The Rolling Stones - Blue & Lonesome (2016)

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The happy accident
Who doesn't remember their famous version of Fred McDowell's “You Gotta Move” on “Sticky Fingers” in 1971 ? Long before that, on their very first album released in 1964, they had covered songs by Willie Dixon (”I Just Want To Make Love To You”), Jimmy Reed (“Honest I Do”) and Slim Harpo (“I'm A King Bee”). And Muddy Waters' “Just Can't Be Satisfied” on their second opus (1965).

From the beginning, blues was an old acquaintance of the Stones and continued to be, hidden and ready to set an ambush in most of the Jagger-Richards repertoire. In 2016, eleven years after their last studio opus, the band took the public by surprise, releasing a full album of blues covers.

The time has come..

Happy Christmas !

 to all of you and your loved ones,
with a sincere thought for those who are undergoing constant bombings and freezing cold,
and more widely for all who suffer in this damn world !

The James Solberg Band - See That My Grave Is Kept Clean (1995)

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See That My Blues Is Kept Clean

This is the story of the sideman who got close to match his mentor-leader. The leader was the late Chicago blues legend Luther Allison, the sideman is James Solberg. Both men worked closely together for a long time, first from 1975 to 1979 when Allison decided to expatriate in France, then from 1993, when Allison came back in his home country, to his death in 1997.

Not only Solberg and his group were Allison's regular touring band, but this talented guitarist also co-wrote much of the Allison's repertoire during these periods and brought his skills as arranger and producer. In the second chapter of their collaboration, both musicians released three albums considered by many as the best Chicago blues albums of the 1990s : “Soul Fixin’ Man” (1994, also released as “Bad Love), “Blue Streak” (1995), and “Reckless” (1997).

Between his two stretches of work with Allison, he played and toured with many blues musicians and bands among whom John Lee Hooker, the Legendary Blues Band, the Nighthawks, Elvin Bishop...

Veronica Sbergia & Max De Bernardi aka Veronica & The Red Wine Serenaders : Old Stories For Modern Times (2012) / The Mexican Dress (2014) / Backyard Favourites (2018)

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Roots, rag & jug
Sometimes using the name Veronica & The Red Wine Serenaders, sometimes just Max & Veronica, Veronica Sbergia & Max De Bernardi (according to a confidential source, his nickname would be Droopy !) describe their repertoire on their Web site as “an irresistible blend of rural music from the 20’s and 30’s  : country blues, ragtime, hokum, jug band, vaudeville music and hillbilly, played using strictly acoustic instruments such ukuleles, washboard, kazoo, double bass and guitars” (*). They devote themselves to “keeping this precious musical heritage alive, faithfully reproducing its original sound whilst playing it with a modern twist” (*). This is a perfect definition of the music offered by this Italian duo from Milano.

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.