May 09, 2022

The Nighthawks - American Landscape (2008)

► The albuml

Mark Wenner and… the Nighthawks

In 2022 the Nighthawks celebrate half a century of existence ! No need to say the band, or at least its leader, has gone through all kinds of experiences and knows each and every trick of the business. Founded in 1972 by harpist-vocalist Mark Wenner and guitarist Jimmy Thackery, the Nighthawks have known a long series of member changes around Wenner after the departure of Thackery in 1986. The pillar, the heart, the soul and the driving force of the band, Wenner must have in store a huge amount of will, strength and health managing to keep his 30-album band alive for these 50 years !
Wenner, an upper-class kid from Bethesda, near Washington D.C., started to play harmonica in his teens. He got definitely caught by the blues and the instrument when struck by the lightning of a Paul Butterfield Blues Band concert in 1966 at Columbia University in New York which he had just entered. Rather than studying seriously, he spent most of his time haunting the Greenwich Village's blues clubs where he saw great bluesmen like Howlin’ Wolf, Muddy Waters, Junior Wells or Buddy Guy play, practicing his harmonica intensively and jamming with student bands. After managing still to graduate from university, his mind made up to form a blues band, he returned to the D.C. area where he soon met a young impetuous guitar player named Jimmy Thackery. This was the sparkle that lighted the birth of the Nighthawks in 1972.

Thirty-six years later, the tireless, stainless Nighthawks released "American Landscape", their 15th studio album or so. The menu includes mostly covers from the Imperial Crowns (Jimmie Wood & J. J. Holiday), Tom Waits, Bob Dylan (twice) Ike Turner, Motown founder Berry Gordy, Louisiana record producer and songwriter Jerry West aka J.D. Miller, Steve Cropper and soul singer-songwriter-producer Dan Penn, and two original tracks due to bass keeper Johnny Castle.

A rather eclectic American landscape totally designed to put Wenner's harmonica and vocals up front, the rest of the band being almost confined to a backing part, except maybe Paul Bell on guitar.
This makes this album rather disappointing, despite a few outstanding tracks like Tom Wait's "Down In The Hole", Johnny Castle's "Where Do You Go?" and vintage rock'n'roll song "Jana Lea", or the too short acoustic jazzy outro track "The Fishin' Hole", actually the theme song for The Andy Griffith Show TV program.

Inspiration seems to have brought the band in scattered directions and the album lacks unity, from rocking and jumping numbers like "Big Boy" and "Matchbox" to blues-soul numbers like "Made Up My Mind" or "Standing In The Way" through a cool jazzy piece like "Try It Baby". Even Steve Cropper's "Don't Turn Your Heater Down" sounds a bit wheezy. Bob Dylan isn't allowed a better treatment, despite Paul Bell's guitar that reminds the Byrds' folk-rock sound style, not enough to catch the ears of Dylan's fans seriously.

Just like the front cover illustration showing a messy jumble of two or four-wheel vehicles (reflecting heavily tattooed biker Wenner's passion for motorcycles), this album is too dispersed to reveal the band's musical identity and really convince. ■


Interviews
● Wenner on The Nighthawks, performing, recording and rock'n'roll (audio) : https://youtu.be/-FerO3Bgl0o

Mark Wenner's side-band the "Blues Warriors"
● A Blue House Productions Live Stream Concert with Mark Wenner : vocals, harmonica - Mark Stutso : drums, vocals - Clarence “The Bluesman” Turner : guitar, vocals - Zach Sweeney : guitar -, Steve Wolf : upright bass : https://youtu.be/Xina6wqGB4k

Live versions of songs from the album
● "Most Likely You Go Your Way And I'll Go Mine" : https://youtu.be/uHLuqNrh2Qw
● "Standing In The Way" : https://youtu.be/FW3MyZR7vM0


Nighthawks live shows
● At Earl's Hideaway, 2022 : https://youtu.be/h4pvSBX2l3s
● On Pearl Street Live, 2021 (go straight to 1:19 :00, the sound is mute prior to that !) : https://youtu.be/6DVjlne8gMI
● A Blue House Productions Live Stream Concert, 2021 :
● In Gaithersburg (Maryland) on the 4th of July 2020 : https://youtu.be/KcFPqr4vzz8
● Thanksgiving benefit concert, Kensington (Maryland) :
● At Terra Fermata, Stuart (Florida), 2019 : https://youtu.be/i5g1xrGKI7k
● At the Kensington Book Fair (Maryland), 2019 : https://youtu.be/xSTMJ-R5O_I
● At the Takoma Park Street Festival (Maryland) :
→ 2018 : https://youtu.be/zPvlmP6XeBk
● At Lee District Park, Franconia (Virginia), 2017 : https://youtu.be/EBn5uakdjeo
With Bob Margolin (at right)
● With Bob Margolin at the Iridium, 2015 :
● At the Herzog Ernst Celle Pub in Germany, 2014 :
● At the Dinosaur BBQ, Syracuse (New York) :
● At the Reigen Cafe, Vienna (Austria), 2013 : https://youtu.be/2BZjM1fLoEE
● At the State Theater, Falls Church (Virginia), 2003 : https://youtu.be/6nj-gnGloE4

