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Charlie Musselwhite
One Of These
Mornings 
Jimmy "Duck" Holmes
Vicksburg
Blues
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Charlie Musselwhite:
Delta Hardware (Real World)
Recent
years have found Charlie Musselwhite stretching
out in musically adventurous directions but on his
latest it's nothing but the blues as he goes way
back to his Mississippi roots. "Delta Hardware"
is a lean, gritty dose of undiluted electric delta
blues, his hardest hitting record in many years.
Musselwhite was born in the hill country of
Mississippi and landed in Memphis in his teens.
He often saw Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and
Johnny Cash cruising around town but also began
playing with legends like Furry Lewis, Will Shade
and Gus Cannon. This musical melting pot was explored
on 2002's "One Night In America." Like
so many before him he migrated north to Chicago.
On Chicago's southside and became a familiar face
at blues haunts like Pepper's, Turner's, and Theresa's,
sitting in with and sometimes playing alongside
harmonica royalty such as Little Walter, Walter
Horton, Carey Bell, Big John Wrencher and even Sonny
Boy Williamson. He established his own reputation
with 1967's classic "Stand Back! Here Comes
Charley Musselwhite's Southside Band" and hasn't
looked backed since. On "Delta Hardware"
he takes it all the way back to his Mississippi-by
way-of-Chicago roots to deliver a tour-de-force
outing.
Perhaps
it's because he's getting older or perhaps it was
losing both parents in 2005 that caused Musselwhite
to reflect on his roots. The CD booklet is filled
with pictures of the sites of his life in Mississippi.
On this raw, gritty recording Musselwhite is backed
by his terrific road band featuring Guitarist Chris
"Kid" Andersen, bassist Randy Bermudes
and drummer June Core. He should have recorded with
these guys before as they lay down a noisy, rollicking
set of electrified blues that owe a strong debt
to the trancelike juke joint sound of the recently
departed Junior Kimbrough and R.L. Burnside. The
shuffling opener "Church Is Out" sets
the tone with brash, shimmering guitar as Musselwhite
sings "Now it ain't no harm if I feel like
singing the blues/I done said my prayers and I'm
done paying my dues." "One of These Mornings"
cranks it up as Musselwhite and the band bash out
a vicious, rapid fire groove, they lay down a mean
sounding shuffle on "Sundown" as Musselwhite
delivers some powerhouse blowing and closes out
appropriately with the nostalgic "Blues For
Yesterday" as he sings "It's a long old
road/And I've had a good run/ I've got the blues
for yesterday/Times was hard but we had fun"
as he puts down another devastating harp solo. Along
the way Musselwhite delves into potent social commentary
on "Black Water" and "The Invisible
Ones" which were, inspired by the devastation
caused by Hurricane Katrina. Musselwhite paints
a stark, portrait of suffering as he sings: "Old
black water lappin' at your back door/Hello America,
better get ready for more/Trouble, trouble all around
here/ Just too tired to shed one tear/ Black Water/
It's a sign of our times."
Musselwhite says it best
about the album: "I'm keepin' it real. For
the listener, I hope it's like a journey, I hope
each tune takes 'em to another little place, and
I hope at the end they're glad they went."
"Delta Hardware" is undoubtedly a trip
worth taking and ranks as one of his finest.
-Check
out these related links:
Deluxe
Edition Review
One
Night In America Review
(Jeff
Harris)
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Big George Brock:
Hard Times (Cat Head) 
Big
George Brock's "Club Caravan" (his first
record in a decade) was hands down one of the best
blues records of 2005. The record garnered rave reviews,
topped many year end "best of" lists and
earned him a Handy nomination for comeback album of
year. One listen to "Club Caravan" and it
was obvious Brock lived a life steeped in the blues.
Now that story has been told in "Hard Times",
which vividly explores Brock's life from the cotton
fields to the big city.
