Bman's Blues Report

I just received the newest release, Baptist Town , from Mike Eldred Trio and his stuff just keeps getting better. This new release is gritty, bluesy and raw. Opening with rockin' boogie, Hunder Dollar Bill , Eldred is really cranking with excellent harp soloing from John "Big Nick" Samora and backed by John Bazz on bass and Jerry Angel on drums. Excellent! Papa Legba has a really swampy, sweaty sound with excellent backing harmonies from Jarvis Jernigan. Eldred steps up with a really nice stinger of a guitar solo on this track as well. Eldred and Jarvis share lead vocals on the slave blues sounding, Somebody Been Runnin' with terrific backing vocals from the Emmanuel Church Inspirational Choir featuring Vicki Dove and Michael Buccowich. Absolutely excellent! Simple acoustic blues track, Run Devil Run is Eldred and resonator joined by Lauren Brown tap dancing and James Pennebaker on mandolin. Very nice. Ballad, Roadside Shrine , is a quiet break in the center of...

I just received the newest release (April 15, 2014), Taboo , from Bob Corritor e and I have to say it's absolutely spectacular! I won't have to review this in my car a month from now to know whether I will like it next time around. It is simply that good! Living in the Phoenix metro area for a long time, I have seen Corritore many times and been to his famous blues club, The Rhythm Room many times as well. I have to say that this is surpasses every live performance that I have ever seen Bob do, and will easily make it into one of the must have releases of the year. This all instrumental, yes, all instrumental release opens with Potato Stomp , a cool Chicago style blues track with Junior Watson on guitar, Doug James on sax, Fred Kaplan on keys, Kedar Roy on bass and Ray Innes on drums. Corritore is forward in the mix and playing strong. A nice sax solo leads to a stutter stepped guitar solo from Watson. Excellent! Many A Devil's Night , one of my favorite tracks on the rel...