BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
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The Blasters Fun on a Saturday Night is a strong comeback album for the Southern California based roots rockers. Singer, guitarist and harmonica player, Phil Alvin is joined by founding band members, bassist Johnny Bazz and drummer Bill Bateman as well as long time Blaster guitarist Keith Wyatt. This July, 2012, Rip Cat Records release has these veterans flexing their chops and taking on a variety of material in songs as diverse as James Brown’s Please, Please, Please to the June Carter/Johnny Cash hit, Jackson in which Alvin shares vocal duties with Excene Cervenka. There is even a Dave Alvin original Marie Marie sung in Spanish and transformed into a ballad complete with a bajo sexto played by Kid Ramos and renamed Maria Maria. I selected the song Well, Oh Well which kicks starts this album in true Blasters style, full throttle. Read a full review of this album in the July edition of BLUES JUNCTION.
The Royal Rhythmaire’s self-released debut album entitled, Shuck And Jive, was released in April of 2012. The CD gives listeners a fresh look at some old school style rhythm & blues. This Fort Worth, Texas, based ensemble features the wonderful singing of newcomer Jai Malano. Malano and the rest of the band sound like they would be right at home in a Los Angeles Central Avenue nightclub, circa 1950, backing up the likes of Big Joe Turner. The old Roy Brown tune Love Don’t Love Nobody has always been one of my favorites. It gets TRR's honkin’ horn driven treatment as do the rest of the tunes on this great record. The Royal Rhythmaires were the subject of our May Monthly Artist Spotlight feature. Read an interview with the band’s baritone saxophone player Alex Hernandez. He discusses this band on the rise.
San Diego’s Red Lotus Revue released their first long playing CD entitled, Fourteen Stories. This band began as a Sonny Boy Williamson 2 tribute band and has gone on to become much more. This quartet is made up of vocalist and harmonica player Karl Cabbage, guitarist Jimmie Zollo and Pete Fazzini as well as drummer Curt Kalker. Seven of the fourteen stories included on this album were written by Cabbage and Zollo. The remaining seven tracks includes covers of Otis Smothers, Johnny Shines, Jimmy Reed and as you might expect one from Mack Rice aka Sonny Boy Williamson 2. I went with a tune written by Chester Burnett aka Howlin’ Wolf, You Can’t Be Beat. Wolf is perhaps one of the most underrated harmonica players in the blues. Cabbage handles the harp in much the same way Wolf did and that is with a stark, understated beauty. You can learn more about this outstanding band and their dynamic front man Karl Cabbage as he was the subject of our August Monthly Artist Spotlight feature.
The Mannish Boys' Delta Groove Music, May 15th release entitled, Double Dynamite is a double CD that is in the Mannish Boys tradition of featuring a generous helping of special guests. The album's two distinctively different discs are the result of the brilliant sequencing by the record's co-producer Jeff Scott Fleenor. Disc One is entitled Atomic Blues. It is a low down, Chicago style blues album with one mid tempo shuffle after another. The band and their guests take on numerous blues standards including familiar tunes written by “Little” Walter Jacobs, Muddy Waters. Willie Dixon, Sonny Boy Williamson 2, Robert Nighthawk and others. The second disc on the album is called, Rhythm & Blues Explosion. On this disc you will find horn arrangements, some B-3 organ and back-up vocals. The entire disc has a west coast feel and is my personal favorite between the two CDs. My favorite track just might be the T-Bone Walker classic, You Don’t Love Me. It features original Mannish Boy Finis Tasby on vocals. The tune also has Kid Ramos on guitar, Fred Kaplan on piano and Bill Stuve on upright bass.
Joe Kubek & B’nois King’s September 18th release, Close to the Bone is the duo’s Delta Groove Music debut. The album is a 100% acoustic affair and is a huge departure from what fans of this guitar tandem have come to expect. The album is full of some special guests including the rhythm section of bassist Willie J. Campbell and Jimi Bott on a handful of tracks. They are also joined by Kirk Fletcher, whose acoustic playing is extraordinary. Other guests include Shawn Pittman, Paul Size, Fred Kaplan, Bob Corritore, Big Pete and Randy Chortkoff. The Texas Alexander song Mama’s Bad Luck Child features Lynwood Slim playing some very tasty Big Walter Horton influenced acoustic harp. With all this star power this record doesn’t come across like the Mannish Boys unplugged, as Kubek and King are the real luminaries on this CD. Enjoy an interview with Smokin’ Joe Kubek in the August edition of this ezine.
Curtis Salgado's April 10th release on Alligator Records, Soul Shot, is one of the best contemporary soul albums to drift across my ears in recent memory. He is backed up by the great Phantom Blues Band. The real star here though is Salgado’s singing which is as fully realized on this recording than anything he has done in his career. Salgado and the band cover such luminaries as O.V. Wright, Otis Redding, Johnny “Guitar” Watson and others. It is however the album's closing track, a gospel infused, Salgado original, A Woman or the Blues that really caught my attention. This song, like others on the record, also features Salgado’s harmonica playing which he employs sparingly giving more impact to every note he plays.
