We’ve marveled several times before at Canadian blues-rocker Steve Hill‘s one-man act, as heard, for example, on Hill’s Solo Recordings volumes II and III. And while we’ve not yet had the opportunity to witness Hill onstage with our own eyes and ears, we’re happy to report that the talented musician is no less impressive live, judging by his latest recording The One-Man Blues Rock Band (Manhaton Records).
Recorded during a performance in Quebec last fall, the album is a raw, mostly rocking affair that nicely showcases Hill’s gruff, gritty vocals, often stinging guitar, and driving drums and other percussion that Hill plays with his feet and a drumstick attached to the head of his guitar, also adding harmonica on several numbers.
Starting on a rocking “Rhythm All Over”, Hill doesn’t ease up until five songs in with the quiet, rootsy “Tough Luck” that Hill’s harmonica helps give a country-western flavor after a nice guitar intro, also hitting the driving “Go On”, “The Collector” and “Damned” on the way. Tough, Gary Clark, Jr.-like guitar permeates the shuffling “Never is Such a Long Time” before Hill picks up the tempo with a grungy take on “Hate to See You Go”.
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Here’s one we’ve been meaning to tell you about for a while now, a soulful, swinging recording that harkens back to the Memphis big band sound of B.B. King and Bobby “Blue” Bland, with the band, in fact, taking their name from one of Bland’s biggest hits in “Turn on Your Love Light”. Made up of musicians who have toured and played with Bland, The Bo-Keys, Gregg Allman, Solomon Burke, Robert Cray and others, The Love Light Orchestra also features the talented John Nemeth on vocals; together, they make one hell of a first impression on their debut album The Love Light Orchestra featuring John Nemeth: Live from Bar DKDC in Memphis, TN! (Blue Barrel Records), twelve tracks of soulful, horn-driven blues that range from the swaying style of Percy Mayfield’s “Please Send Me Someone to Love” and a quiet, jazzy take on Buddy Ace’s “This Little Love of Mine” to the partly falsetto croons of Freddie King’s “What About Love” and the closing, shuffling R&B adaptation of Al Green’s “Love and Happiness”.
With Ledbetter having moved on to 
We’ve been fortunate to hear quite a bit from John Mayall in the past four to five years, between several new studio albums (
With its haunting vocals and tough, gritty guitar riffs, the edgy, lightly rocking opener “When I Go” establishes right up front that the pair hasn’t lost any of the fire they displayed on their debut release, a point reiterated through later uptempo tracks such as “The Bottle Wins Again” and “Movin’ On”, the latter also serving as a great example of Harper’s brilliant songwriting, with lyrics that include “You practice law without a license, psychology too/ but your PhD is in givin’ me the blues” and “you get away with murder, you got a way with words/ speakin’ in a language that nobody’s ever heard” as the song indeed gets you moving with its greasy harmonica and a tearing guitar solo.
The eldest Morganfield son’s third release on Severn Records following his award-winning Son of the Seventh Son and collaboration with harmonica player Kim Wilson on