Bman's Blues Report

I just received the newest release, Born To Love the Blues, from Dan Treanor's Afrosippi Band and it's a lot of fun. Opening with a cool boogaloo track, Can You Hear Me , featuring Erica Brown on lead vocals and a solid boogaloo bottom from Scott Headley (drums), Jack Erwin (bass) and Dan Treanor who also lays out a pretty smooth solo on guitar. On Done Got Old , the Afrosippi gets a strong rework and i really like it. Brown's vocals and Treanor's harp work are hot on the top and a driving rhythm section makes this one of my favorite tracks on the release. Funky track, Who Knows Who , has a real nice strut and Treanor displays a smokey taste on harp nicely complimenting Brown's vocals and a cool bass line from Erwin. Hurt Like Mine is a modern blues with deep roots. Traces of Black Keys are evident with raw guitar riffs and Treanor's harp lead and Brown's vocals are top notch. Excellent! The classic, A Change Is Gonna Come , features Merrian Johnson on...

I just received the newest release, Shakedown Soul , from Kelly Richey and it's a strong blues rocker. Opening with Fading , a solid rocker, Richie, on vocals and guitar is joined by Rikk Manning on bass and Tobe Donohue on drums. With quite an aggressive bottom, Richey grinds out blues riffs on her guitar giving this release a good start. You Wanna Rock has a really cool rhythm and a gargantuan guitar and bass riff. With absolute style, Richey leads on vocals and breaks out with an excellent guitar solo. This track has so much swagger it deserves it's own zip code. Excellent! Lies , another solid rocker, has the addition of John Lord like keyboard by Lee Carroll and Richey's guitar solos are nicely punctuated by additional drums and percussion by Robby Cozensa. The Artist In Me has a lot of grit and a super drum sequence. Love has an interesting early San Francisco sound. Richey's voice resembles Karen O. but her guitar says drive. Cool! Afraid To Die is a cool...

I just received the newest release, To Be In Your Company , from Les Copeland and it's lively and entertaining. Copeland, Honeyboy Edwards' traveling companion, working partner and student for 15 years, has released his second collection and this one's a doozy. Opening with title track, To Be In Your Company , Copeland sings about his friend, Honeyboy as he lays down a rudimentary Piedmont style pattern on acoustic and soloing over the top on electric guitar. Very nice. Slipping and sliding on acoustic, Borderline tells the story of crossing and being detained in border towns. Stealin' has a certain period styling and a mellow acoustic sound. I particularly like Copeland's vocals on this track with a bit of loose vocal improvisation. Henry Townsend's Why We Love Each Other has a really nice meter, with Cat Wells joining on harmony. Knucklehead is a track about the interplay between Copeland and his wife, Sarah. With his Herb Ellis hollow body tuned to o...

TINSLEY ELLIS ANNOUNCES RELEASE OF NEW STUDIO ALBUM TITLED RED CLAY SOUL ON JUNE 3 PRE-ORDER LIVE ON MAY 15 VIA ARTIST SITE AND AMAZON Extensive Global Tour Planned From May Through December To Support Release Atlanta, GA --- Tinsley Ellis has travelled a million miles, and through that journey he has become a man with clarity about where he stands today and his future destination.  As a proud Georgia-based artist, with his new album Red Clay Soul he celebrates a legacy built on four decades of performing, recording and song writing.  Travelers headed to Florida or other destinations in the Southeastern U.S. encounter red clay embankments as they hit the state of Georgia, and Ellis has chosen to title this new collection Red Clay Soul to celebrate the music of the area.  He offers, "Georgia is where the Blues has got Soul. From the gospel inspired Ray Charles, to the R&B of James Brown and Otis Redding, to the Rock and Roll of Little Richard, to ...

Walter Trout announces new release, ‘ALIVE in Amsterdam’, recorded live in Amsterdam on the blues legend’s comeback tour & released June 17th on Mascot/Provogue. Battle Scars World Tour to hit the US and Europe this year. To be released June 17th on Mascot/Provogue, ‘ALIVE in Amsterdam’ is the sound of a man announcing his resurrection after a period on the ropes. As Trout’s army of international fans are painfully aware, recent times have taken the bandleader to the brink, following a bleak diagnosis of life-threatening liver failure and hepatitis C in 2013. Trout’s rebirth began with a successful transplant in May 2014, and gathered pace with 2015’s ‘Battle Scars’: the acclaimed studio album that channeled his near-death experience into raw autobiographical songs. Walter Trout has never sounded so alive. The date is November 28th, 2015. The location is Amsterdam’s opulent Royal Theatre Carré. And the occasion is a live performance of the blues-rock legen...