Dom Flemons - Black Cowboys (2018) / Prospect Hill-The American Songster Omnibus (2014, 2-CD reissue 2020)

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Journey through the past

Dom Flemons is a unique musician. Self-baptized “the American Songster” since his eponymous 2009 solo album featuring early American roots music styles (blues, folk, cowboy songs, old-time banjo, jug band, fife and drum...) while he was still a member of the Carolina Chocolate Drops band (1), he extended his musical approach to ethno-musicology and history of music on his next ambitious projects : "Prospect Hill" (2014) and "Black Cowboys" (2018). "Prospect Hill" was extended to a 2-CD set featuring new material in 2020.

The Carolina Chocolate Drops : l. to r., Dom
Flemons, Rhiannon Giddens & Justin Robinson

Half Afro-American, half of Mexican descent, Flemons was born in Phoenix, Arizona. He studied English at Northern Arizona University, in Flagstaff, where he met Súle Greg Wilson, a local percussionist, banjo player and folklorist who became a mentor to him.

In the end of 2005, Flemons and Wilson, with Rhiannon Giddens and Justin Robinson formed the old-time string band, The Carolina Chocolate Drops, based in Durham, North Carolina. While active in the band, Flemons was leading a parallel solo career, but in the end of 2013 he left the group to pursue his "Prospect Hill" project.

Levon Helm - Levon Helm and The RCO All-Stars (1977, re-issue 1996)

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The Band ? No, Levon Helm
(but it's nearly the same...)

The cover looks like one of those kitsch Christmas postcards ― a pretty wooden house in an immaculate snowy landscape ― and from the very first notes of the opening track, “Washer Woman”, one immediately thinks of the legendary group The Band whose first album was also showing a big house, a pink one, on the rear cover.

Not surprising, because Mark Lavon Helm (1940-2012) was one of the singers and the drummer of the Canadian group whose very first name was… Levon and The Hawks ! He was also the only American in the group and, as most of his Band mates, a multi-instrumentalist who could also play harmonica, mandolin, guitar and bass.

Chicano Rock & Folk : Los Lobos - Disconnected In New York City (Live) (2013) / Los Cenzontles & Andre Thierry (feat. David Hidalgo) - Shades Of Brown (2015)

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The wolves and the mockingbirds

One is from East Los Angeles ― Los Lobos (The Wolves) ―, the other, from the East shore of the San Francisco Bay area. Los Lobos were formed in 1973 and have so far released about 25 studio and live albums, while the fluctuating lineup band Los Cenzontles (The Mockingbirds) sprung up in 1989 as the musical showcase of the Los Cenzontles Mexican Arts Center in San Pablo, and recorded a dozen albums so far. Both are Chicano (*) bands, perfect examples of America's musical melting pot, but their approach is somewhat different.

Eric Clapton & Guests - Crossroads Revisited (Selections From The Crossroads Guitar Festivals) (2016)

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The miracles of “God”

Without any exaggeration, this 3-CD, 40-track compilation covering the 2004, 2007, 2010 and 2013 editions of the Crossroads Guitar Festival (CGF) is an absolute kick! Not one track that you'd want to drop down. Not even one single bit of a track ! And the content will appeal as much to pop/rock fans as to blues lovers.

Boozoo Chavis - Boozoo, That's Who! (1993), Live At The Habibi Temple (1994), Who Stole My Monkey (1999), Down Home On Dog Hill (2001)

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The other King of Zydeco

A contemporary of Clifton Chenier (1925-1987)  and Rockin' Dopsie Sr. (1932-1993), Wilson Anthony Chavis aka "Boozoo", born in 1930 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, was one of the pioneers of a Louisiana Creole music not yet called “Zydeco”.

Away from the urban environment of New Orleans, he was playing with his band The Magic Sounds (or sometimes Majic), a down-home style primarily intended to entertain rural people of the Southern Louisiana back-country . No keyboard, no horns either, just a bass, one and later two guitars, rubboard and drums, and himself on accordion. A small combo, a lot of songs in Creole French, a music to be danced.

D.C. Bellamy - Water To Wine (2000), Give Some Body To Somebody (2006)

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Kansas City, here I've come !

I suppose we could say that D.C. Bellamy plays Chicago blues, but in this case it is a very personal kind of Chicago blues made in… Kansas City. What strikes immediately in his style is a special underlying sound, different, hardly heard before, mixing heartfelt vocals, appealing guitar tone, prominent organ (at least on the first album), and grooving self-written repertoire.

Gregory "D.C." Bellamy, born in 1949 in Chicago and grown up on the West Side, is a younger half-brother of the late Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999). Of his different influences, Rhythm'n'Blues had the greatest impact on his style.

Glen David Andrews - Portrait Of The Tremé Prince (2019)

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A spiritual son of Satchmo

Let's say all you know about Glen David Andrews is that he is a trombone player from New Orleans, and as you're not a big jazz fan, you imagine this must be a boring jazz album full of boring trombone. Well, you got it 100% wrong on both points !

Boring is certainly not the word to use about this “Portrait Of The Tremé Prince”, a compilation of some of his most representative works released in 2019 on Louisiana Red Hot Records. Already, the name of the label itself, which evokes a famous hot pepper sauce plantation and factory in Ile Petite Anse (Avery Island) in the middle of the Vermilion Bay bayous, sounds like a thrilling promise !

Deacon John - Live At The 1994 New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (1999), Deacon John's Jump Blues : Music From The Film (2003)

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The most unknown famous musician
from New Orleans
A short man with the modest look of an anonymous office worker dressed in a dull gray suit, with bow tie, two-colored shoes and a little hat that seems too small for his head, with a constant vacuous smile revealing a solid set of upper teeth, and a twinkle in the eyes that do not succeed in hiding flashes of melancholy… Don't be misled : the man is not what he looks like. Not really known outside of New Orleans, he is a legend in his home city.

This is the strange paradox of “Deacon” John Moore. Without any hit under his name, he can be heard on lots of iconic recordings from New Orleans early R'n'B kings and queens !

Tommy Castro, 3 Albums : Exception To The Rule (1995), Can't Keep A Good Man Down (1997), Soul Shaker (2005)

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Castrocaster

Armed with his treasured Fender Stratocaster guitar, Tommy Castro mixed three main ingredients to produce his winning sound : muscular blues-infused blend of R&B and rock, searing guitar work mixing rhythm and lead, and impassioned vocals strongly influenced by Ray Charles, Wilson Pickett, James Brown or Otis Redding.

From the start his band line-up was build according to the blues-rock  trinity ― guitar-bass-drums ― but he added an extra instrument to spice up the R'n'B flavor : a saxophone held by the fourth member of the band, Keith Crossan. And last but not least, he is also a striking songwriter.

Mel Brown & The Homewreckers (feat. Denny Freeman) - Under Yonder: Mel Brown Live At Pop The Gator 1991 (2016)

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Wreckin' the joint

Ten blues classics performed live in the famous club Pop the Gator in Kitchener (Ontario, Canada), nothing very original when you give a look at the tracklist, titles you've heard dozens of times…

But wait wait wait... it's Mel Brown playing, here ! And that changes everything. The whole thing is turning into an orgiastic show of unique electrifying guitars and passionate vocals, with the gripping help of his guest friend the late Texan guitarist Denny Freeman (1), and the backing of his super tight homewrecking band.