I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Live , from Zac Harmon & The Drive and it's super! Opening with soulful, NTRO , Nate Robinson on bass and Gino Iglehart on drums set a solid foundation, with Corey Lacy building on keys and lush guitar work by Zac Harmon and Kingston Livingston really setting the bar. Terrific opener. Blue Pill Thrill has super movement and soulful vocals by Harmon. Lacy on keys works the rhythm with Robinson and Iglehart and Livingston and and Harmon play stinging riffs on guitar really giving this track some kick. Deep blues track, Feet Back On The Ground features Albert King like stinging riffs and super soulful vocals by Harmon. Keeping the music floor low allows Harmon plenty of space to go dynamically from soft to wow quickly adding real emotion to the track. Excellent! Boogie Down is a strong jam with a firm piano base by Lacy giving Harmon plenty of headroom for vocal corralling. Lacy lays in some real tasty keyboar...
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I started a quest to find terrific blues music and incredible musicianship when I was just a little kid. I also have a tremendous appreciation of fine musical instruments and equipment. One of my greatest joys all of my life was sharing my finds with my friends. I'm now publishing my journey. I hope that you come along!
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New Orleans Suspects – Live at The Hamilton - New release Review - Stilladog Guest Writer
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Bman
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The New Orleans Suspects began playing together in 2009 at the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans as a pick-up jam band. They originally called themselves The Unusual Suspects. Since they are all such accomplished musicians they quickly established a special chemistry. Well known in New Orleans, I first heard of them when I visited the Maple Leaf in fall of 2013. But they had actually been touring for 2 full years by then under the name New Orleans Suspects.. They began releasing albums and attracting crowds from coast to coast. Live at The Hamilton is their 5th release.
The band consists of Willie Green who was the drummer for the Neville Brothers for many years, Jake Eckert, the longtime lead guitarist of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. CR Gruver, a classically trained pianist who has completely embraced New Orleans style piano –pretty damn good on the Hammond B3 too!. Reggie Scanlan who has layed down the bass lines for The Radiators for as long as I can remember. And Jeff Watkins, an absolutely fantastic sax player who once led the James Brown Band!
The Hamilton had booked Bonerama and the New Orleans Suspects for their New Years Eve shows. And with the Suspects planning on recording a live album they invited the “trombone army” that is Bonerama to join them. Both bands hailing from NOLA it was a natural.
The album is a blend of original tunes and covers. It starts off with a stirring 7+ minute jam version of Buddy Miles’ Them Changes. I’ve heard this tune covered by everybody from Cornell Dupree and Eric Clapton to Javier Vargas and Carlos Santana/Buddy Miles, yet I dare say this is the best version of this tune I ever heard! Next up is an original tune of New Orleans funk. Yo Flambeaux! from their 2014 album Ouroboros. Jeff Watkins on sax takes center stage on this one while the rhythm section puts down a funky groove and Jake Eckert blends in a very tasty guitar interlude. Finders Keepers, an extended 9 minute jam follows. The funk oozes out of the fourth track, Get It Started, an original from their album Kaleidoscoped. It sure would be a good way to get a party started ‘cause the saxophone, pinched harmonics and all, is off the charts! Workin’ My Way Back Home sounds like if you mashed up Little Feat and Wet Wilie. Saxophone, guitar, and all sorts of organ. Pocketful of Grits starts off with a drum solo that sounds like that woodpecker who hammers out bugs on top of the telephone pole in my yard. But it quickly merges into a groove that’s easy to follow then breaks into solo jams by everybody. The album closes out with an excellent Little Feat medley of Spanish Moon / Skin It Back wherein Bonerama augments the horns to much the same arrangements Tower of Power horn section did on the Feat album Waiting For Columbus.
If this ain’t the kind of music they play in heaven I’m gonna be sorry I lived a clean life!
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Lucille Bogan (April 1, 1897 – August 10, 1948) was an American blues singer, among the first to be recorded. She also recorded under the pseudonym Bessie Jackson . The sexologist and music critic, Ernest Borneman , stated that Bogan along with Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith , was in "the big three of the blues". She was born Lucille Anderson in Amory, Mississippi , United States, and raised in Birmingham, Alabama . In 1916, she married Nazareth Lee Bogan , a railwayman, and gave birth to a son. She first recorded vaudeville songs for Okeh Records in New York in 1923, with pianist Henry Callens . Later that year she recorded " Pawn Shop Blues " in Atlanta, Georgia , which was the first time a black blues singer had been recorded outside New York or Chicago. In 1927 she began recording for Paramount Records in Grafton, Wisconsin , where she recorded her first big success, " Sweet Petunia ", which was covered by Blind Blake . She also recorded for Brunswick...
Charles LoBue was one of the fathers of the custom electric guitar business. Charles came to the industry after taking classes from Michael Gurian, first working in and around the guitar repair business in NYC in the mid 60's. Charles' interest in the business began by doing basic repairs on factory made guitars. These were primarily made by Gibson and Fender, the "Gold Standard" for electric guitars, as well as any guitar including acoustics which came through the door. As a professional player in the U.S. in the 60's, Gibson and Fender were the most likely choices if you wanted an electric guitar. It is well known that the Brits used European made guitars as well, primarily due to their accessibility. By the mid late 60's both companies had been sold to larger corporations which were not primarily in the guitar business. The basic perception even today is that the guitars made by these companies during this period were inferior in quality and also l...
It is with great sadness to report that J. Blackfoot (born John Colbert , November 20, 1946) died today, November 30, 2011 at Methodist Germantown Hospital near Memphis, TN. We will keep you abreast of service information as we receive it. J. Blackfoot will truly be missed. “Like” Bman’s Facebook page (available in over 50 languages). I will not relay senseless nonsense. In this way I can get out the word on new talent, venues and blues happenings! - click Here
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