We’ve come across a few tunes from British blues-rocker Mick Clarke over the decades and must say we’ve always liked what we heard, but, for whatever reason, have never seemed to get around to checking out Clarke’s work more fully. Until Clarke’s latest project Bad Whisky Blues, that is, which Clarke describes as a “compilation of some favourite rockin’ blues tracks from the last few years,” plus a brand new take on the Jimmy Rogers classic “You’re the One”.
Most of the other tracks here are also covers or largely based off other songs, with some of Clarke’s more noteworthy takes including Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning”, Bobby Parker’s “Watch Your Step”, Memphis Minnie’s “Chaffeur Blues”, Sonny Boy Williamson’s “Help Me”, and this one, originally recorded by Otis Rush:
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There are plenty of things to like about soulman Curtis Salgado‘s latest album Fine By Me (Little Village), with some of the biggest highlights including a swinging, soulful cover of O.V. Wright’s “Gonna Forget About You” that has Salgado joined by Robert Cray on both vocals and guitar (returning the favor for Salgado’s supporting vocals when Cray recorded the track on his 1980 debut album Who’s Been Talkin’), along with Little Village founder and executive director Jim Pugh on B3 organ & piano, Jerry Jemmott on bass, Kid Andersen on guitar and Derek “D’Mar” Martin on drums; the deep, powerful gospel of “Hear the Lonely Hearts” featuring the backing harmonies of The Sons of The Soul Revivers; and a crawling “You Give The Blues A Bad Name” that includes some stinging guitar from Anson Funderburgh, terrific piano from Loren Gold and great horns.
But perhaps there’s nothing better here than the groovy “Better Things to Lie About” that comes just one song in, complete with gritty, all-out vocals and rich harmonica from Salgado, some more of those slick horns, both guitar and keyboards from Kid Andersen and drums from D’Mar, among other backers.
But don’t just take our word for it: go ahead and give “Better Things to Lie About” a listen here, and then check out some of those other tracks too.
Although we’ve certainly been tempted enough over the decades, we’ve resisted crossing over into the jazzier side of things much on these pages, in part to keep things focused squarely on the blues, since — even during this blog’s heyday — we’ve only ever been able to cover a fraction of all of the good things happening within the blues genre. But it probably won’t come as much of a surprise to you that we’ve also long appreciated the sounds of jazz, so the latest release from second-generation bluesman Lurrie Bell — who we’ve discussed often here, probably most recently in regards to him being a part of this family tribute album to harmonica-playing father Carey Bell — gives us a perfect excuse to, well, jazz things up a bit, with the talented, gritty-vocaled blues guitarist Bell this time teaming with renowned Chicago saxophonist Frank Catalano to offer some jazzy takes on familiar classics such as “Everyday I Have the Blues,” “The Sky is Crying,” “I’m Ready,” “Georgia On My Mind” and “At Last” as well as some terrific originals.
After kicking things off with a jaunty “Everyday I Have the Blues” that nicely sets the tone for the album with solos from both Bell and Catalano along with some sprightly piano from Tom Vaitsas, the masters and their band (also including Aaron Mitter on bass and Kurt Lubbe on drums) then move to a quiet, creeping version of “The Sky is Crying,” picking up the tempo again on the groovy title track with its “Messin’ with the Kid”-like horn lines. From there, they keep things swinging with “Shakin’,” the first of three terrific groove-filled instrumentals included here, along with the spicy “Tuna Town” and a “Kicking” that is exactly that.
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We’re sure we weren’t the only ones disappointed to read the news of the sale of fabled blues record label Blind Pig Records in early 2015, having heard and purchased many of the label’s albums over the years from such artists as Muddy Waters, Otis Rush, Pinetop Perkins, George “Harmonica” Smith, Tommy Castro, Carey Bell, James Cotton, and others. The label has put out a few albums since, mostly early on, but has largely been quiet for much of the past decade. So we were of course delighted to see the label’s late 2023 announcement of its relaunch, and even more delighted to hear some of its new offerings, despite coming from names much less familiar than those listed above. That said, a listen to these albums tells us that both of these names will be quite a bit better known in the coming years.
