Indigo Swing - Indigo Swing (1995), All Aboard! (1998), Red Light! (1999)

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It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That (Indigo) Swing*

3 : the number of albums released by Indigo Swing, the number of founding members present on each of the 3 albums  (lead singer John “Johnny Boyd” Boydston, pianist William Beatty, saxophonist Barry "Baron Shul" Shumway), and the number of the other members featured on the last two albums (guitarist Josh Workman, Upright bassist Vance Ehlers, drummer “Big Jim” Overton).

6 : the number of guests featured on the band's albums (bassist Little David, guitarists Danny Caron & Rusty Zinn on "Indigo Swing", percussionist Robin Tolleson & trumpeter Scott Steen on “Red Light!”). 14 : the number of tracks on each album.

2 : the number of words (Swing Revival ) that describe the 1990s musical stream which originated mainly in California, inspired by the big bands of the 1930s-1940s swing era, mixing swing jazz and jump blues (influenced by artists like Louis Prima or the theatrical Cab Calloway) with elements of rockabilly, boogie-woogie, and sometimes ska. This Big Band nostalgia gave birth to bands like Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, The Brian Setzer Orchestra, the Squirrel Nut Zippers, to cite only the most famous, and… Indigo Swing.

Special Cardell Boyette aka Louisiana “Guitar” Red - Nobody Knows… (1995) / Live At The Blues Bouquet (1997) / Down And Out Blues (2002)

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Boyette's the name
From time to time you discover a relatively obscure but excellent bluesman who released a few albums on minor labels and whose existence you didn't even know about, until a friend (thanks to “Captain” Blue DeVille, to give to Caesar) mention a name : “You should listen to this one, I'm sure you'd appreciate...” You obtain a few albums recorded by the “name” and you get a blow right in the face !

That's what happened to me recently. The name's Cardell Boyette (sometimes spelled Cordell), a patronymic exhaling the nice flavor of his native Louisiana, but he's also known as Louisiana “Guitar” Red (the “Guitar” nickname being essential to distinguish him from Louisiana Red aka Iverson Minter).

Born in Louisiana in 1928, Boyette learned to play piano in his youth before switching later to guitar and moving to Los Angeles in the early 1950s or 1960s (info sources vary). There he entered a top blues school : he played in particular behind Lowell Fulson, T-Bone Walker, Pee Wee Crayton, Johnny "Guitar" Watson, Tina Turner, J.D. Nicholson or Ray Agee… He even recorded a single as Louisiana “Guitar” Red with George "Harmonica" Smith in the late 1960s.

Lurrie Bell - Let's Talk About Love (2007)

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For whom Lurrie Bell toll

Although his life had been marked by dramatic and addictive tribulations, the survivor's character of Lurrie Bell led him to record a fine album for his comeback after years of silence : a pretty nice collection of twelve West Side Chicago blues of the tastiest kind.

The repertoire, all chosen from famous bluesmen from the Windy City like the legendary Willie Dixon, Pops Staples, J.B. Lenoir, Hip Linkchain, Andrew Brown, Little Richard…, is expressing Bell's sorrow, particularly after the untimely passing, in January 2007, of his beloved companion, photographer and artist Susan Greenberg whose caring help in Bell's recovery off his severe addictions was so essential, and just a few months later, in May 2007, of his father, the great blues harmonicist Carey Bell.

Samantha Fish - Chills & Fever (2017)

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Doctor Sam and Miss Fish

Who could believe this young woman, a real preppy daddy's girl during daylight, would turn after sunset into a hot guitar-slinger and roaring singer casting bad spells of chills and fever with her muscular blues-based blend ! Must be some voodoo working here !

Cataloged as a song-writer, Fish didn't write one single song on this album ! Considered as a blues-rocker, she turned her back to blues-rock to look toward the Motown sound, metamorphosing into a soul-rocker. Logically she went to Detroit, the Motown city, to record her fifth solo studio album with members of The Detroit Cobras band and producer Bobby Harlow.

Calvin Russell - This Is My Life : The Story Of Calvin Russell (1997)

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Scarface blues

I won't go over Russell's bio. His life started in poverty, drugs, violence and several stays in jail, as much hardship written like scars on his face, and his redemption through music are documented here. 

