Remembering Mike Finnigan

Posted on August 17, 2021 by Mike

Not just the blues — but the whole music — world lost one of its greatest living musicians last week with the passing of organist and singer Mike Finnigan, whose work we admired not only with bands we’ve reviewed here over the years like the Phantom Blues Band and Mannish Boys and through his own solo career but also accompanying such household names as Taj Mahal, Etta James, Crosby, Stills & Nash, Bonnie Raitt, Joe Cocker, Dave Mason, and Jimi Hendrix, among others.

We’ve gathered just a small sampling of some of our favorite blues tunes from Finnigan for you below, but there’s plenty of more great stuff out there featuring Finnigan’s terrific playing and soulful vocals, fairly easily found through a Google search.

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Tune into the Weekend: 2019 International Blues Challenge Solo Act Winner Jon Shain Airs “2020 Blues”

Posted on July 30, 2021 by Mike

Even with 2020 now well within our rearview mirror, Covid and other events have helped to ensure the year will be long-remembered, and, for many, probably not among the U.S.’ finest days.

That’s just one of the issues North Carolina folk-bluesman Jon Shain, who won the 2019 International Blues Challenge in the solo/duo act category, explores on his latest album with longtime collaborator FJ Ventre, Never Found a Way to Tame the Blues (Flyin’ Records), along with such other subjects as the refugee crisis, global economics, and Holland’s new pot law as well as more classic blues themes like love gone wrong and life in the music business.

While the topics addressed on the album are sometimes weighty, the playing from Shain, Ventre and their guest musicians isn’t, weaving between straight blues, rock, folk, rockabilly,  ragtime, and jazz sounds created by guitar, upright bass, harmonica, mandolin, fiddle, piano, drums and percussion, and more.

Shain — who has played with the likes of John Dee Holeman as well as opened for acts such as John  Hiatt, Keb’ Mo’, and Little Feat — and Ventre deliver this particular track on 12-string and upright bass, accompanying powerful lyrics regarding  hatred and cynicism, equality, and hope for the future that include such statements as “I ache for my sisters—they’ve borne the brunt for so long/ I’m waitin’ for the day when they’re in power where they belong” and “I’m prayin’ for the youth—the only ones who could figure out this mess/ Our grand experiment has ended with us all under duress/ We got a national case of too much stress.”

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Eddie 9V sticks with impressing in Paste Studio session

Posted on June 25, 2021 by Mike

If you still haven’t had a chance to check out young Atlanta soul/bluesman Eddie 9V as we’ve encouraged, or you just want to take in more from him after liking what you’ve heard on either his livestreams during the pandemic and/or albums Left My Soul in Memphis, live Way Down the Alley, or most recent Little Black Flies, this week’s Paste Studio on the Road session with Eddie and his band provided a terrific opportunity to hear some of Eddie’s gritty music stylings, as well as from the artist on such things as recording his latest album, the musical vibe and lyrical inspiration created by fish fries, his spirit of choice, and the improving climate for live performances.

Musically, you’ll hear Eddie’s “nod to Elmore James” in “She Got Some Money” as well as the title tracks from both of Eddie’s studio albums and the single “The Come Up”, all of which are sure to get you groovin’ just in time for the weekend.

Watch Eddie’s Paste Studio session below!

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Tune into the Weekend with new single from Blues Music Award emerging artist nominee Jose Ramirez

Posted on May 14, 2021 by Mike

We haven’t yet had a chance to listen to Costa Rican blues guitarist and singer Jose Ramirez‘s Blues Music Award-nominated debut album Here I Come, but have certainly moved it closer to the top of our pile for checking out after hearing Ramirez’s latest single on Delmark Records, “Whatever She Wants” —  a nod, according to Ramirez, to some of the old-school blues/soul singers such as Johnnie Taylor, Bobby Bland and Bobby Womack.

A slow blues burner in the vein of such classics as “The Thrill is Gone” and “Still Got the Blues”, “Whatever She Wants” includes some soulful, passion-soaked vocals and guitar from Ramirez, with a funky, organ-driven turn about halfway through that leads into a stinging guitar solo.

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UK Blues Awards finalists Let the Good Times Roll during online ceremony

Posted on May 10, 2021 by Mike

The annual UK Blues Awards took place this past Sunday, again virtually due to the ongoing pandemic, with this year’s winners including When Rivers Meet for emerging artist of the year, band of the year, album of the year (We Fly Free) and most inspirational online performance of the year, Elles Bailey for artist of the year, Matt Long for instrumentalist of the year, Dom Martin for acoustic artist of the year, Connor Selby for young artist of the year and Shemekia Copeland for international artist/band of the year.

While the 105-minute program included terrific performances from a number of the individual winners, the real highlight of the awards was the closing jam featuring  many of the finalists and winners, including Elles Bailey, Matt Long, Paul Long, Dom Martin, Emma Wilson, Kyla Brox, Giles Robson, Toby Lee, Connor Selby and more, all recorded separately from their homes and sent in to UK Blues Awards to put together in this one romping take on the Louis Jordan blues classic “Let the Good Times Roll”, which is exactly what they do here. Enjoy!

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UK guitarist Will Johns rips it up on Bluesdaddy

Posted on April 23, 2021 by Mike

We’ve talked quite a bit here over the years about some of the second generation blues men and women helping to carry on the tradition of their fathers, including the likes of Bernard Allison (son of Luther), Shemekia Copeland (daughter of Johnny), Lurrie Bell (son of Carey), Kenny Neal (son of Raful), Big Bill and Mud Morganfield (sons of McKinley, a.k.a. Muddy Waters), and others.

