Bman's Blues Report

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Grit , from Cara Being Blue and it's got grit! Opening with title track, Grit , Cara Lippman shows a heap of swagger with thick, soulful lead vocals and solid backing vocals by Mandy Vixen. Guitar lead by Val Lupescu, keys by Eric Robert, drums by Flip Winfield and bass by Jonathan Nixon and solid horn punch by Miqui Gutierrez on sax, and Varney Green on trombone. Rock flavored ballad, One Day , has classic lines and nicely showcases Cara's voice. Lupescu's melodic guitar lead gives the track a regal feel and Tim Gonzalez on harmonica a bluesy flavor. Jack Pearson lays out a nice guitar intro on slow blues ballad, You Don't Wanna, with tight accents by Matt Doctor on drums. Robert's keyboard soloing on this track really adds a nice contrast to the overall tension of the track. Very nice. Nicely articulated guitar soloing by Lupescu gives Old Feelin' a great footing out of the gate, warmed by G...

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Grit , from Vintage #18 and it's cool. Opening with Latin influenced number, Diamonds Are Optional , lead vocalist Robbin Kapsalis shows super composure and style leading a super band of Bill Holter on guitar, Alex Kuldell on drums and Mark Chandler on bass. Chandler's relentless bass work on this track, sealed up by snappy work by Kuldell and searing lead riffs by Holter makes this a great opener. On Dylan's Million Miles , along the lines of the great Sonny Boy Williamson's Help Me, the band nicely isolates Kapsalis' vocals and with a notorious bass line driving the beat, Holter screams on guitar. Very nice. On a remake of the great ZZ Top track, Just Got Back From Baby's , Kapsalis' vocals are soulful and Holter lets it off the leash for a nice run. Very cool. One of my favorite tracks on the release is old style R&B track, Poor Me . Kapsalis just hits a spot that rarely gets hit with ...