Journey To Nawlins, Chapter I - Doctors, Professors, Kings & Queens : The Big Ol' Box Of New Orleans (1927-2003)

→ Thanks also to the late Blue DeVille

The Big Easy in a box

The Crescent City, The Big Easy (sometimes The Big Sleazy for its darker sides), The City that Care Forgot, NOLA... welcome to New Orleans announces the short opening track by Galactic & Theryl deClouet, mischievously adding “welcome to the Third World”.

This fascinating 4-CD box embarks us on a 5-hour cruise into the extreme richness of the unique musical melting-pot of New Orleans. A Wikipedia article describes it better than I would : “New Orleans has long been a significant center for music, showcasing its intertwined European, African and Latino American cultures. The city's unique musical heritage was born in its colonial and early American days from a unique blending of European musical instruments with African rhythms. As the only North American city to have allowed slaves to gather in public and play their native music (largely in Congo Square, now located within Louis Armstrong Park), New Orleans gave birth in the early 20th century to an epochal indigenous music : jazz. Soon, African American brass bands formed, beginning a century-long tradition. […] The city's music was later also significantly influenced by Acadiana, home of Cajun and Zydeco music, and by Delta blues.”

Mighty Sam McClain : Solo Discography

→ Thanks to my accomplice L.C.

 

A man's redemption

Another good one gone… It's a long time I wanted to write about this soulful mystic blues singer. The early life of Samuel McClain is not very different from dozens of other bluesmen : born in Monroe, North Louisiana, in 1943, singing in church very young, early vocation for music, escape from home and from an abusive step-father at 13, "school" on the Chitlin' Circuit with R&B guitarist "Little Melvin" Underwood, meeting of DJ and producer "Papa Don" Schroeder at the 506 Club in Pensacola, Florida, who opened him the doors of the Muscle Shoals studios, first hit single in 1966 with a cover of Patsy Cline's "Sweet Dreams", more sides recorded in Muscle Shoals and Nashville for Amy Records and Atlantic, but without any commercial success (most of these sides were later compiled in "The Amy Records Sessions, 1966-1969", released in 2014).

Eric Clapton - Blue's (Live in Oslo, April 5, 1995)

→ Thanks to my friend L.C.

Warning ! Before all, to prevent any disappointment from Clapton's fans (and other blues aficionados), I'll quote my friend L.C. who shared this bootleg with me : “While far from being perfect, the general sound is good enough to enjoy the music, provided the listener has the proper audio system.” The proper audio system… You've been warned.

Slowhand in Viking land
This two-CD bootleg was taped at the Spektrum in Oslo, Norway, on April 5, 1995, one of the over 120 concert halls visited by Clapton during his 1994-95 “Nothing But the Blues” world tour which followed the release of his studio album “From The Cradle”. The same tour during which the official 2022 release “Nothing But the Blues” was recorded on November 7, 8 & 9, 1994 at the San Francisco Fillmore.

Deborah Coleman - Takin' A Stand (1994), I Can't Lose (1997)

→ Thanks to L.C.

From Van Halen to Billie Holiday

Deborah Coleman died much too early, in 2018, at age 61, leaving us wondering how high her career would have taken her.

She was born in 1956 in Portsmouth, Virginia, in a very musical family : her father, a Marine, played piano, her brothers and sister, guitar and/or keyboards. She started guitar at eight, later changing to bass and playing in local R'n'B and rock bands in her mid-teens, before switching back to guitar after discovering Hendrix, Cream or Led Zeppelin. But she had to reach 19 years old to fall for the blues after hearing John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf at a festival.

Dwayne Dopsie & The Zydeco Hellraisers - Now It Begins (2001), Jazzfest 2001, Traveling Man (2006), Up In Flames (2009), Set Me Free (2021)

→ Thanks to the late missed Blue DeVille and L.C.

High voltage Dopsie fever

I don't know what kind of voodoo medicine Alton Rubin aka Rockin' Dopsie or his wife were ingesting before making children, but there's no doubt it was strong stuff. A glimpse at the incredible energy of two of their sons, Rockin' Dopsie Jr and his younger brother Dwayne Dopsie, and you're convinced !

