Chorus :
August 05, 2023
"Turn, turn, turn (To Everything There Is A Season)"...
Chorus :
August 03, 2023
Requiem for a friend
Marcus famous avatar |
His real name was Marcus. He was from Belgium. In 2015, he created a rich music blog where he always posted excellent albums, often impossible to find elsewhere.
“Blues, Rock, Country & Bluegrass, Cajun & Zydeco, Soul…”, announced the header.
A real Ali BaBa's cave !
August 02, 2023
Mitch Woods - A Tip Of The Hat To Fats, Live From The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival 2018 (2019)
Jumpin' the boogie !
The album includes only titles “covered” by Domino, some previously sung by Wynonie Harris or Jackie Brenston, as well as two Woods originals with a Domino mood (though one is rather an adaptation). In fact more than a tribute to Fats, it's a tribute to Nawlins piano and pianists by a pianist who's not from the Crescent City. But of course this tribute couldn't take place anywhere else but in New Orleans, Domino's home town, at the prestigious Jazz & Heritage Festival 2018 which took place only five months after Domino's passing.
July 30, 2023
Chris “BadNews” Barnes (with Steve Guyger & Gary Hoey) – Live on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise #32 (2019)
Except his original “Hungry & Horny”, with a really funny introduction, most of his repertoire on this Live is made of efficient less explicit covers specially designed to make the cruisers dance.
July 26, 2023
Albert Cummings - Blues Make Me Feel So Good : The Blind Pig Years (3-CD Box) (2015)
→ Thanks to my unique partners...
Big boss man
Born in 1967, in Williamstown (Massachusetts), 56 today, Albert Cummings was raised in a musical family (his dad played guitar and fiddle in local bands). At 12, unable to wrap his hand around a guitar's neck, he took up the banjo and would have become at best a talented bluegrass player, but life has some funny tricks in stock.
July 23, 2023
Monster Mike Welch - These Blues Are Mine (1996), MMW & Mike Ledbetter - Right Place, Right Time (feat. Laura Chavez) (2017), MMW - Nothing But Time (2023)
Six-string wizard teenager
When SRV died in the crash of his helicopter in August 1990, the boy, born in 1979, had celebrated his 11th birthday two months earlier and was already honing his skills at local blues jams in his native Boston. Yes, Boston… though when you hear his guitar you'd rather think of Dallas or Austin ! At these blues jams he had the lucky opportunity to play and learn from such experienced elders as Ronnie Earl, Luther "Guitar Junior" Johnson, Matt Murphy or Paul Rishell.
July 19, 2023
Dom Flemons - Black Cowboys (2018) / Prospect Hill-The American Songster Omnibus (2014, 2-CD reissue 2020)
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.
July 17, 2023
Levon Helm - Levon Helm and The RCO All-Stars (1977, re-issue 1996)
(but it's nearly the same...)
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.
July 12, 2023
Chicano Rock & Folk : Los Lobos - Disconnected In New York City (Live) (2013) / Los Cenzontles & Andre Thierry (feat. David Hidalgo) - Shades Of Brown (2015)
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.