"Hard Times" provides an personal
window into the blues life as we follow Brock from
his days picking cotton, boxing, running a series
of blues clubs and crossing paths with legendary figures
like Muddy Waters, Jimmy Reed, Albert King, Howlin'
Wolf and many others who Brock fondly reminisces about.
Filmed on location in St. Louis, Missouri, where he
currently lives and around Clarksdale, Mississippi,
where he grew up, the film mixes live performances,
interviews and vintage photos into a moving portrait
of a bluesman, and to a larger extent a history of
the blues itself.
Brock
sums up blues succinctly at the film's start: "Blues
came from hard times. Blues came from a feeling that
you got when you had no place else to go. And the
blues walked into your soul, into your mind and accumulated
like grass grew out of the ground. ...That's how it
grew up in me. I learned how to sing the blues in
the cotton field." Brock recalls picking cotton
as he visits the Flowers and Hopson plantations and
tells how singing the blues would keep your mind off
the backbreaking work. It was his father who bought
him his first harmonica. He would play "Lay Your
Burden Down" for his parents and then, he explains,
"I crossed it over to blues." He talks about
living on the same plantation as Muddy Waters and
playing Saturday night fish fries with the man he
calls the "king of all blues." He also got
an opportunity to witness Sonny Boy II play live (he
lived with Brock's Aunt).
Brock's reminisces are interspersed with some terrific
live footage as he delivers a funky "Tiger In
Your Tank", "Honey Bee", "Taildragger"
plus a bunch from "Club Caravan" including
"Call Me A Lover", "M For Mississippi"
and "Hard Times." In between the live performances
Brock talks about his boxing career which eventually
brought him to St. Louis where he beat a young Sonny
Liston. If boxing brought him little money he had
much more success with a string of blues clubs he
operated in the 1960s and 70s, including Club Caravan.
This afforded Brock the opportunity to play with his
idols like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Jimmy Reed
and many others. He even points out where Jimmy and
Muddy slept in his house when they performed at his
club. Sadly his club days came to an end when his
wife was shot and killed by a drunk patron around
1970.
Brock
recorded some 45's on his own Big G Brock label, the
albums "Should Have Been There" and "Front
Door Man" but things really clicked with the
release of "Club Caravan." Now in his 70's
Brock is really hitting his stride as a performer
and is receiving recognition as a blues legend in
his own right. Brock is certainly making the most
of his new found fame, first with "Club Caravan",
now with the wonderful "Hard Times" film
and soon to be followed by his follow-up CD "Round
Two." Big George Brock plays the down home blues
with all the grit, authenticity and passion of his
idols and it's great to see him finally get the accolades
he deserves. As for Brock, his goal is simple: "I
want to travel all over the world. Play the blues
all over the world. Show the blues ain't dead."
-Check
out these related links:
Cat
Head Website
Club
Caravan Review
Hard
Times DVD On FilmBaby
(Jeff Harris)
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Jimmy "Duck"
Holmes: Back To Bentonia
(Broke & Hungry)
Bentonia.
To blues fans it's a mythical place most notably
remembered as the home of Skip James who recorded
some of the blues most haunting music. The
style was carried on most notably by Jack
Owens who passed in 1997 but not before passing
on the tradition to Jimmy "Duck"
Holmes. At 58 Holmes makes his debut on "Back
Bentonia", a stark and beautiful set
of country blues.
Blues
scholars, like all scholars, like to label
and classify and a case in point may be the
so-called Bentonia school of blues. The school
stems from Henry Stuckey who taught a
young Skip James his haunting E-minor tuning
guitar style which James would later perfect
and make world famous. The pair played throughout
the Bentonia, Mississippi area in the 1920's
although Stuckey never recorded despite living
until 1966. Jack Owens was among the last
performers of the style who recorded a number
of sessions from the 1960's until the 1990's.
Scholar David Evans, who first recorded Owens,
described the Bentonia style this way: "high
melismatic singing ..., minor-keyed, intricately
picked guitar parts, and haunting, brooding
lyrics dealing with such themes as loneliness,
death and the supernatural." That description
is an apt one for the ghostly, lyrical music
on "Back Bentonia."
