We’ve heard New Orleans bluesman Bryan Lee a number of times over the years, perhaps most memorably as part of Kenny Wayne Shepherd‘s 2007 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads project and then again on Shepherd’s follow-up Live! in Chicago CD. But somehow we’ve managed to miss out on hearing much of Lee’s solo material, a situation we’ll be sure to rectify now that we’ve had a chance to hear Lee’s current album Play One for Me (Severn Records).
Just how exactly Lee (whose nickname is Braille Blues Daddy, having been blind since he was eight years old) has avoided our attention all these years is nothing short of a mystery, considering he was mentored by the likes of Luther Allison and Muddy Waters, with Eric Clapton once even having called Lee “one of the best bluesmen I have ever heard” (not to mention that Lee fronts a band named, you guessed it, the Blues Power Band). In turn, Lee has helped keep the blues alive by serving as a mentor to such younger talents as Shepherd, who began sitting in with Lee’s band at only age 13, and Matthew Curry.
As chastened as we are by our oversight of most of Lee’s career, we’d be even more so had we missed this latest album from him, which marks the longtime New Orleans transplant’s (hailing originally from the Wisconsin shores of Lake Michigan) debut with not only Severn Records but on any American label, having previously recorded only on the Canadian Justin Time label (which could help to explain how it is we’ve missed him).
With vocals as soulful as Curtis Salgado’s and a guitar as bluesy as B.B. King’s, along with some Dr. John-style funk thrown in, Lee rolls through ten terrific tracks – an even split of originals and covers – on Play One for Me, starting off with the breezy George Jackson classic “Aretha (Sing One for Me)” from which the album takes its title. From there, he hits on blues-drenched covers of Freddie King’s “It’s Too Bad (Things are Going So Tough),” Bobby Womack’s “When Love Begins (Friendship Ends),” and Howlin’ Wolf’s “Evil,” the latter featuring the Fabulous Thunderbirds’ Kim Wilson on harmonica, with Kevin Anker tickling the ivories.
Another Fabulous Thunderbirds member, Johnny Moeller, joins Lee on rhythm guitar, with the album also employing a full range of horns and strings, including violin, viola, and cello, while Steve Gomes, Robb Stupka, and Mark Merrella hold down the bass, drums, and percussion, respectively. Together, they help give the CD a rich, full sound that just could be one of the year’s biggest – and best – surprises.
As good as the covers – which also include a fine take on the graceful R&B grooves of Dennis Geyer’s “Straight to Your Heart” – may be, it’s equally hard not to like such originals as the gritty “Poison” that again features Wilson on harmonica and the Dr. John-sounding “Why,” as well as the attitude and funk of tracks like “You Was My Baby (But You Ain’t My Baby No More)” and the rapping closer “Sixty-Eight Years Young” with such clever lyrics as “your stuff is in the street, I got a big bolt on my door/ and baby, you should move in with him, cuz’ you ain’t livin’ here no more (and that’s a fact)” and “I’m 68 years young, I’m playing the blues all night/ I’m 68 years young, I wanna’ make you feel alright/ I can move it, I can groove it, I can hump it, I can bump it, I can hit it, I’m gonna git’ it/ whattaya think of that?”.
Fortunately for us, the 68-plus-year-young singer and guitarist – who has also been called a “New Orleans Blues Institution” – still very much lives up to all of that hype, proving just as at home belting out such songs as “Evil” as he is delivering such slow, soulful numbers as “Aretha” and the self-composed “Let Me Love You Tonight”.
If, like ours, your exposure to the Braille Blues Daddy has been somewhat limited, then we suggest you run – don’t walk – to the nearest computer or record store to hear all that you’ve been missing. And Play One for Me is a great place to start.