With each person having already distinguished himself as an individual performer, sideman, or member of such accomplished blues bands as The Fabulous Thunderbirds, Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters, The Mannish Boys, and Sugar Ray & the Bluetones, it should come as no surprise that the new soul-blues-rock supergroup The Proven Ones can make some great music together. But what may surprise you is just how great the music on the band’s debut album Wild Again (Roseleaf Records) is, with the recording quickly becoming one of our favorites of 2018.
Featuring the sturdy, soulful vocals of Boston bluesman Brian Templeton, the guitar talents of Kid Ramos, the keyboards of Anthony Geraci (Sugar Ray & the Bluetones), bass from Willie J. Campbell, and drums from Jimi Bott (who also recorded and mixed the project), the band — whose members have appeared on hundreds of recordings — very much lives up to its name on this inaugural offering, proving to be easily on par with the likes of other successful recent collectives such as Royal Southern Brotherhood, The Rides, and the Tedeschi Trucks Band.
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Sometimes reflective, like on the slow, brooding opener “A Few Good Years”, the “Catfish Blues”-ish “Somebody Up There”, and the swaying, horn-drenched “End of the Line”; sometimes fun, like on a “Cognac” that also features guitarists Keith Richards and Jeff Beck to make for a smooth, slow-burning blues party of sorts on which Guy remembers another good friend with the lyrics “If the late Muddy Waters was here drinking with us, that bottle would be ten times gone”, then interjecting “can’t drink with me no more, Muddy, but I, I got Keith Richards”, and a Sly & the Family Stone-like “Whiskey for Sale” that’s, as Buddy likes to say, “so funky, you can smell it” (or, in this case, taste it) with backing vocals from the McCrary Sisters and Hambridge’s daughter Rachel, slide guitar, B3 and clavinet, with Guy at the end asking “Don’t that make ya’ feel good now?” (it sure does, Buddy, thanks); and sometimes just straight-up blues, like on the scorching cover of Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Nine Below Zero”, the shuffling, partly falsetto-chorused “Guilty as Charged”, and a cautionary “Bad Day”, the album is everything you’d hope for from the soon-to-be-82-year-old Guy, showing that he’s still got his stuff both instrumentally and vocally, from the hard, biting blues for which we’ve long admired him (check out, for example, “Old Fashioned”, another number that incorporates some nice playing from the Muscle Shoals Horns) to slower-tempoed collaborations with the likes of longtime friend Mick Jagger (who contributes harmonica and a single “yeah” on the creeping “You Did the Crime”) and UK singer James Bay (who joins Buddy on both guitar and vocals for “Blue No More”).
But it’s clear that Danielle hasn’t just pushed those days to the past, calling upon former Trampled Under Foot producer Tony Braunagel (Taj Mahal, Bonnie Raitt, Eric Burdon) to co-write a handful of songs (including the swaying, soulful title track), play drums on, and produce Cry No More, as well as guitarist brother Nick Schnebelen for the opening number “Crawl”, a powerful, rocking song on which Danielle — who, in 2014, became the first female winner of the Blues Music Award for Best Instrumentalist-Bass — immediately
Here’s one to help take you into the weekend from a new, New Jersey-based duo that goes by the name of Dharmasoul. Featuring Jonah Tolchin on guitar and Kevin Clifford on drums (with the two trading off on lead and backup vocals), Dharmasoul makes an awfully strong name for itself with its debut album Lightning Kid (Dharmasoul Records).
Recorded during a performance in Quebec last fall, the album is a raw, mostly rocking affair that nicely showcases Hill’s gruff, gritty vocals, often stinging guitar, and driving drums and other percussion that Hill plays with his feet and a drumstick attached to the head of his guitar, also adding harmonica on several numbers.
Here’s one we’ve been meaning to tell you about for a while now, a soulful, swinging recording that harkens back to the Memphis big band sound of B.B. King and Bobby “Blue” Bland, with the band, in fact, taking their name from one of Bland’s biggest hits in “Turn on Your Love Light”. Made up of musicians who have toured and played with Bland, The Bo-Keys, Gregg Allman, Solomon Burke, Robert Cray and others, The Love Light Orchestra also features the talented John Nemeth on vocals; together, they make one hell of a first impression on their debut album The Love Light Orchestra featuring John Nemeth: Live from Bar DKDC in Memphis, TN! (Blue Barrel Records), twelve tracks of soulful, horn-driven blues that range from the swaying style of Percy Mayfield’s “Please Send Me Someone to Love” and a quiet, jazzy take on Buddy Ace’s “This Little Love of Mine” to the partly falsetto croons of Freddie King’s “What About Love” and the closing, shuffling R&B adaptation of Al Green’s “Love and Happiness”.