The 44s with Special Guest Kid Ramos' Americana on Rip Cat Records street date is April 17^th. This CD is given a blow by blow review in this month’s ezine. Therefore it has been spinning with a great deal of regularity out here at the JUNCTION. The tune Lady Luck is a funky soul infused number that has a deep groove and a very cool horn arrangement by the record's other special guest, Ron Dziubla. This song, as well as the rest of this fine album, represents a giant leap forward for this Southern California based band. You can catch up with the 44s and pick up the record at their official CD release party on April 22, 2012, at the world famous Tiki Bar. For details see the tab, World Class Blues in the O.C.- Coming Attractions.

Nathan James & The Rhythm Scratchers Delta Groove Records debut, What You Make of It, came out on March 20^th. The 33 year old James moves away, for the moment anyway, from the solo acoustic blues that has been the hallmark of his already prolific career. He is joined here by bassist and harmonica player Troy Sandow and drummer Marty Dodson for a more eclectic and electrified presentation. James has been the long time guitarist in the James Harman band and Harman guests on one track. Two songs even feature the horn section of Johnny Viau and Archie Thompson. The Jimmy McCracklin classic Later On is given a fresh take by the uber-talented wunderkind Nathan James.  

I have always enjoyed it when scribes refer to an album by the Phantom Blues Band (PBB) as a solo release. How can a band make a solo record? Well I get it. They mean that this ensemble made a record in which they are not backing up Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt or Curtis Salgado as they do on his terrific new CD. Individually or collectively the members of this appropriately named “band” are all first call studio musicians whose recording credits are as long as my arm. The PBB have a new Vizztone Records release, Inside Out, which is their third “solo” album to date. I selected the tune, Shame Shame it is yet another Jimmy McCracklin tune. McCracklin is an often over looked giant in the blues music world.

Curtis Salgado's April 10th release on Alligator, 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 that is a gospel infused, Salgado original, A Woman or the Blues. 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. Curtis will be making a Southern California appearance at the Simi Valley Blues Festival.  Check our links page for details.

On March 13,2012, Alligator Records put out an album by Janiva Magness entitled, Stronger For I finds. It is a very soulful, contremporary sounding album. Magness wraps her warm voice around material written by songwriters ranging from Ray Willie Hubbard and Ike Turner to Tom Waits and others. It is, however, the material she co-wrote with the album's producer and multi-instrumentalist Dave Darling that may be the most compelling. One such number is the CD's opening track, There It Is, where Magness uses her art as a cathartic vehicle in search of redemption.   

The prolific Rhode Island based guitarist extraordinaire, Duke Robillard, returned to a more traditional blues based sound last fall with his Stony Plain release Low Down and Tore Up. That however was last fall and, true to form, Robillard pulls yet another album out of the hat that heads in an entirely different direction. His most recent effort entitled Wobble Walkin’ is billed as the Duke Robillard Jazz Trio. It has been released 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 has an early 1960s beatnik, jazz hipster cool vibe.

Vocalist and harmonica player R.J. Mischo has an album coming out on May 15^th   entitled Make it Good. On Mischo’s Delta Groove records debut, the Minnesota native finds himself in the company of some Texas based musicians including guitarists Nick Curran and Johnny Moeller, bassist Ronnie James Webber and drummer Wes Star. Mischo is also joined by guitarist Jeremy Johnson, who is a ubiquitous prescence on the Minnesota blues scene. I have been grooving to the instrumental Frozen Pickle from this fine album. If you are not familiar with R.J. Mischo I urge you to check this guy out. If you can wait until May 15^th that’s fine but you may want to explore his back catalog.  

If you are a fan of straight ahead, no frills, harp driven, 12-bar Chicago blues shuffles, Tail Dragger and Bob Corritore’s album, Friends in the Blues is for you. This CD was released on March 20, 2012, and is also on Delta Groove Records. It features the gritty vocals and mostly original tunes written by James Y. Jones aka “Taildragger” and the harp playing of the album's producer Bob Corritore. On the track, Sugar Mama, Taildragger shares vocal duties with the album's pianist, Chicago blues legend Henry Gray. This John Lee Williamson (Sonny Boy 1) tune also features, as does the rest of the album, guitarists Kirk “Eli” Fletcher and Chris James. Bassist Patrick Rynn and drummer Brian Fahey round out this great ensemble.

Red Lotus Revue is selling off the stage their second self titled, self released EP. These tracks along with tunes from last year’s EP will eventually make their way onto their official long playing CD. The San Diego based quartet recorded these tunes live in October and November of last year. This band is presenting post-war Chicago style blues that features both original and covers in the retro cool, low-fi setting. The Jimmy Reed tune that is often associated with Billy Boy Arnold, I Ain’t Got You is taken out for a spin by this band, led by vocalist and harp player Karl Cabbage.

The Mannish Boys have an ambitious project scheduled for a May 15, 2012, release. It is a double CD entitled Double Dynamite. The core band consists of Jimi Bott (D) Willie J. Campbell (B) Kirk Fletcher (G) Franck Goldwasser (G) Finis Tasby and Sugar Ray Rayford (V) and the album's executive and co-producer Randy Chortkoff (H,V) I listened to the album last week with the album's other co-producer, Jeff Scott Fleenor, prior to the album's mastering, production and distribution. It is nothing short of spectacular. The record, as Fleenor described to me, was purposefully sequenced thematically as disc one has a more straight ahead, Chicago blues feel. It is called, Atomic Blues. The second disc has a more west coast flavor and has fuller, richer arrangements that include, in many cases horns, background vocals and B3s. It is called Rhythm and Blues Explosion. The record will surely have scribes around the world scrambling for superlatives. As in all Mannish Boys productions the list of guests is pretty special on Double Dynamite. It is a who’s who of the contemporary blues scene. As Fleenor told me while we listened to the CD last week, “It may be easier to list a contemporary blues great who is not on the CD.”  Some of the blues luminaries include keyboard players Fred Kaplan and Mike Finnigan, upright bassist Bill Stuve, veteran harmonica players and vocalists James Harman and Rod Piazza, guitarists Junior Watson, Kid Ramos, Elvin Bishop and Nathan James, vocalists Mud Morganfield, Jackie Payne and others. For our jukebox selection from this album, I could have gone in many directions, but I chose something that in my mind is cause for celebration, a new James Harman original Bad Detective. The prolific songwriter has been sitting on a mountain of songs that have been recorded and not released or written and not recorded. It is great to hear something new on record from Harman. I hope we get to hear more in the near future.