With his bodybuilder look, Dwayne Rubin aka Dwayne Dopsie, born in 1979 in Lafayette, he was 19 when he founded his own band, the Zydeco Hellraisers, in 1999. That same year he won a competition run by the American Accordion Association and was declared “America’s Hottest Accordionist”.

His band fully deserves its name of Hellraisers as, under Dwayne's leadership they deliver a high-voltage Zydeco built from a mix of rock'n'roll, rhythm'n'blues and red-hot two-steps, peppered with occasional reggae rhythms.

Roscoe Chenier - Doing Alright Again (1996)

→ Thanks to L.C.

The best kept secret of the Cheniers

How can a small region like South Louisiana produce so many renowned musicians is a mystery. This puzzling phenomenon also concerns other regions like the Mississippi Delta or, farther, a little island named Jamaica (let's not even talk about their athletes).

Many Louisiana family clans take pride in several generations of famous artists. Most of those families (Creole or Cajun) can trace their ancestry way back in the 17th or 18th century, before the “Louisiana purchase” (1803) and bear French names : Arceneaux, Ardoin, Balfa, Fontenot, Broussard, Chavis, Frank, Carrier, Delafosse, Lejeune, Cormier, Ledet, Savoy, Williams, Rubin (aka Dopsie), Neville or… Chenier.

Andy J. Forest : GrooveRockBluesFunk'n'Roll Live (1989) / Live! (2004) / NOtown Story-The Triumph Of Turmoil (2010)

→ Thanks to L.C.

Let the good groove roll

Andy J. Forest knows how to set you in a joyful mood for the day with his albums full of humorous energy and recorded live for many of them. Real live albums with no later studio overdubs or edits ! The music slaps you in the face with solid slamming beat and flapping groove. The blues jumps hard and nice, sometimes taking a slower but equally jazzy swinging pace.

Forest's hot harmonica and powerful imaginary vocals are running energetically over excellent guitar and keyboard work, and tight job of always perfectly chosen bass-drums sections.

The songs cover a large range of styles ― rock'n'roll, blues and R'n'B, Zydeco and even a few jazz-rock infused numbers ―, and it's not surprising that for over 40 years Forest has been a New Orleans resident, a city where one doesn't joke with groove and letting the good times roll.

The Catch-Back, vol. 8 : Memphis Gold, Kenny Neal, Little Joe McLerran, Percy Strother, Selwyn Cooper

...they deserved to be featured here…

Memphis Gold - Pickin' In High Cotton (2011)

Memphis Gold, born Chester Chandler in 1955 in Memphis, has been an active "bluesician" for some 60 years but, oddly enough, he has only 4 albums out so far, this being the last one to date. A Vietnam veteran himself, he is also active in veterans and fellow blues musicians health help fund raising events.

His career could have stopped abruptly in 2008 though. He fell some 35 feet down from a tree and suffered a triple fracture of the back that could have left him in a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Fortunately his strong will plus good medical care helped him to avoid such an unfortunate fate. As a consequence, he now walks with a cane and sits most of the time during his shows, as it appears in most of the videos proposed below.

Heard lately #1 - Bobby Rush, Eddie Ray, Little Smokey Smothers, Ali Farka Touré with Ry Cooder, The Neville Brothers Live, Zac Harmon

→ Express reviews of some albums I listened recently

Bobby Rush - All My Love For You (2023)

All I knew was his name seen here and there in articles and reviews, and this album is a very, very good surprise. Horn fueled soul blues from top to bottom, with some R'n'B numbers like “One Monkey Can Stop a Show”, as Louisiana (where Rush was born in 1933 as Emmett Ellis Jr.) can produce.

A prolific songwriter, Rush signs all the tracks (including “TV Mama”, not to be mistaken with the same and often covered title from Lou Willie Turner aka Luella Brown, Big Joe Turner's wife). Two lively titles stand out , “I'm Free” and “I'm The One”, about blues music, which sound largely autobiographical.

Vanessa Collier - Meeting My Shadow (2017)

→ Thanks to L.C.

The lady with the saxophone

A few years ago, recalling one of his past performances, a blues giant told : “There’s a young lady came onstage with me, I forget where it was, but she’s playing an alto saxophone, and man, she was amazing !” The bluesman is Buddy Guy, the young lady is Philadelphia-based vocalist, saxophonist and songwriter Vanessa Collier, and the performance was on the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cruise (LRBC) #29 in 2017.