The
eleven sides here were cut in two sessions
in 2005. Eight acoustic sides were laid down
at Bentonia's Blue Front Café while
the remaining three were cut at Jimbo Mathus's
Delta Recording Studio in Clarksdale and feature
Holmes playing electric guitar backed by Sam
Carr on drums. Other tracks feature former
Owens partner Bud Spires who lends harmonica
to several tracks. Holmes learned his lessons
well as he uncannily evokes the haunting,
minor key blues of his mentor and echoes the
music of the incomparable Skip James. Holmes
has a strong, full throated vocal style that,
while limited in range, is quite effective.
His guitar playing is sparse and languid with
that slightly odd tuning that makes Bentonia's
guitarists so arresting. Holmes tackles mostly
traditional fare, most likely learned from
Owens, like the gorgeous, hazy front porch
blues of "I'd Rather Be the Devil",
"Six Little Puppies" and "Back
To Bentonia." The electric cuts feature
a bit more grit but still meander amiably
as on "Cool Water" and a lovely,
gently thumping version of "Vicksburg
Blues." The final track, "Your Buggy
Don't Ride Like Mine", features a rare
vocal by Bud Spires who blows some expressive
country blues harp.
"Back Bentonia"
is a gorgeous and mesmerizing downhome blues
record that evokes the music of an era one
thought was long past. A great debut and an
auspicious start for Broke & Hungry Records.
-Check
out these related links:
Broke
& Hungry Records Website
Jimmy
"Duck" Holmes On CD Baby
(Jeff
Harris)
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Robin Rogers:
Crazy Cryin' Blues (95 North)
Singer
and harmonica blower Robin Rogers and her talented
band have been building a following in her home
base of Charlotte, North Carolina for the past
decade. Rogers is certainly ready for the big
time as she demonstrates on "Crazy Cryin'
Blues" a stunning, thoroughly satisfying
exploration of traditional blues.
Rogers ran away from home at an early
age and began accompanying herself performing
on the streets, at parties and coffee houses
for food and tips. She started exploring traditional
blues in the 1990's when she moved to Charlotte
and began performing with her husband Tony as
an acoustic duo, eventually cutting 2001's "Time
For Myself." Soon after the release of
that disc they put together a band and went
on to win the 2003 Charlotte Blues Society's
Blues Challenge, winning the right to represent
Charlotte, North Carolina in Memphis in January
2004. They emerged as one of nine finalists.
Soon after they released "Crazy Cryin'
Blues" which won "Best Self-Produced
CD" award from the Blues Foundation as
part of the International Blues Challenge 2005.
Now with 95 North picking up the album Rogers
should get a big time boost.
While
she's sung just about every genre imaginable
on his album she sounds like a natural born
blues singer. Rogers has a husky, sensual voice
that's ideally suited for the traditional blues
she favors on this album. Rogers has an affinity
for the era spanning the 1920's to the 1940's
as she tackles well chosen covers by Ma Rainey,
Memphis Minnie, Dinah Washington, Blind Willie
McTell, Skip James and others. What really make
this record special is the terrific arrangements
of this material backed by a truly outstanding
band featuring her husband on acoustic, electric
and resonator guitars plus rock solid percussion
from drummer and producer Jim Brock. Rounding
out the band is bunch of great horn players
including some rarely heard clarinet, plus mandolin
and piano that add plenty of texture and variety.
