We don’t write about a whole lot of all-instrumental albums here, but harmonica player Mark Hummel‘s latest release Harpbreaker (Electro-Fi Records) is one that’s really too good to let pass without mention. A mix of newly recorded, live, previously issued and a good number of unreleased tracks chosen by Hummel, the album includes a baker’s dozen of tunes ranging from such classics as “See See Rider”, “Cristo Redentor” and “The Creeper Returns” to originals like the swinging opener “Harpoventilatin'” from a 2005 show at Yoshi’s in Oakland, California; a spunky, washboard and percussion-accented “Billy’s Boogaloo” recorded just this year; and the jazzy, swaying “Ready, Steady, Stroll!” from 2009’s RetroActive sessions.
Because the tracks come from a number of different sessions that took place during the past decade and a half, Harpbreaker features a rotating cast of supporting musicians on guitar, keyboards, drums and horns in addition to, and sometimes in place of, Hummel’s regular band members R.W. Grigsby on bass and Wes Starr on drums. On guitar, those guests include such well-known players as Anson Funderburgh, Little Charlie Baty, Kid Andersen, Billy Flynn and Rusty Zinn, with keyboardists Bob Welsh and Mel Brown and drummer Marty Dodson among the other contributing musicians. That variety of players, along with some superb song selection, help make the tracks all different enough not only to keep things interesting but make Harpbreaker one of the best instrumental albums we’ve heard in some time, and, indeed, one of the best albums of 2018.
With Confessin’ the Blues (BMG), the Stones provide blues fans with another terrific gift, this one in the form of a 2-CD, 2-LP or 5 10-inch vinyl compilation featuring original versions of some of the genre’s greatest artists and tracks as selected by the Stones. While the Stones have probably performed or recorded most of these songs themselves at some point throughout their five and a half decades together, this compilation presents its 42 tracks as originally recorded by the likes of Waters, Wolf, Berry, Guy, Little Walter, Robert Johnson, John Lee Hooker, B.B. King, Jimmy Reed, Elmore James and more.
Bonfanti and Milner share primary vocals, with Milner’s smooth, often jazzy delivery nicely balancing Bonfanti’s gruff voice to create the aural equivalent of the chocolate and peanut butter combination of a Reese’s peanut butter cup.
Even though a few of the songs on Parker’s Spoonful of Gold are ones also covered on the earlier tributes from Bonamassa or the Big Head Blues Club (including, for example, “Evil”, “Spoonful”, “My Love Will Never Die”, and “The Seventh Son”), with Parker’s vocals at times even sounding pretty close to those of Big Head’s Todd Park Mohr while at other points evoking Davy Knowles (Back Door Slam), Parker delivers it all in an ambitious, engaging fashion. While the Big Head Blues Club relied in part on its guest performers to help provide some diversity in sound, you really have to give Parker credit for undertaking the effort alone with his band, who very much rise to the occasion and help create an impressive and memorable offering. Even if a few of these interpretations sound somewhat like stuff we’ve heard before, everything here is solid, with Parker & co. delivering perfectly commendable renditions of more familiar Dixon tracks like the opening gritty, rocking “Evil”; a “I Just Want to Make Love to You” that starts on some muted Led Zeppelin-ish licks and is then filled with subdued wah riffs; a creeping, eight-and-a-half minute “My Love Will Never Die” that includes pleading falsetto vocals from Parker; and the closing “Spoonful”.
Stepping back to the center of the stage for his fourth solo studio album Hold On, Fletcher is even more superb, delivering not only the magnificent playing you would expect but some tough, seriously impressive vocals that put Fletcher in the same league as the likes of Larry McCray and the late Michael Burks.
But a few things do help separate this album from that of a Bluetones recording: all 13 of the tracks here were written by Geraci, and, although prominently featured, his former and current Bluetones bandmates actually make up less than half of the guests on this project, with other appearances including singers Sugaray Rayford, Willie J. Laws and Michelle “Evil Gal” Willson, horn players “Sax” Gordon Beadle and Doug Woolverton, and drummer Marty Richards, as well as singer Brian Templeton, guitarist Kid Ramos, bass player Willie J. Campbell and drummer Jimi Bott, the four of whom Geraci recently teamed with under the name of The Proven Ones (the 
From there, it didn’t take long for us to realize that Bramhall also wrote two of the tracks (“I Wanna Be” and “Marry You”) covered by Clapton and B.B. King on the previous year’s Grammy Award-winning collaboration Riding with the King, in addition to playing on most of that album as well. That project would, in fact, be the start of a long and productive relationship that would find Bramhall joining the legendary guitarist in the studio and/or on tour for much of the next decade and a half, with Bramhall even helping to produce the Clapton and Old Sock albums.