The old times (with Jimmy Thackery)
● At the Cheers Club, Paonia (Colorado), 1984 (12-part playlist) : click here
● TV show, 1982 : https://youtu.be/Vp9Ctq9L94Q



Other famous nighthawks
"Nighthawks", Edward Hopper, 1942
Except the name of the blues-rock band, it's also the name of :
→  a famous painting by Edward Hopper from 1942,
→ a line of Gibson guitars,
→ American bluesman Robert Lee McCollum (1909-1967), better known as Robert Nighthawk,
→ a famous Marvel & DC Comics character,
→ a military aircraft, the Lockheed F-117 Nighthawk,
→ a motorcycle line from Honda,
→ an Australian dragonfly (Apocordulia Macrops).



Paul Bell
Johnny Castle
Pete Ragusa
Mark Wenner
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May 07, 2022

Doc & Merle Watson - Remembering Merle (1970-76, released 1992)

 ► The album

Forever father & son
A real treasure of Appalachian acoustic blend of bluegrass, old country-folk, ragtime and blues delivered by two monsters of the acoustic guitar and banjo, and exhaling the nostalgic perfume of autumnal mist on the Blue Ridge forests around Deep Gap (North Carolina), the Watson family fief.
Compiling live recordings of Merle Watson with his father Doc from the 1970-1976 period, this marvelous album of melancholic or joyful songs, gives a good insight of the musical mix that made Doc and Merle national treasures.

Merle, born in 1949, started to learn how to play guitar in his early teens, then banjo (in 5 months !). At 15, he was playing so well that his father took him to play on his live performances with him and record albums. He was mastering fingerstyle, flat-picking and slide guitar with equal virtuosity. Many music specialists affirm that he was even playing better than his dad. Unfortunately, his brilliant career was cut off suddenly at age 36 when he was crushed to death in a tractor accident.
Since 1988, his memory is kept alive every year during the world famous MerleFest (Merle Watson Memorial Festival) which attracts in Wilkesboro (western North Carolina) the best artists from the traditional American music planet, a genre that both Merle and Doc baptized "traditional plus", meaning "the traditional music of the Appalachian region plus whatever other styles we were in the mood to play", as Doc explained once.

On this tribute album, these "other styles" expand to the 1932 retro song "Miss The Mississippi & You", to jazz with Gershwin's "Summertime" transformed here into a more folkie version, to rock'n'roll with the incredible acoustic guitars-bass-piano swinging version of "Blue Suede Shoes/Tutti Frutti" worth all the rockers versions, and even to a Spanish mood on the final Merle-written song "Thoughts Of Never". But the core of Doc & Merle repertoire is traditional folk ballads, blues and bluegrass, all delivered in the inimitable Watson style.

The folk side features sorrowful ballads like "Omie Wise" and "Frankie & Johnny", the moving hobo's complaint "Wayfaring Stranger" or the mellow "Southern Lady" with first notes seemingly borrowed from George Harrison.
The blues side include "Honey Babe Blues" with Merle on banjo, their beautiful version of "St. James Infirmary", "Honey Please Don't Go" with Merle giving a demonstration of his talent on slide guitar, and the excellent fingerstyle "Nine Pound Hammer".
But it's probably in the country & bluegrass genres that the father & son pair is the most amazing. The outstanding "Nancy Rowland/Salt Creek" necessarily brings memories of the "Dueling Banjos" scene at the beginning of John Boorman 1972 film "Deliverance", even though the soundtrack song, written by Arthur "Guitar Boogie" Smith, was not played by Doc and/or Merle Watson. But it could easily have been… "New River Train" features additional piano by Bob Hill, and the magnificent "Black Mountain Rag" is played with no less than four guitars ! The jubilant "Mama Don't Allow", a brilliant demonstration of instrumental dexterity including a jazzy guitar solo in the second part, the amazing washboard rubbing of Joe Smothers, and T. Michael Coleman's ability on upright bass, is undoubtedly one of the highlights of the album.

