Bman's Blues Report

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, In The Middle Of Nowhere , from John Clifton and it's quite good. Opening with the excellent, I'm Leaving You Baby , with it's firm Chicago romp style. John Clifton, former leader of MoFo Party Band, has his own gig and on lead vocal and harp, this gig is hopping. Backed by Scott Abeyta on guitar, Jake Finney on bass, Edward Fritz on drums, Bartek Szopinski on piano and John Shafer on tambourine and cowbell this band is tight. On shuffle track, If It Ain't Me , Clifton is howling on harp and his vocals are vibrant. I particularly like Szopinski's piano work and the fluid guitar soloing of Abeyta on this track. Very cool. Cool Spot In Hell is a good name for a laid back jazzy track in the middle of a hot set. Abeyta lays in some really nice lead runs and Szopinski's phrasing is terrific leading up to Clifton's own lush harp scape. Very nice. Four Years Ago is a great driving blues track with...

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Nightlife , from John Clifton and it's solid gold blues. Opening with Charlie Musselwhite's Strange Land , John Clifton on lead vocal, harp and guitar, joined by Scott Abeyta on guitar, Matt Moulton on bass, John Shafer on drums and Brian Szopinski on piano set a solid old style groove. Lee Moses' excellent soul number, Sad About It is up next and Clifton's really plays it to the hilt. The band really sits on this one making it one of my favorites on the release. Little Walter's Long As I Have You is another top track with excellent vocals, super harp and excellent guitar soloing by Abeyta. Very nice. Cool original track, Swamp Dump has a smooth Latin blues feel with a nice tandem harp/guitar melody and easy rhythm. Jump track, How About That is an excellent instrumental with a driving bass line fluid lead guitar work along the lines of Gatemouth Brown and hot harp work leading the way. Very cool...

I just received the debut release, My Turn , by Lisa Cee and there are some hot riffs in here! The recording opens with a blues rocker, What Good Am I , along the lines of Messin' With the Kid. This track, featuring Cee vocal talents with heavy influence of R&B, gets the listener energized and ready for what's to come. Fire In The Sky has a funky beat and BR Millon takes a real nice guitar solo displaying great tone. Ron Dzuibla pushes up the bottom with his sax on this track. Lost You , a soulful bluesy ballad is up next giving Cee a great opportunity to lay it all out there and she does a really nice job. Scott Abeyta and Millon play some real soulful guitar riffs on this track. Good-Bye Baby has a solid Texas boogie style and again Abeyta and Millon team up to play some really hot guitar riffs. Fire is a really funky track with Dzuibla adding some over the top sax riffs on a cooking bass track laid down by Mike Hightower. My Turn is a quiet ballad with minimal accom...