"Philadelphia" Jerry Ricks |
March 17, 2023
"Philadelphia" Jerry Ricks & Oscar Klein - Blues Session (1979) / Philadelphia Jerry Ricks - Deep In The Well (1997)
March 14, 2023
Big Jack Johnson - Daddy, When Is Mama Coming Home ? (1989) / Juke Joint Saturday Night (2008) / Big Jack Johnson & The Cornlickers - Katrina (2009)
→ Get the albums at the usual place...
Johnson was officially born in 1940 (actually in 1939), some 15 miles east of Clarksdale in Lambert, in a farming family. His father was playing fiddle, banjo and guitar in country and blues styles at occasional gatherings, and Johnson started to play with his dad in his teens, later following B.B. King's example and adopting the electric guitar.
In 1962, with harmonicist Frank Frost and drummer Sam Carr, they formed an informal on-and-off band called the Hawks later re-baptized the Jelly Roll Kings who recorded a few occasional albums over several decades.
March 12, 2023
Jay Geils, Duke Robillard, Gerry Beaudoin - New Guitar Summit (2004) & New Guitar Summit : Shivers (2008)
This time we have a trio : still basking in his recent successful “Conversations...” with Ellis, multi-style musician Duke Robillard is aboard this new adventure next to jazz guitarist Gerry Beaudoin, and the less expected atypical ex-rocker Jay Geils who converted to jazz after leaving his band, the famous J. Geils Band, in 1985 after a 15-year stretch of R'n'B-influenced blues rock and about as many studio and live albums.
March 10, 2023
Special Johnny Jones : I Was Raised On The Blues (1998) - In The House (live with Charles Walker, 2000) - Blues Is In The House (2001) - Can I Get An Amen? (live, 2007)
→ Get the albums at the usual place… (except “Blues Is In The House”)
Born in 1936 in Edes, Tennessee, John D. Jones Jr. moved to Memphis at age 13, then to Chicago in the early 1950s where he got under the influence of Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf, and worked regularly with Junior Wells and Freddie King (1)
March 03, 2023
Ryan Adams - Blood On The Tracks (2022)
Dylan by Adams
Many artists have covered Bob Dylan songs, some have even released a Dylan song before Dylan himself (the Byrds with “Mr Tambourine Man”), some have recorded albums gathering their favorite Dylan songs, like Bryan Ferry (“Dylanesque”, 2007), ex-Steve Miller Band Ben Sidran (“Dylan Different, 2009), Texas guitarist Denny Freeman (“Diggin' On Dylan”, 2012) or the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band (“Dirt Does Dylan”, 2022), but none had covered an entire Dylan album, especially not the cult “Blood on the Tracks” (BotT). The only ones who gave it a try (a few did) are rather obscure musicians as the numerous videos I compiled for this page prove.
February 25, 2023
V.A. - Mistakes Were Made: Five Years Of Raw Blues, Damaged Livers & Questionable Business Decisions - A Broke & Hungry Records Retrospective (2011)
Jeff Konkel is the man who has also authored with his accomplice Roger Stolle three very interesting documentary films : "M For Mississippi: A Road Trip Through The Birthplace Of The Blues" (2008), “We Juke Up In Here: Mississippi's Juke Joint Culture At The Crossroads” (2012) and “Moonshine & Mojo Hands”, a 10-episode Web series released in 2014-2015 (links below). He once explained : “Blues music isn’t just the genre that has spawned rock ’n roll. It's always been the voice of a culture, the soundtrack of a people.” The soundtrack of a people... a magnificent definition !
February 18, 2023
John Mooney - Telephone King (1980, 1990)
February 16, 2023
Rebirth Jazz Band - Here to Stay (1984, 1997)
The RBB was founded in 1983 by a bunch of school mates from the Tremé district of New Orleans lead by Phillip "Tuba Phil" Frazier, his brother bass drum player Keith Frazier and trumpeter Kermit Ruffins. As can be guessed from their name, they wanted to reanimate the New Orleans brass band tradition : the marching bands performing at funerals and “second line” parades.
February 15, 2023
Pat Thomas - His Father's Son (2009)
February 14, 2023
Roy Rogers - Chops Not Chaps (1985)
Yet if Rogers revisits Delta classics with such energetic virtuosity, this album is clearly a Delta Blues one as confirmed by the three additional Johnson's numbers (“Judgment Day”, “Terraplane Blues” and “Kindhearted Woman”) and two from Skip James (“Devil Got My Woman”) and Elmore James (“Shake Your Moneymaker”). Rogers also included four exciting self-penned originals : “Hot To Trot/Ready To Go”, “Guilty Of Lovin' You”, “Feel So Blue” and “One More Time”.