A wonderful way to pay tribute to the late Merle at the time, and now also to Doc who put his guitar down definitely in 2012. ■

Readings & Documentaries
● Doc talks about Merle in an interesting portait-interview on : https://acousticguitar.com/the-rich-musical-legacy-of-doc-and-merle-watson-a-rare-interview/
● An old article about Merle to download in PDF on : https://merlefest.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/Remembering_Merle_Watson.pdf
● About the seven-disc box set "Doc & Merle Watson: Never the Same Way Once" : https://thebluegrasssituation.com/read/doc-merle-watson-play-never-the-same-way-once-on-new-box-set/
● "3 days with Doc Watson", a 1976 documentary film by folk researcher A.L. Lloyd : https://youtu.be/i5mZlriOogU
● "Deciphering Doc Watson: A look at his life and influences", another documentary film by Willard Watson III : https://youtu.be/P1LRSrihy00
The MerleFest 
● The History of MerleFest : https://youtu.be/emSi1SiQ58k
● Documentary film on MerleFest 1988 : https://youtu.be/vwjzSoWFL0o
● The site (with a page listing all the artists who have participated from the beginning) : https://merlefest.org




Videos
● Doc Watson discusses Merle's musical influences, and then both play "Make Me A Pallet" and "Streamline Cannonball" : https://youtu.be/Z7iMBBmFlrs

Doc & Merle Watson live
● In 1983 : https://youtu.be/5xaHl5ryeJ0
Merle, T. Michael Coleman & Doc
● In Oberlin (Ohio), 1979 : https://youtu.be/spx2xvBDYvI
● Unknown show details : https://youtu.be/srze24sBxkw
● With T. Michael Coleman : https://youtu.be/kgoZjinEZ5A
● "Summertime" : https://youtu.be/CPpf3FLjuMs
● With T. Michael Coleman, Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, David Bromberg and Mark O'Connor, at the Soundstage Bluegrass Festival, 1983 : https://youtu.be/FZHSNpE_0D8
● Rockabilly Medley with David Bromberg, Mark O'Connor, Pete Rowan, John McEuen, Jimmy Ibbotson and T Michael Coleman (on bass), Chicago, 1984 : https://youtu.be/rBt6kJm_nKw
● "Rangement blues" : https://youtu.be/xFLwpaSF2p4

Full detailed album credits
→ 01. Frosty Morn (arranged by Arthel Lane Watson aka Doc Watson). Banjo : Merle Watson - Guitar : Doc Watson.
→ 02. Omie Wise (arranged by Doc Watson). Banjo : Merle Watson – Guitar, Vocals : Doc Watson.
→ 03. Frankie & Johnny (arranged by Doc Watson). Guitar [Fingerstyle] : Merle Watson – Guitar, Vocals : Doc Watson.
→ 04. Honey Babe Blues (arranged by Doc Watson). Banjo : Merle Watson – Guitar, Vocals : Doc Watson.
→ 05. St. James Infirmary (written by J. Primrose aka Irving Mills).  Guitar, Vocals : Doc Watson - Lead Guitar : Merle Watson.
→ 06. Honey Please Don't Go (written by J. Hodges). Guitar, Vocals : Doc Watson - Slide Guitar : Merle Watson.
→ 07. Nancy Rowland/Salt Creek (arranged by Doc Watson). Bass : T. Michael Coleman - Guitars [Flat-Picked] : Doc & Merle Watson.
→ 08. Miss The Mississippi & You (written by William H. Heagney aka Bill Halley, not to be mixed up with rock'n'roll musician Bill Haley). Bass : T. Michael Coleman - Guitar, Vocals : Doc Watson - Slide Guitar : Merle Watson.
→ 09. Nine Pound Hammer (arranged by Doc Watson). Bass : T. Michael Coleman - Guitar [Fingerstyle] : Merle Watson - Guitar [Fingerstyle], Vocals : Doc Watson.
→ 10. Summertime (written by DuBose Edwin Heyward and George & Ira Gershwin). Bass : T. Michael Coleman - Guitar, Vocals : Doc Watson - Lead Guitar : Merle Watson.
→ 11. New River Train (arranged by Doc Watson). Banjo : Merle Watson - Bass, Vocals : T. Michael Coleman - Lead Guitar, Vocals : Doc Watson - Piano, Vocals : Bob Hill - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals : Joe Smothers.
→ 12. Black Mountain Rag (arranged by Doc Watson) : Bass : T. Michael Coleman - Guitar [Flat-Picked] : Doc Watson - Guitar [Gut-String] : Bob Hill - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals : Joe Smothers - Slide Guitar : Merle Watson.
→ 13. Southern Lady (written by R. L. Hill aka Bob Hill). Bass : T. Michael Coleman - Guitar [Second] : Doc Watson - Guitar, Lead Vocals : Bob Hill - Lead Guitar : Merle Watson - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals : Joe Smothers.
→ 14. Mama Don't Allow (written by Charles Edward Davenport & Sammy Cahn). Bass : T. Michael Coleman - Guitar [Gut-String] : Bob Hill - Guitar, Vocals : Doc Watson - Slide Guitar : Merle Watson - Washboard : Joe Smothers.
→ 15. Blue Suede Shoes (written by Carl Perkins). Bass, Vocals : T. Michael Coleman - Guitar, Vocals : Doc Watson - Piano, Vocals : Bob Hill - Rhythm Guitar, Vocals : Joe Smothers - Slide Guitar : Merle Watson.
→ 16. Wayfaring Stranger (arranged by Doc Watson). Bass : T. Michael Coleman - Guitar, Vocals : Doc Watson - Lead Guitar : Merle Watson.
→ 17. Thoughts Of Never (written by Eddy Merle Watson). Guitar [Gut-String] : Merle Watson - Piano : Charles Cochran.

