Bman's Blues Report

  I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release (June 25, 2021), A Sweet Relief Tribute to Joey Spampinato , NRBQ founding member and writer of all of the tracks on thie release. Opening with blues rocker, You Can't Hide , by Al Anderson on lead vocal and guitar, with Carl Minor on acoustic guitar, David Dorn on keys, Steve Mackey on bass, and Evan Hutchings on drums. Energetic opener. Los Lobos contributes Every Boy and Girl , with David Hildago on guitar, accordion and vocal, Steve Berlin on sax, Vince Hidalgo on bass and David Hildago Jr on drums. Pop tune, How Can I Make You Love Me , is performed by She and Him with Zooey Deschanel on vocal and M. Ward on guitar and keys. The Minus 5 brings us Don't She Look Good in a slightly punky rockabilly style. Scott McCaughey on guitar, piano, organ, percussion and vocal with Mike Mills on bass, Peter Buck on guitar, and Joe Adragna on drums and with a really cool guitar solo by Dave Depper. I really like Buddy Mi...

Get Up! - Ben Harper with Charlie Musselwhite - A True Musical Event     Get Up! , Ben Harper and Charlie Musselwhite's acclaimed collaboration, released in early 2013, has become an instant classic.    From the cover of Down Beat to the stages of Leno , Kimmel , Letterman and Fallon , this extraordinary collaboration has been widely recognized as one of the year's true musical events.     They've performed for NPR's World Café, and interviewed on Morning Edition and PBS' NewsHour . They even received an invitation from the President to play at the White House as part of the special celebration of Memphis soul.      The duo continues to stoke the fire with live shows and performances that have critics raving. Check Out: The trailer for Get Up! Acoustic Tour Dates - 11/14 San Francisco, CA @ Davies Symphony Hall - 11/15 Santa Barbara, CA @ Granada Theat...

Charlie Musselwhite (born January 31, 1944) is an American electric blues harmonica player and bandleader, one of the non-black bluesmen who came to prominence in the early 1960s, along with Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield. Though he has often been identified as a "white bluesman", he claims Native American heritage. Musselwhite was reportedly the inspiration for Dan Aykroyd's character in the Blues Brothers Charles Douglas Musselwhite was born in Kosciusko, Mississippi, United States. He has said that he is of Choctaw descent, and he was born in a region originally inhabited by the Choctaw. However, in a 2005 interview, he said his mother had told him he was actually Cherokee. His family considered it normal to play music, with his father playing guitar and harmonica, his mother playing piano, and a relative who was a one-man band. At the age of three, Musselwhite moved to Memphis, Tennessee. When he was a teenager, Memphis experienced the period when rockabilly...

Ben Harper (born October 28, 1969) is an American grammy-winning singer and songwriter. A native of California, he grew up listening to blues, folk, soul, rnb, and reggae. Harper’s blend of groove-laden funky soul and folky handcrafted acoustics helped him to gain cult status during the course of the 1990s and widespread attention toward the end of the decade. Harper combines elements of classic folk singers, blues revivalists and jam bands and is embraced by critics and college kids alike. Harper’s body of work sells consistently and he tours constantly, building a solid, dedicated fan base. Harper began playing guitar as a child in his hometown of Claremont, California (in California’s Inland Empire). He eventually specialized in the acoustic slide guitar (Weissenborn guitars). As a young man, he recorded an LP (Pleasure and Pain) with fellow folk guitarist Tom Freund. After this limited edition record, Harper got a record deal with Virgin Records, who released his debut album, W...