After five studio albums and a live released in just eight years, the bad Austin cowboy re-issued his best titles in this compilation, augmented with three new songs : his self-written “Texas Song” and his covers of Bobby Womack's “It’s All Over Now” and Bob Dylan's “Forever Young”.

Dan Treanor, Richard Ray Farrell & The Afrosippi Band - Keepin' Good Folks Joyful (2008)

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Extraordinary ! Exhilarating !

Treanor-Farrell, Farrell-Treanor ? Afrisippi, Afrissippi or Afrossippi ? Or maybe Missifrican or Missafrican ? What a headache ! In fact it doesn't matter, even if personally I would vote for the second proposition (Farell-Treanor) considering Farrell is doing all the singing, guitars and gitjo (1). On the other hand, Treanor has set up and produced the project, and brought the African sound with his khalam, diddley-bow and cane flute, both men being even on harmonica. So let it like it is . Concerning the Afrosippi Band, on this album it's been reduced to the sole rock solid rhythm section formed by Jodie Woodward on bass and the excellent Kyle Roberts on drums, congas and various percussion.

Johnny Sansone - The Lord Is Waiting And The Devil Is Too (2011)

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Johnny Sansone's dark swamp blues

Primal tribal beat, growling bear voice, powerful grunting harmonica, backing band reduced to two musicians (producer Anders Osborne on guitar and/or piano, percussion and sound effects, Stanton Moore on drums)… a very personal somber atmosphere enhanced by profound and often revolted lyrics is haunting this superb album, recorded in just a couple of days in June 2010 at Dockside Studio in Maurice, Louisiana.

The Mighty Soul Drivers - I'll Carry You Home (2022)

A special promotion by Onurblues & Blue Dragon

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Mighty groovy

The album starts, the music begins to flow, “I Can't Get Next To You" sings a soulful voice, the groove takes hold of you, you imagine you're in a club on Beale Street in Memphis or in Muscle Shoals. All wrong ! The Mighty Soul Drivers are from... Connecticut  ! And all wrong again, they really can get next to us with this very appealing album. Soul (especially Memphis sound), rhythm & blues, soul blues…, these guys aren't beginners and master their stuff like full-time professionals.

The band is tight around the beat. Bassist Tony Delisio and drummer Peter “River City Slim” Rost put out a powerful funky groove. Larry Willey, Bob Orsi and guests Paul Gabriel and Michael St. George deliver swinging rhythm guitar and great solos. Steve Donovan does a really fine job on keyboards with some churchy organ parts. John Smayda (saxes) and Neil Tint (trumpet) bring that Memphis/ Muscle Shoals sound along with a female background gospel-like choir. And the energetic Bob Orsi tops the whole pastry with his soulful vocals. What else do you need to get up and dance ?

James Brown - Live At The Apollo, 1962 (Expanded Edition, 2004) / Live At The Apollo Vol. II, 1967 (2-CD Deluxe Edition, 2001)

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Doctor Soul and Mister Funk

This review is about both “Live At the Apollo” albums, the first one recorded in 1962 and originally released in 1963, the second, Vol. II, recorded in 1967 and originally released in 1968.

The rude boy saved by R'n'B
Born in an impoverished family of South Carolina, raised in Augusta, Georgia, by an aunt who ran a whorehouse, dismissed from school at the age of 12 for "insufficient clothing" (!), the young James Brown turned a bad boy in his teens. At age 16, he was arrested for armed robbery and sentenced to three years in jail. Paroled in 1952, he started to sing in a vocal gospel quartet and met singer Bobby Byrd. In 1954, Brown joined Byrd's vocal gospel band, The Gospel Starlighters. In 1955, the group, influenced by Little Richard, evolved into a R'n'B band, was soon renamed the Famous Flames and started to play nightclubs in Macon, Georgia.

Bob Corritore & Friends - Do The Hip-Shake Baby! (2019)

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Do the harp-shake Bob!

Bob Corritore is not only a very talented and appealing harmonicist but he must be a very nice guy judging by the incredible number of friends who accept his invitations to guest on his albums. On this one, from 2019, the list is so long that I won't give it here, it would fill up all the space allowed to me on Blue Dragon ! The main ones are featured in the track-list, and the most interested will find the whole detailed casting here