Bman's Blues Report

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Wish The World Away , from Ben Rice and it's light and airy with great guitar riffs and cool melodies. Opening with Dirt Road Home , a driving understated boogie, Rice shows just how much music can be played with just vocal, guitar and drums by Jimi Bott. Cool opener. Peace Will Overcome has a really nice rhythm set up by Bott, Julio Appling on bass and Dave Fleschner on piano, topped by excellent slide work by Rice. Very nice. Mojo Hand feels like hill country with a lot of rag tag and a lot of rockin blues. Rice's vocals are perfect for this track and his resonator guitar work is tight and clean with highlights drawn by Mitch Kashmar on harp and Dave Melyan on percussion. Very nice. Soulful track, Hardtimes is one of my favorites on the release with the best vocals on the release and rich organ tones of Dave Fleschner. Very nice. Stevie Wonder's HigherGround get an acoustic rework and retains a lot of ...

I just received the new release, Road Worn and Ragged from Jeff Jensen . Assembling a strong cast of supporting players Jensen hits it hard right out of the chute with Brunette Woman , a blues rocker with hot harp from Brandon Santini and rippin' guitar riffs from Jensen. Tom Waits' Heart Attack and Vine has a Cab Calloway style with a mostly spoken lead vocal and a slinky rhythm. Again solid guitar work gives the track a special something but laying the table open for some slick organ work from Chris Stephenson. Possibly my favorite track on the release, Pepper is a fast swing number with a bright and lively guitar lead. Les would be proud... a d*** fine track! Classic blues/jazz track, Gee Baby Ain't I Good To You gets a really strong blues infused jazz treatment and with a slow pace is instrumentally super. Jensen playing Montgomery style licks really shows polish. Morganfield's Crosseyed Cat has an interesting pace with James Cunningham playing almost mili...

This all-star Portland quartet (plus horns) infuses classic cuts, obscure nuggets and DK Stewart originals with a fresh take on the blues, New Orleans funk and R&B... Stewart, whose two-fisted stride blues and jazz piano style has been a driving force behind such Northwest blues giants as Robert Cray, Paul deLay and Curtis Salgado often works as a compelling solo vocalist/performer with only a piano for back-up...In addition he has, for the past several years been tearing up major festival stages with his latest creation, the DK Stewart SEXTET. The band features the "Soul Survivor Horns" that includ Chris Mercer on sax and Joe McCarthy on Trumpet. Stewart serves up an evening of uptempo, jump-blues and traditional swing with material by Nat Cole, Charles Brown and T-Bone Walker along with hard-grooving New Orleans funk by Professor Longhair, Clifton Chenier and the Meters. The band also brings hard-core, stinging Chicago blues to their set with songs written by Howlin...

TO VIEW THIS MESSAGE AS HTML - CLICK HERE   DELTA GROOVE “BLUES STIMULUS PROGRAM” WINNERS! Delta Groove Music is very pleased to announce the participants in their first annual Blues Stimulus Program, an opportunity for blues talent around the world to become members of the successful Delta Groove Family.  Over the last decade, Delta Groove Music has set the new standard for producing, promoting, and booking exciting blues and roots music talent.  Now they’re sharing in their success by inviting emerging blues acts to submit their recordings for review, and each year Delta Groove will choose two U.S. and one foreign blues act to come on board with one of the biggest success stories in blues in this millennium!  After much careful review and painstaking consider...

His name is Monti Amundson but most people call him Big Monti. Not just because of the man’s physical appearance, but because of his larger than life voice, guitar virtuosity, and sheer presence. When Big Monti takes the stage, it’s clear that there’s more going on than the usual extended guitar solos – the man plays and sings larger than life. Monti’s breakout band, The Blubinos (pronounced blue-bye-nose), were a dominant force in the Northwest music scene from 1987 to 1992 and shared concert stages with some of the biggest names in the business, including John Lee Hooker, Johnny Winter and Buddy Guy. In 1991 The Blubinos won Portland Music Association’s award for “Outstanding Blues Act”. In 1993 Monti signed on with Munich Records in Holland and promptly moved his headquarters to Amsterdam. Over the next six years Monti recorded five albums and toured extensively in Europe, developing a huge fan base. When Monti gets compared to Stevie Ray Vaughan or Johnny Winter he just says “thank...

Portland, Oregon roots artist Lloyd Jones has recorded six critically acclaimed albums, toured internationally, and racked up dozens of major awards and accolades. He’s a relentless road dog, hitting festival stages, Delbert’s annual Sandy Beaches Cruises (he’s been a regular on six winter cruises), and clubs all across the land to enthusiastic crowds who can’t get enough of his swampy blues, his backporch picking, his serious-as-anthrax funk, soul, roadhouse two-beats, and old-school rhythm and blues (back before the R&B tag was somehow appropriated for other musical purposes, apparently when we weren’t looking). Yet he may be the most invisible, best-kept roots/blues/Americana secret on the contemporary scene. If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”

Alan Alexander III is a singer, songwriter, producer and multi-instrumentalist with numerous credits. As a performing musician he has toured internationally (US, Europe, the Caribbean and Japan), headlining and opening for artists like UB40, Jimmy Cliff, Ziggy Marley, Taj Mahal, Third World and many others. He is perhaps best known as the former lead singer, principle songwriter and producer for the critically acclaimed world beat band, Dub Squad. Alan has composed source music and original scores for several motion pictures including: 'Hear No Evil' (20th Century Fox), 'Alien Invaders' (National Endowment for the Arts),'Street Talk and Tuxes' (Susan Shadburne Productions) and, most recently (summer 2011), the feature length independent film 'Stuff' by director Larry Johnson. He resides in Portland Oregon. If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favor...