Bman's Blues Report

  I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release September 25, 2020, Hanging Tree Guitars , from Music Makers Relief Foundation and it's the real deal, accompanying the release of the book of the same name. Opening with Rufus McKenzie singing Slavery Time Blues , over a wailing harmonica. Very authentic blues. Bishop Dready Manning sings Hard Luck and Troubles with only acoustic guitar and hand claps. His vocals are terrific and the accompaniment solid. Guitar Gabriel is as smooth as they come on Southland Blues , a strong delta style blues. His vocal and guitar work is tight yet not over produced. Excellent. John Lee Zeigler has a really cool voice approaching the falsetto of Skip James. Worked nicely with acoustic slide, John Henry is a really strong track. Spiritual track, Get Ready is potent with The Glory Vine Sisters . Powerful voices and R&B style format makes this one of my favorites on the release. Elder Anderson Johnson does a strong spiritual ...

Bishop Dready Manning You may have been going to church all your life, but chances are you have never attended a church with as much spirit as Bishop Dready Manning’s St. Mark Holiness Church outside Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina. Born in 1934, Bishop Manning, a traditional guitarist, harmonica player, and gospel singer, has infused his church with music and spirited singing, often tunes he has written himself. Since joining the Music Maker family in 1995, Bishop Manning has received program donations to rebuild his church and recorded on Came So Far. Music Maker has helped him arrange performances at the Bull Durham Blues Festival and other North Carolina venues. He is featured in the book Music Makers: Portraits and Songs from the Roots of America (2004) and in the film Toot Blues. “The Lord gave me this way of playing,” he explains in his velvety voice,” and He told me to use it in his service. So that’s just what I’m doing.” But Bishop Manning didn’t always use his extraordi...

In the late 1980s, Timothy Duffy, a penniless North Carolina musicology student, set out to document and preserve traditional southern roots and blues music. On his travels from Winston-Salem's drinkhouse music scene, an off-the-grid hotbed of gritty traditional blues, to deep-south family run churches, he found purpose and inspiration from a cast of amazingly talented, pure and unique set of characters (the artists!!). Toot Blues remarkably captures the true essence and talent of the artists from Guitar Gabriel, a 'homeless magic potion selling' blues genius; to Willa Mae Buckner, a snake charming elderly woman taunting delightfully raunchy blues; to Beverly 'Guitar' Watkins, a grandmother who continues to tear up the stage and play a killer electric guitar behind her head; to Bishop Dready Manning and family churning out homebrewed rockabilly-gospel; to Boo Hanks, an 80 year-old bluesman recording an album for the very first time; to blind guitarist, Cootie Sta...