Bman's Blues Report

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Chasing The Sun, by Colin James  and it's chocked full of great tracks and guest talent. Opening with Protection , Lucinda Williams is up front on vocal with Colin James on vocal and lead guitar. Colin Linden on guitar adds rea nice riffs joined by Darryl Jones on bass, Charley Drayton on drums and Ann & Regina McCrary on backing vocals. This track has a strong melody with a Keith Richards feel. Excellent opener. Devilment has a really cool, New Orleans style drum rhythm by Drayton and with the addition of Charlie Musselwhite on harmonica crafting some sweet lead work, this is a strong track. Soulful radio track, How It Feels To Be Loved , really has that warm universal radio play feel featuring James on guitar and vocal, a paced, walking bass line by Jones and warm B3 contributions by Michael Hicks and Jim Hoke on sax. Very nice. Another track that has a great rock feel is This Song Kills Hate with it's guit...

TOM WAITS STREAMS SOUL OF A MAN FROM NEW COMPILATION GOD DON'T NEVER CHANGE: THE SONGS OF BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON AT HIS FACEBOOK PAGE   Legendary artist Tom Waits is streaming his new recording of Soul Of A Man from the forthcoming album God Don't Never Change: The Songs Of Blind Willie Johnson at his Facebook page . Waits also recorded John The Revelator for the album. The album -- to be issued on CD on February 26 and soon after on vinyl -- features newly recorded versions of the iconic slide guitarist/vocalist's most seminal material. In addition to Waits, Lucinda Williams, Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Cowboy Junkies, Blind Boys Of Alabama (with Jason Isbell on guitar), Sinéad O'Connor, Luther Dickinson featuring The Rising Star Fife & Drum Band, Maria McKee, and Rickie Lee Jones all deliver deeply moving interpretations of Johnson's otherworldly "gospel blues" music. Produced by Jeffrey Gaskill (pr...

GOD DON’T NEVER CHANGE: THE SONGS OF BLIND WILLIE JOHNSON   TRIBUTE ALBUM ONLY HAPPENS IF FANS FUND IT Salute to legendary gospel singer-guitarist Blind Willie Johnson,   with new recordings by Tom Waits, Sinead O’Connor, Lucinda Williams, Luther Dickinson, Cowboys Junkies, Derek Trucks & Susan Tedeschi, Blind Boys of Alabama and Rickie Lee Jones, is a Kickstarter project in the works. LOS ANGELES, Calif. — Johnson's music was charred with purgatorial fire — more than sixty years later, you can still smell the smoke on it.—Francis Davis, The History of the Blues  More than 60 years after his death, Blind Willie Johnson continues to capture listeners in a way that few singers or musicians have equaled. The list of artists he has influenced goes back to Robert Johnson and forward to the White Stripes. The most obviously indebted would include several generations of hard country gospel singers...