Jovin Webb – Drifter We haven’t watched American Idol since its earliest years, and generally don’t feel that we’ve missed too much as a result, especially when we read that a guy as talented as Jovin Webb was eliminated before making it to the top five back in 2020. Fortunately, Blind Pig was savvy enough to sign the Louisiana native late last year and wasted no time in recording and delivering his debut album Drifter, which shows that Webb’s performances on Idol, which included takes on the Allman Brothers Band’s “Whipping Post”, James Brown’s “It’s a Man’s Man’s Man’s World”, and Joe Cocker’s version of “With a Little Help From My Friends”, according to our research, were really only the tip of the iceberg in showcasing Webb’s immense talents.
There’s not much more we can say about blues veteran Willie Buck than we did in this post on his previous album Willie Buck Way, except that Willie’s latest album Live at Buddy Guy’s Legends (Delmark Records) is the closest thing you can get to a live set of old-school Chicago blues today without incurring all of the costs associated with a trip to Chicago (unless Willie or one of the other very few remaining old-time Chicago players like John Primer happens to be coming through your area, which seems to be occurring less and less these days). A large part of that is, of course, Willie, who’s been, well, singing the blues in the classic Muddy Waters style for many decades now, having gotten his start performing with the likes of such greats as Waters, Howlin’ Wolf, Magic Sam, Buddy Guy, Little Walter, Eddie Taylor, Magic Slim, Byther Smith, and Johnny “Big Moose” Walker, among others.
But we also have to give loads of credit to his backing band on this performance, featuring a number of other well-known names in the blues, including Willie “The Touch” Hayes on drums on what would turn out to be his very last recording, Billy Flynn and Thaddeus Krolicki on guitar, Johnny Iguana on keys, Melvin Smith on bass, and Scott Dirks on harmonica. While Buck of course commands a large part of the focus throughout the album, you do get a great taste for the band itself on the bubbly, swinging instrumental introduction “Jumping”, with lots more terrific harmonica, keyboard, and guitar parts over the course of the following nine songs, as Hayes and Smith expertly hold down the rhythm.
We’ve talked here quite a bit before about the extremely talented father/son duo Paul (keyboards and vocals) and Matt (guitar and vocals) Long and their colleagues in the UK blues rock band Catfish. While the band is currently taking a break in touring as Matt continues treatment for cancer, they aren’t doing it quietly, having just released a five-track mini-album called London that packs a brilliantly powerful punch and nicely represents the band’s diverse range.
On one end of that spectrum you’ll find the soft, sentimental solo piano ballad “Days Long Gone” from Paul, one of a trio of previously unrecorded tracks. The opening title track also starts as a quiet piano ballad before flowing background vocals from two members of Brave Rival (with whom Catfish previously collaborated on a few singles, including a cover of Stephen Stills’ “Love the One You’re With”) and a gorgeous guitar solo from Matt lift the song to Pink Floydian heights.
Falling in the middle of the range is the beautiful, at first airy, then soaring, instrumental “Ethereal,” written by Matt while at school some years back but never before recorded by the band.
Here’s a little videographic evidence of the show we talked about in our last post, a tribute to the Three Kings of the Blues presented by Albert Castiglia, D.K. Harrell and Chris Cain at the recent Heritage Music BluesFest.
These are the first and final songs from the set: Castiglia kicking things off with Albert King’s “Don’t Burn Down the Bridge” and Harrell leading the way on the encore of “Why I Sing the Blues.” If you like what you see and hear here, which we’re betting you will, you can watch everything that took place in between (filmed from right next to our own vantage point of front center stage) in all of its glory on 1AnitrasDance‘s YouTube channel (where you can also find a slew of other past blues shows!)