- Album concept : Rosalee Watson (Doc's wife).

- Producer : T. Michael Coleman.

- Recorded live between 1970 and 1976 in Bogalusa (Louisiana), Minneapolis (Minnesota), San Francisco (California), St. Louis (Missouri) and Winston-Salem (North Carolina).





A walk through the Merle Watson Memorial "Garden for the Senses" in Wilkesboro (North Carolina)







 

 

 

 


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May 05, 2022

Toby Walker - Hand Picked (2008)

Walkin' with Master Walker
The old red tractor on the front cover sets things straight and clear : we're bound for a tour of rural American music : country blues, rag, folk and countryfied bluegrass (or maybe the opposite). And, as the title "Hand Picked" double-entendre announces, we're invited to a harvest of great ripe finger-style guitar. Toby Walker, who lost his nickname "Little" long ago for good reasons, is rambling around his musical orchard with his acoustic guitars, backed on some tracks by a minimal drumless band featuring excellent fiddler Jay Ungar and upright acoustic or electric bass by Molly Mason or Tom Griffith.

We already talked about the man's career in our review of his 2011 album "Shake Shake Mama" (1), so this time let's concentrate solely on the musical content of this album.

When you hear the amazing sound of Walker's National Steel guitar on "Hey Good Lookin'" or on his incredible version of "Mind Your Own Business", two Hank Wiliams covers, his extraordinary Piedmont finger-picking style on "Better Luck Next Time", or his slide technique on his original "Little Dixie", you know you're hearing a master at work. Nothing being more difficult to record than an acoustic guitar, be it a steel one, you understand he was brilliantly served by the two sound engineers, Larry Moser and Gilbert Hetherwick. Moreover when you listen to half of his lyrics, or those of the songs he adapted or chose to cover, you realize the guy has a serious sense of humor ! On top of that he's not only a top guitarist but also a great story teller, and an excellent singer. What else do you need to enjoy fifty memorable minutes of acoustic music ?!

Walker's guitar wanders through blues, rag, folk and bluegrass-tinged country music with equal talent, enhanced by the beat of the bass on six tracks, and on four tracks conversing with the old-time earthly sound of the fiddle that transports you in some backforests and mountains of the Appalachians.

The jumping bluegrassy tempo of the opening "Big Meat Shakin' On The Bone" announces the general tone of  the album : steel guitar, upright bass, nimble fiddle and funny lyrics. The two Hank Williams songs are outstanding pieces of American rural folklore, especially the fantastic "Mind Your Own Business", again such an incredible lesson of finger-picking style that it would discourage any guitar beginner ! Tracks like "Central Islip Jail Blues" or "Mama Keeps Her Kitchen Clean" illustrate the man's humorous storytelling talent worth that of a real short story writer.

With his version of the traditional "Work Holler", Walker takes us right down in the cotton fields of the Mississippi Delta, which is also the land of Skip James for whom Walker has a strong admiration that he shows  through his unusual melancholic versions of "Hard Time Killing Floor" and "Special Rider Blues".