On August 28, 2012, Blind Pig Records released what may be the best Magic Slim and the Teardrops albums in years. Bad Boy is full of what makes a Magic Slim album so good. It has originals and covers that have deep grooves, catchy hooks and a lot of soul. The 75 year old blues man born Morris Holt seems incapable of making a bad record. Bad Boy is just the latest testimonial to that fact. Over the past thirty plus years Magic Slim has emerged as one of the most prolific and consistent recording artists on the scene. On Bad Boy, Magic Slim and the Teardrops cover tunes by Eddie Taylor (the title track), Denise LaSalle, Muddy Waters, Lil’ Ed Williams, Roy Brown, J.B. Lenoir and others, but I went with one of the three Magic Slim originals, Blues Sunrise. This twelve bar mid-tempo blues shuffle demonstrates how beautifully Magic Slim works with his rhythm guitarist Jon McDonald.
Lil Ed and the Blues Imperials’ July, 2012, release on Alligator Records, Jump Start finds the slide guitar dynamo and front man returning to his tried and true formula of J.B. Hutto meets Hound Dog Taylor style in your face, post-modern Chicago blues. The Blues Imperials are guitarist Michael Garrett, bassist James “Pooky” Young and Kelly Littleton on drums. They are augmented on a handful of tracks by keyboard wiz Marty Sammon on loan from the Buddy Guy band. The tune, Musical Mechanical Electrical Man is like much of the album in that it is a Lil’ Ed Williams original and is a lot of fun.
Rick Estrin and the Nightcats’ July, 2012, release on Alligator Records may be the best album by Estrin and company in the long career of this Northern California based ensemble. One Wrong Turn is Estrin’s second post Charlie Baty CD. It is a very strong contender for album of the year. The Nightcats are Kid Andersen on guitar and Lorenzo Farrell on acoustic and Fender bass. Farrell also plays piano and organ. Drummer J.Hansen also sings one of his original tunes on this album. I could have gone in many directions but the song (I met her on the) Blues Cruise is just too funny. This flotilla of musicians who should know better and their middle aged groupies who don’t, have been begging to be lampooned for some time and Estrin is just the man for the job. There is a full review of this album in the August edition of BLUES JUNCTION.
Northside Soul is the title of the June, 2012, release by Eller Soul Records artist Marion James. James', who recorded with the legendary Excello Records out of Nashville in the 1960’s, new album is a mix of James’ originals and carefully selected covers. It is one of the latter that caught my ear. James does a wonderful take on the old Duke recording by Little Junior Parker, Next Time You See Me. She takes the mid-tempo, 12 bar shuffle and turns it into a New Orleans second line. James’ reading of this tune is the most creative and daring I have ever heard of this often covered Earl Forest/Bill Harvey penned classic.
Vocalist and harmonica player, R.J. Mischo released his tenth album and his Delta Groove Music debut, Make it Good, on May 15th. This CD finds the veteran Minnesotan in the company of some first call Texas musicians including guitarists Johnny Moeller and Nick Curran, bassist Ronnie James Webber and drummer Wes Starr. It features a couple of stripped down numbers recorded up the road in The Land of a Thousand Lakes, where Mischo is accompanied by fellow Minnesotan, Jeremy Johnson. I went back down 1-35 where the rest of the album was recorded in Austin, Texas, to pull the album's opening track, an up temp rave called Trouble Belt.
Mercy! A tribute to William Clarke is an album that was released on Blue Edge Music out of Kansas City by the ScottyBoy Daniel Blues Band. The album was literally a labor of love to help maintain some awareness of William Clarke’s legacy. Harp man and vocalist, Scott Daniel is joined by John Marx, former William Clarke guitarist. Jeanette Clarke-Lodivici was also a key player in getting this album made. One of my favorite tracks is the lone original here and it is the CD’s closing selection and title song, Mercy. To learn about this interesting project, may I refer you to a two part interview I did with Scott Daniel that appears in the October edition of BLUES JUNCTION.
The prolific Rhode Island based guitarist extraordinaire, Duke Robillard, returned a more traditional blues based sound in 2011 with his Stony Plain release Low Down and Tore Up. That however was last year and, true to form, Robillard pulls yet another album out of the hat that heads in an entirely different direction. His most recent effort is the January, 2012, release entitled, Wobble Walkin’ is billed as the Duke Robillard Jazz Trio. It has been issued on Robillard’s own Blue Duchess record label. Robillard is joined on this outing by long time band mates bassist Brad Hallen and drummer Mark Texeira. The title track is a Duke Robillard original. This song is an instrumental, as are all the tunes on this album, save one exception. This number like much of the rest of this album has an early 1960s beatnik, jazz hipster, cool vibe.
