“Braille Blues Daddy” Bryan Lee pays Homage to 4 Kings of the blues on posthumous release

Posted on August 6, 2025 by Mike

Though we’d already heard him several times, most notably, providing lead vocals and some stinging guitar to complement that of his much younger counterpart on a rocking “Tina Marie” on Kenny Wayne Shepherd’s 2007 Grammy-nominated, Blues Music Award-winning (Best DVD) documentary and album 10 Days Out: Blues from the Backroads, and then on two tracks (the shuffling “How Many More Years” and a biting “Sick and Tired”) on Shepherd’s 2010 (also Grammy-nominated) Live! in Chicago album recorded during the 10 Days Out tour on which he and others like Hubert Sumlin, Willie “Big Eyes” Smith, and Buddy Flett played with Shepherd and his band, it wasn’t until Bryan Lee‘s 2013 album Play One for Me (for which you can still read our review here) that the blind New Orleans bluesman first really caught our ear. That of course led us to check out the rest of Lee’s extensive catalogue, which was all we needed to make us a fan of Lee’s for life. 

And we certainly weren’t the only ones impressed by him: Muddy Waters once told Lee that, if he kept with his music, Lee would be a living legend, while Buddy Guy remarked to Lee at one point that Guy, B.B. King and Lee were the only guys playing “real” blues anymore.

Sadly, Lee–who some may have known as the “Braille Blues Daddy” of Bourbon Street–died in 2020, his last album having been the 2018 blues-gospel album Sanctuary, which we never got the chance to review here but can attest was a good one just like everything that came before it. We really thought Sanctuary and Play One for Me would be the last recordings we’d hear from Lee, until a recent post on Lee’s wife Bethany’s Facebook page (reposted on a Bryan Lee site lovingly maintained by Lee’s friends) revealed that this new CD would be available for purchase at the annual Bryan Lee Memorial Blues Festival that takes place each July in Lee’s birthplace of Two Rivers, Wisconsin (we haven’t yet been able to make it to the festival, but we will one of these years!)

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Davy Knowles joins with some familiar Friends on new project, MKO

Posted on July 29, 2025 by Mike

Former Back Door Slam frontman and guitarist Davy Knowles has been playing with Rory Gallagher band alums Gerry McAvoy (bass) and Brendan O’Neill (drums) in the Gallagher-focused Band of Friends for more than half a decade now, in addition to maintaining his own successful solo career. But the trio’s new project, MKO (for McAvoy, Knowles, O’Neill), is less about Gallagher’s music and more about that of, well, McAvoy, Knowles, and O’Neill. And we have to say that we’re liking what we’ve heard so far, which you can hear also by checking out these first two blues-rocking singles from the band’s upcoming album, due out this fall.

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Alligator Records displays Queen of the Blues’ Crown Jewels on collection honoring one of label’s all-time greats, Koko Taylor

Posted on July 25, 2025 by Mike

It’s been more than a decade-and-a-half since the passing of blues great Koko Taylor, but her old friends at Alligator Records, the label with which she spent three-and-a-half decades after getting her start on Chess Records, aren’t about to let her be forgotten, having just released a 12-track compilation of remastered versions of what the label calls Taylor’s “most-requested fan favorites”. 

Titled Crown Jewels in reference to Taylor’s  “Queen of the Blues” moniker, the collection includes all of the tough blues tracks that jump to mind when you hear Taylor’s name, appropriately kicking off on her signature “Wang Dang Doodle”, one of a handful of songs here that features a backing band of Pinetop Perkins on piano, Sammy Lawhorn and Johnny B. Moore on guitar, Abb Locke on tenor sax, Cornelius Boyson on bass, and Vince Chappelle on drums. And a wang dang doodle this collection indeed is, with the same band backing Taylor on the shuffling “You Can Have My Husband”, a romping “Hey Bartender”, the bouncy closing “Let the Good Times Roll”, and an especially growling-vocaled “I’m a Woman” that also features Harmonica Hinds on the instrument for which he was nicknamed.

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There’s no heartbreak with Larry McCray’s new album Heartbreak City

Posted on July 17, 2025 by Mike

Guitarist and singer Larry McCray has long been one of the most underrated, or at least under-discussed, bluesmen out there.  McCray’s sturdy, soulful vocals and chops on guitar are among the very top in the business, and have been for quite some time, if you check out some of his earlier gems such as “Soulshine” and the booming “Blues is My Business”. Or you can just start at the present and give a listen to McCray’s new album, Heartbreak City (Keeping the Blues Alive Records), almost any of the tracks from which are also destined to be classics.

We’ve already told you about one of those tracks, the smoldering “Bright Side” that was originally penned for the late, great Bobby “Blue” Bland, but there’s a whole lot more here that you’re going to want to check out, from the smooth, swaying soul of “Bye Bye Blues” and bluesy, piano-accented (courtesy of Reese Wynans) “Stop Your Crying” to the opening simmering rocker “Try to Be a Good Man” and hard shuffling “Keep on Loving My Baby” that features fellow guitar slingers Kirk Fletcher and  (album co-producer) Josh Smith along with Wynans on piano before McCray declares “my toin” and delivers his own monster solo.

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Ruthie Foster leads us on closer to release of much-anticipated Antone’s anniversary box set with powerful take on Bobby Bland’s “Lead Me On”

Posted on July 16, 2025 by Mike

Here’s another great single from that upcoming Antone’s anniversary box set about which we’ve been telling you: a newly recorded, stop-you-in-your-tracks performance of the Bobby “Blue” Bland classic (co-written by Lavelle White) “Lead Me On” by the great Ruthie Foster, backed by an all-star band of Antone’s regulars in Derek O’Brien and Anson Funderburgh on guitar, a six-piece horn section, and the late Lynn August on organ, in what would be his final recording session before his passing earlier this year.

