Bman's Blues Report

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, All I Got For Christmas Is The Blues , from Mindi Abair and the Boneshakers and it's the "rockingest" Christmas album I've ever heard. Opening with title track, All I Got For Christmas Is the Blues with Ben White's super bass line and Abair's solid vocals. Randy Jacobs of course has his guitar talking, Rodney Lee rides the keys and Third Anderson on drums finishes out the group. On I Can't Wait For Christmas , Abair whips out the sax and blows full tones on sax, over this pop style rock track. Jacobs' fat cigar box slide tones give Merry Christmas Baby a real sting over excellent percussion work by Richardson under the power vocals of Abair. Very nice. Abair gives Mel Tormes' The Christmas Song a bluesy swagger with excellent sax tone melody sans vocals. Excellent! Run Run Rudolph gets a funky, hip hop kind of styling with exceptional guitar punctuation by Jacobs and Abair's ...

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release (September 15, 2017), The Eastwest Sessions , by Mindi Abair and the Boneshakers and it's a lot of fun. Opening with Vinyl , a high stepper with a rock solid bottom, Mindi Abair has it going on lead vocal and hot sax. Backed by Randy Jacobs on guitar, Rodney Lee on keys, Derek Frank on bass and Third Richardson on drums all joining Sweet Pea Atkinson on backing vocals. Droning bass line and pumped up sax shows the way on instrumental Not That Kind Of Girl . Pop track, Play To Win has a solid melody line and shows Abair's vocal strength.   Pretty Good For A Girl has got to be Abair's trademark track with it's practical lyrics, blistering sax work and hot contributions from Joe Bonamassa. My favorite track on the release, Let Me Hear It From You , features Sweet Pea Atkinson on lead vocal. Excellent soul tune with nice backing vocals and real soul town sax soloing. With the feel of Jr Walker, Live My Lif...