Lil “A” & The Allnighters CD, Special Project is a 2010 recording by this Southern California based quintet. The official release of the CD coincided with the band's appearance on the main stage at the enormous Doheny Blues Festival last May. The band is made up of veteran guitarists Joe Conde and Anthony Contreras, bassist Kenny Huff and A.J. Martel on drums. Out front is vocalist and harmonica sensation Alex “Lil’ A” Woodson. My favorite is the band's treatment of the Amos Milburn tune that is a toe tappin’, boot heel smackin’, hand clappin, finger snappin’, hip shakin’, show stopper entitled, Chicken Shack. Lil’ “A” & The Allnighters will be releasing their sophomore album in 2013.
Enrico Crivellaro’s brand new album on Electro-Fi Records is entitled Free Wheelin’. The record is just that. The great Italian blues guitarist stretches out with a batch of instrumentals that are slightly reminiscent of some of Ronnie Earl’s work. The CD is a mix of original material written by Crivellaro and his very talented keyboard player Pietro Taucer who moves effortlessly between a grand piano, a Hammond C3 and a Fender Rhodes. There is also a pair of interesting covers including Ellington’s In a Sentimental Mood. I have been grooving to the Earl Hooker penned tune Universal Rock which gets the Crivellaro treatment on this fine CD.
Li’l Ronnie and the Grand Dukes' June 5th release, Gotta Strange Feeling is Ronnie Owen’s fifth album and his first on Eller Soul Records. This 14 song collection features 12 originals written primarily by Owens and the Grand Dukes’ excellent guitarist Ivan Appelrouth. The two covers on this CD are Louis Jordan’s Buzz Me and Chuck Berry’s C’est la vie. I went with an Owen/Appelrouth original instrumental entitled Fat City. This album is traditional blues done right by east coasters with a little west coast blues in their soul.
Gary Primich’s Just a Little Bit More...with Omar Dykes was released on April 17, 2012. This two disc box set is a wonderful compilation put together by the late great harmonica player’s dad, Jack Primich. This twenty three song collection of tunes includes tracks from Gary’s 1994 release Travelin’ Mood, his 1994 album Mr. Freeze and his 2006 release Ridin’ The Dark Horse. There are seven previously unreleased tracks courtesy of vocalist/guitarist Omar Kent Dykes that feature Primich in the role of a sideman. He lends his incredible harmonica to these cuts. One of these is the Dykes' penned tune entitled, Hoo Doo Ball. The song with the big Bo Diddley beat also has Nick Connelly on organ, Gary Pharaoh Felton on bass and the great George Rains on drums. The tragic loss of Gary Primich is something that will always leave a void for fans of his music and of course to his family and friends. One of those friends, Cathi Norton did an exemplary job in writing the liner notes. Thanks to Jack Primich and everyone else involved in giving us just a little bit more of Gary’s incredible music.
Matt Hill and the Deep Fryed 2’s May, 2012, release on the Vizztone Label Group is entitled, Tappin’ That Thang. The title track and song titles like Same Old Fucking Thing give the listeners a heads up that some of this material might not be appropriate when kids are around. Who am I kidding? What kid hasn’t heard this stuff before? Maybe it is not appropriate when old timers like me are in the room. Either way, Hill and his partners in crime, guitarist Paul Niehaus and drummer Joe Meyer have created an album of rough and ready rockers in the mold of Chuck Berry meets Nick Curran. I went with the Matt Hill original, Caramel Baby which no doubt is an ode to his wife, Nikki Hill, an exciting performer and a scintillating vocalist who sings some background vocals on this record. We will be hearing big things from both young stars on the rise.
We pulled a track from the upcoming Al Blake solo album scheduled for a 2013 release. Since we last reported to you on the progress of this album the final track listing, sequencing and mastering have taken place. The album is an acoustic, country blues album full of Al Blake originals and what Blake refers to as adaptations. An example of this is what Blake does with a familiar tune, Slim Harpo’s King Bee. I guarantee you have never heard anybody do this song quite like Al Blake. As Al told me recently, “I took that tune back into the alley.” You can read perhaps the most important interview that BLUES JUNCTION has ever published in the March edition of our ezine. In this Interview with Al Blake he discusses his thoughts on what he calls this “Illusionary music.” This should be required reading for any serious fan of blues music.
In January of this year our Monthly Artist Spotlight featured Chuck Goering better known as Barrelhouse Chuck. That essay coincided with an extraordinary two Disc career retrospective entitled, 35 years of Chicago Blues Piano. Both discs have songs that span the years 1977-2012. Each has recordings featuring Goering’s terrific piano in a variety of musical settings that include a who’s who of the Chicago blues scene and beyond. On disc one Goering sings on four of the fifteen tracks. One of these is the Muddy Waters penned, Sail the Seven Seas which features Kim Wilson on harmonica, Eddie Taylor Jr. and Joel Foy on guitars, Muddy’s rhythm section of Calvin “Fuzz” Jones on bass and Willie “Big Eyes” Smith on Drums.
Copyright 2022 BLUES JUNCTION Productions. All rights reserved.
BLUES JUNCTION Productions
7343 El Camino Real
Suite 327
Atascadero, CA 93422-4697
info