by Vaughan’s Double Trouble band Thomas, six by singer Hazel Miller. mate Reese Wynans, who also contributed The legendary Howlin’ Wolf guitarist his keyboard talents to this album, paradoxi- Hubert Sumlin along with drummer Aynsley cally recorded at the Rock House studio of Dunbar of John Mayall and fame, Statement Of Ownership yet another virtuoso keyboard man, Kevin are together on Jimmy Reed’s “Baby What As required by the Postal Standards, below is the McKendree of the Delbert McClinton band, You Want Me To Do.” Tucker and harp Statement of Ownership, Management, and Circulation of Blues Music Magazine. USPS 1091-7543. Blues Music Magazine is published six times which accounts for the accurate if not so player Doug Lynn lay down a fine instrumen- a year with a $40.00 annual subscription price. The known office of publication and general business offices are imaginative title. The surprise (for me, at tal blues piece called “Colorado Boogie.” located at 1001 11th Avenue West, Bradenton, FL 34205. Exclusive least) is that the recording is pretty darn Mitch Towne’s piano and B-3 organ licensee MojoWax Media, Inc., managing editor, Art Tipaldi, P.O. Box 1446, Bradenton, FL 34206. good. Pretty nice songs in the blues-rock add a nice touch throughout and the bass Blues Music Magazine is owned by MojoWax Media Inc. whose president and chief executive officer is John Sullivan P.O. Box 1446, tradition (take “Healing Ground” or “World of Kassidy Tucker offers a steady beat that Bradenton, FL 34206. Known bondholders, mortgages, and other security On Fire” for example). Chambers con- allows Tucker’s guitar to soar acrobatically holders: NONE. The average number of copies of each issue during the preceding tributed three songs of the 11. Some others as if it knew it had a safety net beneath. 12 months are: (A) Total Number of Copies Printed: 10,000; (B1) Mailed were crafted by the likes of Russel Smith, The band complements Miller’s vocals Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541: 8,500; (B2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541: 0; (B3) Paid , and Gary Nicholson; nicely, but after listening to this CD several Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution “Choo Choo Mama” by ; and times, perhaps their next venture might be Outside USPS: 0; (B4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes Mailed Through “Come To Poppa” by Willie Mitchell and Earl better served more in the rock genre with the USPS: 500 (C) Total Paid Circulation: 8,500; (D1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 0; (D2) Free or Randle. The latter is quite good. It’s another maybe one blues song instead of the other Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 0; (D3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS: 0; rock-ish number, but lushly augmented with way around. (D4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or Other a nice selection of background singers and – Pete Sardon Means): 150; (E) Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 0; (F) Total Distribution: 8,500; (G) Copies not Distributed: 1500; (H) Total: 10,000; Percent Paid: 85%. The actual number of copies of single issue nearest to filing date (Oct/Nov Issue) are: Total Number of Copies Printed: 10,000; (B1) Mailed Outside-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541: 8,000; (B2) Mailed In-County Paid Subscriptions Stated on PS Form 3541: 0; (B3) Paid Distribution Outside the Mails Including Sales Through Dealers and Carriers, Street Vendors, Counter Sales, and Other Paid Distribution Outside USPS: 0; (B4) Paid Distribution by Other Classes Mailed Through the USPS: 500 (C) Total Paid Circulation: 8500; (D1) Free or Nominal Rate Outside-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 0; (D2) Free or Nominal Rate In-County Copies Included on PS Form 3541: 0; (D3) Free or Nominal Rate Copies Mailed at Other Classes Through the USPS: 0; (D4) Free or Nominal Rate Distribution Outside the Mail (Carriers or Other Means): 150; (E) Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution: 150; (F) Total Distribution: 8,500; (G) Copies not Distributed:1,500; (H) Total: 10,000; (I) Percent Paid: 85%.

I certify that the statements above are correct and complete. Signed John Sullivan President MojoWax Media, Inc.

Blues Music Magazine 61

Tales of a Road Dog: The Lowdown Along The Blues Highway BY RON LEVY

Boston-based organist Ron Levy has been active makes for an easy read. since 1966 when at age 15 he began backing His vast experience provides touring blues artists. He toured with Albert King many insights about the music in 1969 and in 1970 joined B.B. King for the next and musicians I’ve loved as seven years. A quarter of the book recollects long as he has. I especially his time with both blues luminaries. Having seen appreciated his interview B.B. King several times prior to 1974, I vividly about the elusive soul legend recall seeing Levy, the first white member of Eddie Hinton (whom he pro- B.B.’s band, at a concert in New York City (with duced for Bullseye). I feel a Bobby “Blue” Bland). Returning home to Boston, kinship with Levy as we are he performed with notables like Luther “Guitar contemporaries in age and Junior” Johnson and , produced have both been involved with a variety of blues, soul, and jazz artists for Black the blues since we were Top, Bullseye Blues, and Cannonball and teens. I was half way through achieved prominence as a jazz organist and the book before I took a pause. I read it a second time at a slower composer with his Levtron recordings. Levy has pace delighting in all the details again. Available in print and as a been a ubiquitous presence in a number of roles Web-book or eBook from Productions, www.levtron.com. for 45 years and his relaxed, conversational style – Thomas J. Cullen III