Thus far, this same trend doesn’t seem to also be happening on the other side of the pond, at least not strictly in regards to the blues, but perhaps one of the closest examples of it you’ll find there — albeit through a bit less of a direct lineage — is UK blues singer and guitarist Will Johns. While Johns’ father Andy wasn’t a famous musician himself, he did work with many of them throughout his successful career as a record engineer and producer, including the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, Blind Faith, Van Halen, and Eric Clapton, who — through his previous marriage to Will’s mother’s sister Pattie Boyd — also happens to be one of several famous uncles to Will, along with George Harrison (through his even earlier marriage to Pattie), Mick Fleetwood (through his past marriage to another aunt), and Andy’s older brother Glyn Johns, also a well-known producer and sound engineer to some of the same acts as Andy as well as The Beatles, The Who, and The Eagles, among others.

For not being related to Clapton by blood, Johns does manage to sound a bit like him at times on his latest album Bluesdaddy — not so much in regards to singing as in playing and talent — particularly on such heavier blues classics as “Hoochie Coochie Man” and “Rolling & Tumbling”. All but one of the dozen tracks here, in fact, are covers, many of them quite familiar, including “Everyday I Have the Blues”, “Don’t You Want a Man Like Me”, “High Heel Sneakers”, “Oh Well”, “Sweet Little Angel”, “When You Got a Good Friend”, “I Just Wanna Make Love to You”, “Call Me Willy” (“Willie Brown Blues”) and “Walking and Crying”.

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Tune into the Weekend: Mike Ross shakes on down a classic with debut single from new album

Posted on April 2, 2021 by Mike

We had a chance to catch bluesman Mike Ross along with some other great UK blues artists as part of the Wrotham Arms online blues and roots festival back in February, during which Ross performed a number of songs from his upcoming album The Clovis Limit -Tennessee Transition.

Ross first caught our ear a few years back with his album Jenny’s Place, and then again with his gritty Wrotham Arms set, which included — among other gems like Ross’ “The Only Place You Ever Take Me is Down” and revisiting of his earlier “Fixing to Die” — this Bukka White classic (later re-popularized by Mississippi Fred McDowell), “Shake ‘Em on Down”.

And that’s just one of the covers from Ross’ new album, where you’ll also hear his takes on Charlie Patton’s “Screamin’ & Hollerin’ the Blues” and Blind Willie McTell’s “Statesboro Blues” along with originals such as “Young Man”, “Blow Away”, “Don’t Say a Word” and “None of Your Business” that all work quite well with those covers. Enjoy!

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Tune into the Weekend: Guitarists Johnny Burgin, Anson Funderburgh team for Valentine’s Day blues single

Posted on February 12, 2021 by Mike

We know things have been pretty quiet around here as of late, but what better time than heading into a weekend to start to turn things around?! And those in any stage of a relationship will hopefully already have realized that this isn’t just any ordinary weekend, but one on which Valentine’s Day also happens to fall.

While we can’t really offer you any assistance in being prepared for the holiday, we can at least help get you in the mood for it with this just-released sweet slow blues track from guitarists Johnny Burgin and Anson Funderburgh, backed by the well-known Christian Dozzler on keys, Burgin’s touring partner Chris Matheos on bass, and Reo Casey on drums.

With its lyrics of love and captivating licks from both guitarists, this little gem from Delmark Records is bound to be the Cherry on Top of whatever plans you have — or don’t have — for the weekend. Enjoy!

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Reprise Records takes us back out Riding with the King with expanded, remastered 20th anniversary edition of King/Clapton collaboration

Posted on May 22, 2020 by Mike

I guess you could say that we’ve been on a bit of a hiatus since the start of this coronavirus lockdown. It’s certainly not that we haven’t been paying attention to what’s been going on in the blues world during this time, having in fact spent many hours taking in livestreams (and trying to catch up on those we weren’t able to tune into live) from blues artists all over the world, with some our favorites having come from the likes of Catfish, Robin Bibi, Dom Martin and Corey Harris across the pond to musicians from across the U.S. such as Eddie 9V, John Primer, Andrew Black, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Jimmy Burns, Kenny Neal, and Lucious Spiller, to name just a few.

Having frequently done most of the listening and writing for this blog on our train commute into and home from the office, however, we’ve come to realize that the lack of an office to which to commute has tended to put a pretty serious kibosh on our blues blogging! So while we’ve missed out on telling you about quite a few new album releases and other stories from the blues world, we hope the bit of good news we’re about to share will help make up for our absence from the scene these past few weeks, particularly for any fans of Eric Clapton and/or the late great King of the Blues himself, B.B. King (so basically everyone!)

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11 Guys Quartet delivers big sound on Small Blues and Grooves

Posted on March 13, 2020 by Mike

While we’re on the topic of great new releases from the VizzTone Label Group, here’s another one well worth checking out. Although their names may not be as familiar as those in the band about which we told you in last week’s post, the members of the 11 Guys Quartet have been playing together even longer, having first come together in the early 1980s and then proceeding to share the stage and studio on and off for the following decades.

About a dozen years ago or so, the band went into the studio and recorded a live album of original instrumentals, a project that didn’t see the light of day until now, released by VizzTone as Small Blues and Grooves. The album’s press materials don’t really say why it took so long for the album to be released, but we’re guessing the delay probably wasn’t the result of the band not being able to find a good record company to work with, as one of the members — harmonica player Richard Rosenblatt — happens to be the president of the VizzTone Label Group!

It doesn’t matter that this music wasn’t recorded this decade; the 14 tracks here make for some timeless stuff, consisting of one great instrumental blues track after another and some of the most expressive playing we’ve heard in quite some time, a perfect example of the phrase “blues with a feeling”.

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