Rogers is particularly strong on early acoustic
blues like the wonderful reading of "Hesitation
Blues", a gentle acoustic number that evolves
into an almost double time dixieland number
featuring some charming fluttering clarinet
from Phil Thompson. In a similar vein is a marvelous
update of Ma Rainey's tough but playful "Black-Eyed
Blues", Memphis Minnie's forlorn "Conjour
Man" and Blind Willie McTell's "Savannah
Poppa" featuring her husband's sensitive
resonator guitar. Other standouts include the
sassy, horn driven "He May Be Your Man",
a 40's sounding number sung in the tradition
of woman like Julia Lee and Dinah Washington
and some straight up 50's era Chicago blues
on Jr. Wells' steamy "Come On This House"
spotlighting Rogers' strong harmonica chops
and her husband's tough electric guitar work.
"Crazy
Cryin' Blues" makes for great listening
as Rogers and her knockout band dig deep into
the old time blues, updating the music for a
new generation. The album showcases a major
new talent on the national scene and is hands
down one of the year's finest releases.
-Check
out these related links:
Robin
Rogers Website
95
North Records Website
(Jeff
Harris)
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Otis Rush &
Friends : Live at Montreux 1986 (Eagle)
Hot
on the heels of Delmark's terrific 1976 performance,
"All Your Love I Miss Loving - Live at
The Wise Fools Pub, Chicago" we now get
the equally potent CD/DVD "Live At Montreux
1986." The 1970's and 80's found Rush dogged
by personal demons and uneven studio experiences
but he was still an awesome force live which
this recording amply demonstrates.
Rush rose to prominence in the late 50's
waxing a string of devastating, influential
sides for the fledgling Cobra label like "I
Can't Quit You Baby", "Double Trouble",
"Three Times a Fool" and his signature
"All Your Love (I Miss Loving)." After
Cobra folded Rush seemed to have no end of troubles
with a string of record labels, still managing
to cut some terrific recordings for Chess and
Vanguard plus fine albums such as the underrated
"Mourning in the Morning" and the
excellent "Right Place, Wrong Time"
(which inexplicably sat in the can for five
years). After an aborted 1986 Rooster album
he returned to form in the 90's with "Ain't
Enough Comin' In" (his first studio album
in 16 years) and 1998's strong "Any Place
I'm Going." Sadly a 2004 stroke may have
sidelined Rush for good. "Live At Montreux
1986" is a reminder of just how good Rush
was and also includes fine performances by Eric
Clapton and Luther Alllison.
As
Rush notes: "Montreux is where all the
superstars make their name in jazz and blues...
I was glad to be invited and I think I made
some noise over there." Rush obviously
came to conquer. He's at his intense best with
his trademark supercharged vocal delivery, that
palpable sense of drama and tension and those
searing, liquid guitar riffs that have become
so influential. One of Rush's most ardent admirers
is Eric Clapton who's paid homage to Rush throughout
his career and is featured on three tracks.
Joining Rush and Clapton is Luther Allison who
was markedly influenced by Rush and also a long
time friend. Rush means business as he roars
out of the gate with the blistering, unrelenting
instrumental "Tops" and continues
the torrid pace with a rippling version of "Natural
Ball." Rush is always at his best on minor
key material and simply smolders on "Right
Place, Wrong Time", one of his best post-Cobra
numbers, and his classic "Double Trouble"
featuring Clapton. The two have a strong rapport
as evidenced on the tough "All Your Love"
which of course Clapton recorded back in his
days with John Mayall. Luther Allison is featured
on only one track but nearly steals the show
on a passionate nine minute "Everyday I
Have The Blues." Allison is joined by Clapton
and smokes this one transforming it lyrically
into a tribute to Rush ("Thank you Otis,
for letting me play my blues/He's my teacher/This
man I forever Love") backed by some muscular
guitar fireworks.
"Live
At Montreux 1986" is a must have for Otis
Rush fans and boasts excellent sound. Sound
is quality is more dynamic than the Live at
The Wise Fools Pub recording, although both
are essential in their own way. The DVD version
contains three extra Rush cuts: "Will My
Woman Be Home Tonight", "Lonely Man"
and "Gambler's Blues."
-Check
out these related links:
Live
At The Wise Fool's Pub Review
(Jeff
Harris)
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More Reviews==>
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