Author Archives: Mike

With fourth guitar festival, Clapton and friends deliver plenty of blues at the Crossroads

Having attended two of the three previous Crossroads Guitar Festivals (the first in Dallas, as well as the most recent in Chicago), we weren’t all that sure what to think about last fall’s announcement of the 2013 installment of the renowned festival. … Continue reading

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Guitar Week continues: Ronnie Earl & the Broadcasters’ Just for Today more like one for the ages

We’ve had several instrumental blues albums cross our desk in recent weeks, including the latest releases from both guitarists Tinsley Ellis (Get Up!, Heartfixer Music) and Ronnie Earl (Just for Today, Stony Plain Records). As much as we enjoyed listening … Continue reading

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Available now: The BluesPowR Radio Hour, episode 3

We’re pretty sure nobody really enjoys doing taxes, but they’re probably even less fun when you’d rather be recording your blues radio show. So even though it’s a week or two later than we had hoped (thanks to Uncle Sam), … Continue reading

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Blues Lyrics of the Week: Pittsburgh Blues

It’s been just over a year now since the passing of the Southern-born (some reports say Bessemer, Alabama; others, Vicksburg, Mississippi) but Pittsburgh-raised bluesman known as Louisiana Red. And although Red never did make it back to Pittsburgh after the … Continue reading

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All new! The BluesPowR Radio Hour, Episode 2

Thanks to those of you who checked out the inaugural edition of our BluesPowR Radio Hour over the past month. We hope you enjoyed listening to it as much as we did recording it. Today, we’re pleased to bring you … Continue reading

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International Blues Challenge winners; Chesapeake Bay Blues Festival finalizes line-up

The Blues Foundation’s annual International Blues Challenge took place in Memphis over the weekend, with the Selwyn Birchwood Band capturing the top band honor as well as Birchwood also being recognized as the competition’s best guitarist. Here’s the band doing “I Got Loaded” at last summer’s White … Continue reading

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Ben Harper, Charlie Musselwhite cool as all get-out on Get Up!

It may just be that we aren’t all that hip, but we have to admit we’ve never paid a whole lot of attention to Ben Harper. But when we heard last year that Harper was teaming with blues harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite on … Continue reading

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Blues Lyrics of the Week: Check Your Ego at the Door

This may not be quite what blues guitar great Luther Allison had in mind when he said “Leave your ego, play the music, love the people,” but here’s one we’ve been enjoying from John Lee Hooker, Jr., and a Polish band called Daddy’s Cash, … Continue reading

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The year in re-blues, part 2: presenting the BluesPowR Radio Hour

Just before the new year, you may recall we took a quick look back at some of the best of 2012. But since words themselves don’t always do justice to the great new music we heard and wrote about during … Continue reading

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San Fran harp player Big Bones helps remember Paul Pena with some vintage blues by the Bay

About a decade back during a visit to the world-famous Biscuits & Blues club in San Francisco (which, true to its name, offers up some tasty food as well as music), we picked up a Joe Louis Walker-produced CD compilation entitled Mean … Continue reading

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