Kim Wilson delivers some scorching blues on latest release Slow Burn

Posted on January 15, 2026 by Mike

It probably comes as no surprise that, listening to the recent box set of The Fabulous Thunderbirds’ early years, it was some of the bluesier numbers from the band that most caught our ear. So we were of course delighted to read in the announcement of the latest solo album from T-Birds co-founder and frontman Kim Wilson that his Slow Burn (M.C. Records) “may be Kim’s deepest blues record ever”.

And it’s hard to argue that isn’t the case, with the album including covers of numerous classics from the likes of B.B. King, Otis Rush, Howlin’ Wolf, Robert Nighthawk, Magic Sam, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Little Milton, in addition to four bluesy originals that fit right into the mix, including a revisit of one from the T-Birds’ early catalog in the “Low-Down Woman” we mentioned in our recent review of the box set. 

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Box set chronicling Jimmie Vaughan’s years with The Fabulous Thunderbirds includes previously unreleased album of material recorded by Doc Pomus prior to band’s debut

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Mike

Like many, our first real exposure to The Fabulous Thunderbirds came through such tough mid- to late-80s hits like “Tuff Enuff”, “Wrap It Up”, “Powerful Stuff” and “Stand Back”.  And anyone who gave the band more of a listen at the time would’ve also heard some pretty good stuff off those same albums in such tracks as the driving “Now Loosen Up Baby”, slow, biting “Mistake Number One”, soulful, horn-soaked “Streets of Gold” and greasy, jiving instrumental “Down at Antone’s”. 

A new box set from The Last Music Company collects not only those three full albums, but also the four others that were released leading up to the band’s hits years, in addition to a long forgotten Doc Pomus-produced album that was recorded prior to the band’s debut album but never released, and that just may be the best of the group!

Titled The Jimmie Vaughan Years: Complete Studio Recordings 1978-1989, the  five-hour, four-CD set focuses on the band’s studio output from its 1974 founding by singer and harmonica player Kim Wilson and guitarist Jimmie Vaughan to Vaughan’s departure from the band in 1990. 

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Remastered classic lets Piedmont bluesman Pink Anderson shine on well beyond footnote in “Crazy Diamond” rock lore

Posted on December 3, 2025 by Mike

Speaking of old-time bluesmen (as we were in this post regarding the Record Store Day Black Friday releases from T-Bone Walker and Charley Patton)…

By now, you’ve probably heard the story of how Pink Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett came up with the band’s name: when another band going by the same name as his The Tea Set was slated to perform at a same gig, Barrett needed look no further than his own record collection, where albums from two bluesmen named Pink Anderson and Floyd Council caught his eye. 

Now you too have the chance to include Anderson’s 1961 album debut Carolina Blues Man in your collection, thanks to Craft Recordings’ Bluesville Records, which recently made a reissue of the album available both on vinyl and digitally.

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Music from T-Bone Walker and Charley Patton among Record Store Day Black Friday blues releases

Posted on November 25, 2025 by Mike

Regardless of what shopping you may or may not have planned for this Black Friday, you might want to work in a visit to a local vinyl store or four to bag some bluesy Record Store Day (RSD) Black Friday exclusives from a few of the genre’s all-time greats. Here are a couple to look for.

T-Bone Walker – T-Bone Blues (Rhino Records)

You can’t go wrong adding this classic (originally released in 1959) to your collection, including such famous T-Bone hits as “Mean Old World”, “Call It Stormy Monday”, “T-Bone Shuffle” and “Papa Ain’t Salty”. Those songs alone would be enough to make this album worth owning, but this superb set truly is “all killer, no filler”, with other tracks including the strolling “T-Bone Blues”, swinging instrumentals “Two Bones and a Pick” and “Shufflin’ the Blues”, and a slithering “Play On Little Girl” (one of two tracks here on which T-Bone is backed by Junior Wells on harmonica, Jimmy Rogers on guitar, and likely Willie Dixon on bass and Francis Clay on drums), among others. 

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Featuring guests such as Buddy Guy and Jimmie Vaughan, third installment of tracks from B.B. King’s Blues Summit project is another dynamite one

Posted on November 19, 2025 by Mike

It’s hard not to like the latest volume of tracks from the Joe Bonamassa/Josh Smith-produced B.B. King’s Blues Summit 100, with guests that include such greats as Buddy Guy, Jimmie Vaughan, and Larry McCray. Released last week, Volume 3 kicks off with a patient yet impassioned “Sweet Little Angel” that features Buddy Guy on vocals and guitar and wraps up with singer/guitarist Larry McCray‘s soulful take on “When It All Comes Down (I’ll Still Be Around)”. 

In between, you’ll hear Larkin Poe with a swinging “Don’t You Want a Man Like Me” filled with smoky vocals and gritty lap steel guitar, a grooving “Heartbreaker” with Trombone Shorty on vocals and horns and Eric Gales on guitar, and a shuffling “Watch Yourself” with Jimmie Vaughan on vocals and guitar that’s just perfect for Jimmie.

This latest installment also brings with it news of a few other big names participating in the project, with the revelation of a Chaka Khan/Eric Clapton collaboration on King’s hit “The Thrill is Gone” for inclusion on the 32-song tribute to the King of the Blues.

Here’s a video for the Buddy Guy track that also features some terrific photos and footage of longtime friends Guy and King performing through the years.

