Today, we move from talking about a tribute album to a universally known bluesman who was around for a long time to a tribute album to a bluesman who wasn’t nearly as well known as he should have been during his far too short time on this earth, despite our own best efforts to help on that front by telling you about many of his band’s recordings. But we have no doubts that we would have seen and heard many more great things from UK singer and guitarist Matt Long had he the opportunity to live another six decades like the legendary subject of the last tribute we reviewed.
While we can’t of course fairly compare Long (or anyone for that matter) with a world-renowned bluesman such as B.B. King, we can say that Long exhibited a far broader range of versatility in his music, with Long having fronted both the blues-rock outfit Catfish about which we’ve talked many times here (including the band’s EP tribute to King When B.B. Sings the Blues!) as well as the heavier-hitting The Revenant Ones through his years, both of which are represented in the songs selected by the guest artists for this tribute, entitled With a Little Help from My Friends – A Tribute to Matt Long.
Most of those artists are of course friends and fellow countrymen or women with whom Matt collaborated or otherwise shared a stage and/or competed for British Blues Awards through the years, or who performed at a series at benefit concerts for Matt’s medical care during his final year, including the likes of Dom Martin, Alice Armstrong, Elles Bailey, The Cinelli Brothers, Chantel MacGregor, Will Wilde, Katie Bradley, When Rivers Meet, and Brave Rival, among others. But Matt’s talents also of course caught the ears of several international bluesmen during his career, including Walter Trout and Joe Bonamassa, who both contribute guitar on different songs here, the only two tracks to feature Matt’s vocals (and let us tell you: it’s great to be able to hear Matt again!).
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