Bman's Blues Report

I just received a super release of women harp players, Blues Harp Women , and it shows talent across opening with Harmonica Girl , Paula Rangell leads a lively shuffle track with crisp harp playing and her band the Pontiacs. Roxy Perry is up next with Roadmaster . Backed by a cool horn section and cool harmonies this track has real punch. Stacy Jones Band grinds down with Heavy Water , a swampy lumbering track. With strong vocals and warm guitar tones, Jones plays a real nice complimentary harp part over the track. Very nice. Big Mama Thornton blows a real nice Down Home Shakedown reinforcing that she was as much a harper as a singer. Lynnann Hyde plays harp and sings, accompanied by acoustic guitar on 30-20 Blues in vert traditional style. Down To The Hollow by Trina Hamlin is really interesting with nice breathing techniques and rich vocals. Tracy K performs Stop! Wait A Minute with a rocky attack on the blues. Her harp techniques are slick and driving. Very cool! Slow ...

A child prodigy, Roxy started out fronting swing bands at the famous Glen Island Casino in New Rochelle, New York and performed her first major concert at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California at age 9. In her early teens, she began fronting her own bands. By her late teens, she was working six nights a week with her 10-piece soul band at the Peppermint Lounge on 45th Street and Times Square in New York City. It was there that she was discovered and did her first studio recording as a back-up vocalist. This led to her going on tour for four years with the pop-rock band, Dawn, representing their hits of the time. The band headlined concert tours with Kenny Rogers, The Carpenters, Rare Earth, Gladys Knight & The Pips, Iron Butterfly, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, Mike Nesmith, Mark Lindsay and many others. In the ‘80’s an EP was released on Personal Records, produced by Richie Cordell, which was high on the Billboard charts for two months. Roxy launched her blues career i...