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First single from soulful singer/keyboardist Mike Finnigan’s posthumous album is bursting with blues

Posted on November 17, 2025 by Mike

We’ll be telling you more about the latest volume of tracks from the Joe Bonamassa and Josh Smith-produced tribute to B.B. King here sometime soon but, in the meantime, here’s one that could easily have been a part of the project, even featuring Bonamassa on guitar just like the B.B. King’s Blues Summit 100 tracks. But instead of being a cover of one of B.B.’s songs like on the tribute project, it’s a cover of a track that namechecks the late King of the Blues, performed here by another late, great bluesman, who also did some magnificent work on the keys over the decades with the likes of Taj Mahal and the Phantom Blues Band, Etta James, Bonnie Raitt, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Dave Mason, and others.

The first single from the solo album on which Mike Finnigan was working at the time of his passing (an album about which you’ll also no doubt be hearing plenty more from us, being that Finnigan has long been one of the artists we’ve most appreciated and respected), here’s Finnigan–joined by Bonamassa–with a smashing take on Curtis Salgado’s “20 Years of B.B. King” that finds Finnigan’s much-missed soulful vocals and masterful playing on full display!

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Nine Below Zero revisits last two decades of blues with Blues Power Volume 1

Posted on October 30, 2025 by Mike

A collection of Nine Below Zero‘s best blues tracks recorded over the last two decades, you say? Entitled Blues Power Volume 1? Ok, that’s probably something we here at The BluesPowR Blog are going to need to tell you about…

Featuring a dozen tracks not previously available on vinyl, Blues Power Volume 1 combines unreleased material and some of the band’s finest blues performances, as selected, remixed and remastered by Wayne Proctor (who first caught our ear as a drummer with the Oli Brown Band and King King, among others, and has since held our ear as a producer/engineer, including having worked some nice magic mastering Nine Below’s long lost first studio album Back in the Day some four decades after its recording) at his House of Tone studio, making this another must-own collection from the long-running blues outfit. 

With its soulful seasoned vocals and rich grooves, the breezy lead-off track, Little Milton’s “That’s What Love Will Make You Do”, alone is probably enough to justify the purchase of this first-ever blues compilation from the band, but you’re still going to want to take the time to listen to the rest of the album because there’s plenty more great stuff to be heard–with lots of tasty licks from founding members Dennis Greaves on guitar and Mark Feltham on harmonica–including, most notably, a catchy shuffling “Blues is Here to Stay” (Eddie Boyd), driving “I Wanna Be Loved” (Muddy Waters), and slinking, harmonica-driven instrumental “The Toddle” (Little Walter).

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Caitlin Krisko & The Broadcast “Let It Ride” on driving new single

Posted on September 29, 2025 by Mike

We weren’t familiar with the name Caitlin Krisko before an email about her new single hit our inbox recently, but we have to say that we like what we heard, and think you will too. With soulful, powerhouse vocals from Caitlin and some hard grooves from her colleagues, Caitlin and her band The Broadcast are, like the woman about whom she sings here, “making a scene” with this gritty, Southern-rocking “Let It Ride” from their upcoming album Heirloom.

Check it out!

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Make some space on your music shelf for this delightful live recording from Dave Specter

Posted on September 23, 2025 by Mike

We don’t get to Chicago as much as we’d like, so we’re always glad when we can get Chicago to come to us, be it in the form of a touring Chicago act coming to our area, a weekend livestream from Rosa’s Lounge (check out the club’s YouTube site; they’ve got plenty of shows available to enjoy on-demand, even though they’ve taken a break from streaming these past few weekends), or a live recording of a Chicago band captured at a Chicago-area club, such as this one from Dave Specter, which will have you feeling like you just caught a dynamite set from the guitarist/singer and his band at one of the Windy City’s premier music halls.

The baker’s dozen of tracks on Live at SPACE (Delmark Records) kicks off with two instrumentals: a breezy, swinging-and-swaying “Rumba & Tonic” that starts with some Otis Rush-style licks before giving way to the Spanish sounds to which its title refers, followed by the tough, strolling “Alley Walk”, providing an excellent chance to hear Specter and his top-notch band (Brother John Kattke on keys, Rodrigo Mantovani on bass, and Marty Binder on drums) musically before they launch into covers such as Otis Rush’s “Homework” and Allen Touissaint’s creeping “On Your Way Down” (where you meet the same people you did on your way up) in addition to Specter’s own “Blues from the Inside Out”, all sung by Specter in a crisp, biting manner similar to that of New England counterpart Duke Robillard.

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Joe Bonamassa/Josh Smith-produced B.B. King’s Blues Summit 100 shows the thrill is not gone from King of the Blues’ legacy

Posted on September 19, 2025 by Mike

We mentioned this project on our social media channels earlier this week, but couldn’t resist coming back for a bit deeper of a dive. As terrific as this centennial birthday tribute collection to the late B.B. King looks on screen or paper–with tracks featuring Buddy Guy, Shemekia Copeland, Gary Clark Jr., Bobby Rush, Jimmie Vaughan, Kirk Fletcher, George Benson, Kim Wilson, Keb’ Mo’, Trombone Shorty and Eric Gales, Ivan Neville, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, Warren Haynes, Paul Rodgers, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, and many others–, it only gets better when you hear it, at least in the case of the first handful of tracks available from the set.

Each of these initial tracks is superb, starting off with a shuffling “Why I Sing the Blues” that features vocals and harmonica (along with some kind words about B.B.) from Bobby Rush. That’s followed by a killer “To Know You is to Love You” from Michael McDonald, Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks, on which you’ll hear some stellar play between keyboards, horns, and Trucks’ guitar, as Tedeschi and McDonald exchange burning vocals.

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