The album closes with two delicate Walker's creations : the instrumental folk "Leon's Little Girl" and the beautifully moving country ballad "The Secret". When this marvelous album ends and silence suddenly leaves you with a sad feeling of loss, the only way to regain a joyful mood is to play it again. ■

 
Toby Walker Web site : https://www.littletobywalker.com

Videos
Lots of links to live Walker's full shows were already proposed on this blog on the page mentioned above, I invite you to visit them, if you haven't already.
Following are the only live performances of songs from the album available on YT.

● "Big Meat Shakin' On The Bone" : https://youtu.be/ZiR_LHk-wKk

● "Better Luck Next Time" :
→ https://youtu.be/tbQq0-iF2d4
→ https://youtu.be/epb8mfVDH5M

● "Hey Good Lookin'" : https://youtu.be/-KdtxGds20M

● "Bootlegger's Blues" : https://youtu.be/qTYE3VhCBP8

● "Mind Your Own Business" : https://youtu.be/_f6lusq-b7k

● "Special Rider Blues" : https://youtu.be/X6uqCUgWy8s

● "Leon's Little Girl" : https://youtu.be/gsPNruTbrJs














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May 04, 2022

Adam Schultz - Soulful Distancing (2021)

► The album

Cool funky first shot

Is it young Schultz first album or is it Spady's new one ? Should it have been titled as "from Clarence Spady and/with Adam Schultz" or the opposite ? These questions are not simple rhetoric : Spady has been Schultz's mentor for several years, taking him on tour with him, leaving the guitar to him on three tracks of his own last album "Surrender" (2021) while working at the same period on Schultz' debut one. He is more than a simple guest on his protege's first opus : though he didn't write a single track, he co-produced it with Doug Schultz, Adam's father, plays second guitar all along and sings on six tracks, while Schultz doesn't sing one single word, concentrating on his guitar work.

We have presented Clarence Spady previously (1), so let's talk a bit about Schultz. On his official Web site, he is presented as "a jazz and blues guitarist and composer". He could and should have added "funk". Born in 2002, he studied for six years in a New York high school that was offering an outstanding music studies program. At 14 he was remarked by Spady who took him under his wing. Spady recalls : “The kid could really play and had the whole package. I felt like I was listening to myself when I was 15. One night at a gig, Douglas Schultz approached me and asked if I would give his 14 year old a lesson. I ended up giving Adam a lesson and was so impressed I invited him to sit in with me that night at Terra Blues in New York City.”

The funky-jazzy soul sound of the album is totally in Spady's style, and Schultz guitar playing fits perfectly in. And as a song composer, he certainly has a gift too as proved by his original compositions, most of them funky soul numbers with cool laid back guitar : the mellow "Good Conversation", the swinging funky R'n'B "Harlem Tonight" and "Have Some Faith" (co signed by Aviva Verbitsky), the excellent "Cure For The Blues", and "Toxic Medicine", the least convincing one to my taste.

Spady (left) & Schultz (masked)
The remaining tracks are six revisits of songs popularized by such renowned artists as Johnny "Guitar" Watson (the pounding "A Real Mother For Ya"), Louis Jordan ("Early in The Mornin'", a swinging blues with sax and choir), Little Walter ("Who (Who Told You)", enlightened by Scott Brown piano and Schultz solo), Tyrone Davis (the excellent melancholy soul ballad "Can I Change My Mind"), Otis Rush ("Cut You Loose", a song written by Mel London, totally transformed into an organ driven piece of funk, featuring a great but short guitar solo from Schultz), and Howlin’ Wolf (".44 Blues", a Roosevelt Sykes piece, transformed by Schultz guitar hypnotic riff).

These tracks have all been revisited in a contemporary mix of cool bluesy, funky and jazzy swinging style, with the help of long experienced singers (let's salute Michael Angelo's vocals) and musicians from different soul, blues and jazz horizons (like the excellent Robert O'Connell on B3 organ). Including Spady on guitar, they build solid foundations on which Schultz can express himself on guitar. Fortunately the young guitarist (he was 17 or just 18 at the time of the first recording sessions) didn't fall in the guitar-slinger trap of over-technical demonstration and keeps it in total cool control. Smartly, he stays humbly at the service of the songs, sometimes amazingly discreet and even shy, an instrumentist conscious of his skills who already has not much to prove. ■

(1) About Clarence Spady's 2008 album "Just Between Us" :
 → https://jellyrollbaker.blogspot.com/2019/03/clarence-spady-just-between-us.html
→ https://onurblues.blogspot.com/search/label/Clarence%20Spady

Interview

Videos
Spady & Schultz
● Most of the videos of Adam Schultz, alone or with Spady, are available either on his Web site and YT channel, or on his father Douglas Schultz YT channel :


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