Bman's Blues Report

The New Orleans Suspects began playing together in 2009 at the Maple Leaf Bar in New Orleans as a pick-up jam band. They originally called themselves The Unusual Suspects. Since they are all such accomplished musicians they quickly established a special chemistry. Well known in New Orleans, I first heard of them when I visited the Maple Leaf in fall of 2013. But they had actually been touring for 2 full years by then under the name New Orleans Suspects.. They began releasing albums and attracting crowds from coast to coast. Live at The Hamilton is their 5th release. The band consists of Willie Green who was the drummer for the Neville Brothers for many years, Jake Eckert, the longtime lead guitarist of the Dirty Dozen Brass Band. CR Gruver, a classically trained pianist who has completely embraced New Orleans style piano –pretty damn good on the Hammond B3 too!. Reggie Scanlan who has layed down the bass lines for The Radiators for as long as I can remember. And Jeff ...

Driving home from work the other day I heard a song called “I Want My Dog To Live Longer” on the Bluesville channel on Sirius XM. It was done by Curtis Salgado & Alan Hager . I know Curtis and have seen him play a number of times but I did not know Alan who is a guitarist from Portland, OR where Curtis lives also. These two have played together off and on for quite a number of years. So now that Alan is the guitarist for Curtis’ road band I guess they figured the time was right. So it’s here and it’s called Rough Cut . Based on that one track I had to check it out. Once I heard it I had to tell Bman how much I liked it and he asked me to review it. The album starts off with a very John Lee Hooker sounding track entitled “ I Will Not Surrender .” This is a very personal blues written by Salgado. You can almost feel him fighting death as he sings. He’s survived liver cancer, lung cancer (twice), addiction, and quadruple bypass surgery. So he knows about not surrend...

Must be the Mississippi water. Belgrade born in the former Yugoslavia, now Serbia, and current resident of Memphis Tennessee, Ana Popovic has put together a blockbuster of a triple CD entitled Trilogy that boggles the mind! I don't know how to start this review. My good friend Bman asked me to review this album while he took a little vacation. And while the album is absolutely phenomenal, it is so unique and diverse I am having trouble finding words to describe it's diversity! The release comes in 3 parts, hence the title Trilogy. It is all of the description that Ana herself gives. 'In an era where most are skeptic about the current state and future of the music industry, I wanted TRILOGY to tell a different story. The record biz might be broken and Spotify might rip us off, but that can't keep an artist down. Creativity is very much alive, and music is the celebration of life.' Trilogy highlights in musicianship. And tell a different story it...

First thing you need to know about Toronzo Cannon is, playing blues is his second job.   And when you first hear this album you are going to say, “Huh?”   But it’s true. Toronzo still drives a bus for the Chicago Transit Authority.   Maybe not for too much longer… Coming off what I am hearing was a series of smoking performances on the January 2016 Legendary Blues Cruise where he tore it up jamming with Elvin Bishop, Alligator Records released this album of all Toronzo originals. Chicago Ways is without a doubt Cannon’s strongest album to date.   In part due to excellent production by Alligator El Presidente, Bruce Iglaur, but mostly to the maturity of Toronzo’s own guitar playing and song writing. This album is the result of a lifetime of building chops working with the best bluesmen Chicago has.   The album starts off strong right out of the gate with The Pain Around Me and keeps the groove going with the somewhat humorous lyrics of Ba...

This year’s festival started off under partly cloudy skies with Patty Reese rendering an acapella version of the Star Spangled Banner .   As she sang you could gaze out over the Chesapeake Bay and imagine, as I did, the British warships heading back out to sea after failing to capture Fort McHenry.   Then a moment of silence was observed for the passing of BB King. The festival kicked off with the Marcus King Band followed by a female band of local DC musicians put together specifically for this performance called the Sisterhood of Soul .   Then a last minute substitute band, The Record Company , replacing the previously booked Davy Knowles.   The highlight of these opening acts, in fact one of the true high points of the whole festival, was the performance turned in by Little Margie Clark of Sisterhood of Soul. The little old lady (formerly of the 60s group The Jewels) packed a powerful voice. And when she ad libbed some serious scat she blew the lid off t...

My old pal Stilladog had a chance to listen to the new Jeff Beck DVD audio and his review follows. We have both been Beck fans for a long time so I was thrilled to see his review: The recordings take place at the Tokyo Dome City Hall in Japan on April 9th of this year.   These Japanese recordings were the first to feature Beck’s new backing band of Jonathan Joseph (drums), Nicolas Meier (guitars) and Rhonda Smith (bass). The setlist includes some material from his new, as yet unreleased, studio album as well as material from nearly all of his previous releases. In contrast to Beck s previous videos done in small clubs, Live In Tokyo was filmed in a major concert arena and has a very different, more spacious feel.   Beck has released a number of live albums from Japan over the years and he obviously feels comfortable there. The set begins with a tune from his most recent EP, Yosogai, entitled Loaded .   It is a perfect warm up for the alternately beautiful...

Let me preface this review by stating I am an unabashed fan of Roy Buchanan and have been since I was 18 years old. I have heard a lot of his recorded material both production and bootleg varieties. I've seen him play live numerous times, particularly during the time period of these recordings. So there's a degree of bias here. The recordings took place for tracks 1 through 7 during a gig at My Father's Place , a famous house of blues on Long Island, NY, back in 1978. The final 3 tracks were recorded in 1984 with a completely new band when Roy returned to that venue. I believe these recordings which come from the sound board were once available as bootlegs. There once was a Yahoo! fan group called Roy's Live Recordings which traded in non-production bootlegs of Roy's concerts. And that's where I think I may have first heard this stuff. But even that's been more than 10 years ago so I cannot be sure. Anyway, this is a production release by Rockbeat Reco...

Dickey Betts - guitar, dobro, vocals Jeff Hanna - guitar Spooner Oldham - organ Vassar Clements - violin John Hughey - pedal steel guitar Oscar Underwood Adams - mandolin Stray Straton - bass, vocals Bonnie Bramlett - vocals, percussion Jerry Jumonville - alto sax David Walshaw - drums, percussion Jerry Thompson - drums Leon Poindexter - acoustic guitar Walter Poindexter - banjo Frank Poindexter - dobro   By 1974, in large part due to Dickey Betts , Capricorn Records and the Allman Brothers Band were experiencing a success more lucrative than anyone could have dreamed. Betts, as a result, found himself free to pursue almost anything he desired musically, without having to worry about finances in the least. The situation allowed him to record his first solo album, Highway Call, and to perform with countless great musicians for the pure joy of playing, without any expectations of making money in the process. Over the course of the previous year...