Even just playing back these videos, we think you’ll be able to understand why we’ve said (and probably will long continue to say) that this show was one of the best we’ve ever seen! Enjoy; we know we did!
It’s been a minute since we wrote about any live shows here, but we would be remiss if we didn’t tell you about this one to be on the lookout for. This weekend, we got the chance to spend a bit of our Saturday at the Heritage Music Bluesfest in Wheeling, WV, watching and listening to the likes of pianist and singer Eden Brent and guitarists/singers Matt Schofield and Selwyn Birchwood and their bands.
Matt Schofield
It was particularly great to catch Schofield again after a number of years and hear such favorites as “Don’t Know What I’d Do,” “Live Wire,” “Where Do I Have to Stand,” and “Black Cat Bone,” as well as get a preview of his upcoming album in the slow, smoldering “Measure of a Man,” and also see his band joined by Christine Tambakis on vocals for “Little by Little,” “Dr. Feelgood” and the smashing encore of “Them Changes.”
But the biggest highlight of the day was the closing set, a tribute to the Three Kings of the blues from Albert Castiglia, Chris Cain, and D.K. Harrell being performed for the very first time, with the trio of bluesmen from across the generations taking turns leading on songs from the great B.B., Albert, and Freddie King.
You’ll hear a number of your Blues Brothers favorites on the band’s 106 Miles to Chicago (a title inspired by a famous line from the movie where Elwood says “It’s 106 miles to Chicago, we’ve got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it’s dark and we’re wearing sunglasses”), from the stop-starting, attention-getting “Hey Bartender” that opens the album to the lively instrumental “I Can’t Turn You Loose” and the trudging “She Caught the Katy,” filled here with Sonny Landreth-like slide guitar licks from Christopher and thick harp from guest Studebaker John. As big Spencer Davis Band fans, it wasn’t easy for us to choose to highlight anything over the full-throttle “Gimme Some Lovin'” (a testament to just how good the track we chose is), but the addition of a smoking slide guitar solo on top of the swinging horns and rich background vocals you expect on the song helped seal the deal on our spotlighting this one, the band’s take on the Blues Brothers’ own high energy version of Solomon Burke’s “Everybody Needs Somebody to Love”…
“Hit it!”*
If you’re looking for more reason to check this album out, we can give you several, in the form of some well-known guests: in addition to the aforementioned Studebaker John, Bruce Katz plays piano and Anton Fig, drums, on all of the tracks, with original Blues Brothers Band member Tom “Bones” Malone joining the horn section on “Gimme Some Lovin'”.
Though certainly entertaining, we recognize that Blues Brothers music isn’t always the most respected of material. But the band’s performance here, which they pretty much nail, makes them plenty deserving of a closer listen. So we checked out a couple of their other recordings as well, and were equally, if not even more, impressed with albums such as their Snapshots from the Second Floor and Two Rivers Back, which at times offered shades of sounds like those from the likes of Buddy Guy, Magic Slim, and Albert Castiglia.
All of which is to say, with just seven tracks on 106 Miles to Chicago, we really wouldn’t mind them getting the band back together for a sequel!
*(Jake’s response to Elwood’s 106 miles line, for those who may not be familiar with the movie)
We probably haven’t paid as much attention to the Massachusetts band Misty Blues in recent years as we should have, but that doesn’t mean we need to keep living with that mistake! Here’s the latest single from the band from their upcoming album I’m Too Old for Games, the second in a series of recordings of live tributes to folk and blues great Odetta.
Although always a powerful song, the band takes it to a whole ‘nother level here, with vocalist Gina Coleman digging deep in the gravel almost from the start, balanced by some delicate violin, piano, guitar and sax from her colleagues.
We can’t blame you if you find yourself unable to hold off in tracking down more music from the band after hearing this one! Although the new album, which will include such other gems as “Weepin’ Willow Blues” and “Alabama Bound,” isn’t due out until early next month, you can at least check out the band’s first live tribute album to Odetta, Tell Me Who You Are, along with more than a dozen of other albums in the meantime!
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