OneWay Out: The Inside History Of BY ALAN PAUL

Alan Paul has assembled recorded a self-titled debut in 1969, which included “Trouble No the definitive oral history More,” “It’s Not My Cross To Bear,” and “Whipping Post,” and of America’s favorite “Dreams” and Idlewild South in 1970. That album included ABB blues-based, rock and standards like “Midnight Rider” and “In Memory Of Elizabeth roll jam band. From their Reed.” It’s astonishing that most of the songs included on these beginnings in 1969 eat- early records have stood the test of time becoming the most ing soul food at Mama elevated staples of its repertoire. Thought the band’s first Louisa’s and building a records didn’t sell as well as hoped, it was the groundbreaking rabid following by playing At Fillmore East record in 1971 that catapulted the ABB into the free shows in ’s musical stardom establishing its instrumental prowess and Piedmont Park through improvisational authority. From there, Paul takes fans through the addition of Gregg the twists and turns that have kept the ABB together and apart. Allman and his subse- For me, the best parts of the book are the Sidebar chap- quent songwriting ters. These are two and three page insights into various aspects achievements for the of the ABB’s musicianship. They include Warren Haynes and band, life in the Big Dickie Betts discussing the band’s revolutionary dual-guitar House, the untimely approach, and Gregg exploring the roots of and influences in his deaths of songwriting. There are also sidebars delving into the life and and Berry Oakley, through the band’s many line-up shuffles, the death of Twiggs Lyndon, the origins of the March tradition at origins of its Beacon Theater shows up to the past decade’s the Beacon, the story of Gov’t Mule, and the youthful infusion most consistent grouping. There are legal fights, drug use, band Derek Trucks brings. squabbles, colorful characters on the periphery and musical With a complete discography and dozens of intimate photos, insights all told through the voices of nearly everyone, over 60 Paul’s 400 pages is your backstage pass into 45-year world of people, involved with the ABB over its 45 years. this iconic American band. Put on At Fillmore East, eat a peach After struggling to harness it’s originality through song and with your brothers and sisters and enjoy. style (double drummers and double lead guitars), the band – Art Tipaldi

Blues Music Magazine 63 Blues Foundation Hall Of Fame Construction

The Blues Foundation officially began construction on the in Memphis, Tennessee. Led by sledge hammer-wielding Hall of Famers and Eddie Shaw, the assembled crowd of Board members, former Board members, musicians, and fans from around the world cheered as Rush and Shaw took the ceremonial first swings. The Blues Foundation, founded in 1980, inaugurated its Blues Hall of Fame induction program that same year. In the intervening 34 years, 143 performers, 51 non-performers who played behind-the-scenes roles in the continuing saga of the blues, 83 iconic blues singles (or album tracks), 76 blues albums, and 40 “Classics of Blues Literature,” have been enshrined into the Hall of Fame. The Blues Hall of Fame will occupy a 12,000 square foot site located at 421 South Main Street, directly across from the National Civil Rights Museum, and is scheduled to open on May 8, 2015 during the Blues Music Awards. PHOTOGRAPHY © DONOVAN ALLEN © DONOVAN PHOTOGRAPHY BOBBY RUSH AND EDDIE SHAW – BLUES HALL OF FAME CEREMONY

AWARDS Headstone Project

UPDATE In 1920, Mamie Smith, a polished cabaret performer and erstwhile blues singer, broke the race barrier by recording MAC ARNOLD “Crazy Blues,” the first release by an African-American. That song Vocalist, bass player, and gas can guitarist Mac Arnold is reported to have sold over a million copies in its first six months received an honorary degree of Doctorate in Music from and paved the way for a major talent search and the ascent of the University of South Carolina. In addition, Dr. Arnold America’s first blues stars, the classic blues women of the ‘20s. opened his Plate Full O’ Blues Restaurant on Pendleton Sadly, Smith has been buried in an unmarked grave in Street in West Greenville, South Carolina. Frederick Douglass Memorial Park on Staten Island, New York, and has been without a headstone or grave marker since her CYRIL NEVILLE death in 1946. Cyril Neville was awarded OffBeat magazine’s Lifetime That has all changed thanks to the efforts of Blues Music Achievement Award. Neville has made his fame as a Magazine writer Michael Cala. Through his first Inddiegogo member of the Neville Brothers, the Meters, the Voice of internet fundraising campaign, Cala raised just enough to place a the Wetlands Allstars, the Uptown Allstars, and Tribe13. down payment on the headstone, which is to feature an etched Currently he combines his solo career with his integral likeness of Mamie Smith in addition to the following epitaph: part of the Royal Southern Brotherhood band. BY RECORDING “CRAZY BLUES” IN 1920, SHE INTRODUCED AMERICA TO VOCAL BLUES AND OPENED THE RECORDING ROBERT HUGHES INDUSTRY TO THOUSANDS OF HER AFRICAN-AMERICAN Guitarist Robert Hughes from Teeny Tucker’s band is also BROTHERS AND SISTERS. an internationally recognized photographer. This year, for the seventh year, Hughes earned the title of Photographer So far, the Inddiegogo campaign has attained 70 percent of of the Year of . He won the Kubiac Award for the its goal. All funds raised beyond what is needed for the stone most outstanding and creative image, the juried LexJet and its installation are being donated to the Frederick Douglass Sunset Award for the highest scoring print, as well as the Memorial Park, one of the first all-black cemeteries in the Kodak ASP State Elite Award. United States.

64 Blues Music Magazine