Give it a listen!

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Joined by Shemekia Copeland and Ronnie Baker Brooks, Billy Branch and the Sons of Blues are “Begging for Change” with new single from new Rosa’s Lounge Records label

Posted on July 10, 2025 by Mike

Okay, one more from Chicago before we move on (now you see why they the celebrate the blues the way they do there!)…  this new single from Billy Branch and his Sons of Blues is a powerful one both musically and lyrically, touching on not only the issue of homelessness to which its title refers in the most literal sense but also broader issues demanding attention such as poverty, addiction, and hate.

To help strengthen their appeal, Branch and the band are joined by second-generation blues artists Shemekia Copeland, trading lead vocals with Branch, and Ronnie Baker Brooks (who co-wrote the song with Branch) on guitar, all combining to make this one of the most impactful blues songs we’ve heard in some time.

It’s currently available as a single from the newly established Rosa’s Lounge Records label, which we’re sure will be bringing us lots more great stuff in the coming months and years.

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New album from Willie Buck and Bob Corritore will have you, too, saying Oh Yeah!

Posted on July 7, 2025 by Mike

We’re keeping things focused on Chicago after our last post with a look at the latest collaboration from harmonica ace Bob Corritore, who, although he’s called Phoenix, Arizona, (where he owns and frequently plays at the legendary Rhythm Room blues club) his home since the early 1980s, originally hailed from and got his start in the Windy City before relocating to the warmer climate of the desert, and this time out teams with longtime Chicago bluesman Willie Buck (who moved to the big city from his birthplace of Mississippi before his 20th birthday). From his arrival in Chicago, Buck was strongly influenced by Muddy Waters, something you’ll notice immediately here on the stellar Oh Yeah! (VizzTone Records), not simply because of the two Waters songs that kick off the album, and/or backing by former Waters guitarist Bob Margolin on a majority of the tracks (including two of the three Waters covers), but because that’s so much a part of Buck’s overall style and sound, something we appreciate more with each new recording we hear from Buck, particularly with Muddy having been gone so long now.

An enthusiastic take on Waters’ “Oh Yeah” opens the album, featuring especially fiery vocals from Buck on the chorus. Some of that fire also carries over to the gritty “She’s Alright” that follows, the first number to feature Margolin on guitar, with other highlights such as the shuffling original “Went Home This Morning” and third Waters song “Baby Please Don’t Go” — with the gruff-vocaled Buck sounding a lot like a more uptempo version of David “Honeyboy” Edwards — also showing some great energy from the 88-year-old Buck, while the gritty, creeping closer “Let Me Find Out Your Name” is another track well worth checking out, featuring some fantastic guitar from Billy Flynn and Jimi “Primetime” Smith.

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Delmark All-Stars knock it out of the park with “Sweet Home Chicago” collab with Cubs

Posted on June 27, 2025 by Mike

We’re no fan of the Chicago Cubs baseball club (still maintaining loyalty to the team firmly entrenched at the complete opposite end of the National League Central standings, and thus forced to glory in championships of a far more distant time, when giants with names such as Clemente, Stargell, Mazeroski and Parker graced the field, but we digress) but we can cheer for the Cubs’ recent collaboration with Delmark Records, a fresh take from the Delmark All-Stars on a blues classic that pays homage to the city’s blues roots like no other can: “Sweet Home Chicago”.

Mike Wheeler and Buddy Guy’s daughter Carlisle Guy take the lead on vocals, with nonagenarian Bob Stroger also chiming in on the chorus, backed by a truly all-star band of others that includes Dave Specter on guitar, Roosevelt Purifoy Jr. on keys, Larry Williams on bass, and Melvin “Pooky Styx” Carlisle on drums, with Wheeler also on guitar.

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D.K. Harrell is Talkin’ Heavy about the blues on Alligator Records debut

Posted on June 25, 2025 by Mike

Rising bluesman D.K. Harrell keeps on rolling with his sophomore album–and Alligator Records debut–Talkin’ Heavy. Released last week, the album includes another dozen extremely impressive original tracks that demonstrate why the 27-year-old Harrell is one of the hottest acts on the blues scene right now.  

Picking up right where he left off from the energy and sophistication of his first, Blues Music Award-winning album The Right Man (Little Village Foundation), Harrell kicks off this follow-up with a grooving “A Little Taste” that does indeed provide a nice little taste of what’s ahead, including some Albert King-style licks from Harrell on guitar as well as some terrific horns and playing from Jim Pugh on keys. 

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Gary Clark Jr. goes “Catfish”in’ too on one of two new singles from Antone’s 50th anniversary box set

Posted on June 19, 2025 by Mike

We know we just spotlighted a cover of Robert Petway’s blues classic “Catfish Blues” and had every intention of going a different direction with this week’s featured single, but then this happened… New West Records this week released another couple of singles from their upcoming box set Antone’s: 50 Years of the Blues, and we just had to bring you this one right away: a terrific, previously unreleased 2004 live track of “Catfish Blues” from a then-rising 20-year-old blues artist named Gary Clark Jr. that exemplifies the raw sound that first drew us to Clark’s music. Joined here by James Bullard on bass and Jay Moeller on drums, Clark’s smoking playing on guitar and youthful yet confident vocals as demanded by the song make this another “Catfish” you’re going to want to keep!

If you’re looking to hear more of what’s currently available from the Antone’s box set, here’s a link to the Los Lobos cover of Howlin’ Wolf’s “Three Hundred Pounds of Joy” that appears as a bonus 45 on the box set and was also released this week, and here’s our earlier post on Doyle Bramhall II‘s “Bad Boy”.

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