Bman's Blues Report

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Snapshots From The Second Floor , by The B. Christopher Band and is a hot one. Opening with jumping blues instrumental, All Twisted Up , B. Christopher and Studebaker John on harmonica really get your heart pumping from the very start. With Anton Fig on drums and Nick Douglas on bass, this track is terrific. The sauntering bass line by Douglas on Sugar Baby sets a terrific path for Christopher's melodic guitar lead. Very nice. take It Home has a driving boogie rhythm courtesy Douglas and Fig giving a clear runway for Studebaker and Christopher to take off. With it's Latin overtone, Who You Gonna Turn To Now really moves. Featuring Ellard James "Moose" Boles on lead vocal and some really nice slide work by Christopher this track is a solid add to the set. One of my favorite tracks on the release, Late Night Crying , has traditional blues roots with a firm bass line by Eric Collier and strong lead vocals ...

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, They Call Me Mud , from Mud Morganfield and it's got deep soul roots. Opening with title track, They Call Me Mud , Mud Morganfield, son of the great Muddy Waters shows his own take on the blues with a funky R&B twist. A high stepper with punchy horns by Phil Perkins on trumpet and Michael Jackson on sax this is a cool opener. On 48 Days , a soulful blues number Muds vocals are compelling and stylistic guitar riffs by Billy Flynn add real pepper. Mud's vocals on Cheatin' is Cheatin' coupled with E.G. McDaniel's bass work puts one in mind of the great Curtis Mayfield and his quiet soul wailing. Very nice. Muddy's Howling Wolf is definitely straight out of dad's catalog with traditional vocal styling, strong harp from Studebaker John and super Muddy slide emulation by Billy Flynn. Excellent! Another smooth R&B track and one of my favorites on the release is Who Loves You with Lashunda...

I just received a new release, Delmark 60 Years of Blues and it's terrific! Opening with Studebaker John's Maxwell Street Kings and When They Played The Real Blues . John on harp, guitar and vocals drives a hard Chicago line on this super track from Kingsville Jukin'. Really hot! Following this track is Junior Wells and Rock me Baby from the Southside Blues Jam sessions. With Otis Spann on piano, Louis Meyers on guitar, and Wells on vocal and harp, this is a band that is hard to beat. Wells is on top of his game and Spann is one of my all time favorite blues pianists so this track is primo! Lindsey Alexander plays Raffle Ticket with Mike Wheeler on guitar Roosevelt Purifoy laying down some excellent piano. Alexander leads a tight ship on this track released on Been There Done That. Magic Sam plays I Don't Want No Woman , from his Live At The Advant Garde. His guitar work is finely articulated and his vocals are inspired. This track is swinging! Quintus McCormic...

Studebaker John Grimaldi was born in an Italian-American section of Chicago and started playing harmonica at age 7. Under the spell of music he heard on Maxwell Street, Chicago’s famed blues melting pot, Grimaldi began performing as Studebaker John and the Hawks in the ‘70s. The band name referenced the Studebaker Hawk, a car Grimaldi still owns today, and was also intended as a tribute to his friend, J.B. Hutto and the Hawks. John began playing guitar after a life-changing experience of seeing Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers perform. “…Hound Dog started playing, hitting notes that sent chills up and down my spine. He was versatile and powerful and would play rhythm as well as leads. I left there knowing what I wanted to do. I had to play slide guitar.” 1978: After playing at various Chicago clubs, John records his first record, Straight No Chaser, released on Retread Records. His second recording, Rocking the Blues, is released in 1985 on Avanti Records. John continues to wo...

Time for the review of the new Studebaker John release Old School Rockin' . If you're looking for John Lee Hooker... look no further....it's not here! What is here is a great rocking blues album. The first track, Rockin' That Boogie is rough, it's raw it's rockin'. It puts you in mind of early ZZ Top or Hound Dog Taylor with the purity of blues and rawness of the groove. Simply perfect. John slides all over the track and it's gets you listening immediately. Disease Called Love is continues in the vein of the rock that emerged out of the early blues. It has a quirky rhythm pattern and well done. Rockin' Hot stays in that ragged blues rock vein with the bass and guitar playing the same melody but with harmonics for a very cool sound. There is something about the simplicity of music that makes it great. Not that it isn't played well...because it is... it is more that the simplicity gives it a purity that is hard for squeeze from something that i...

John Grimaldi, better known by his stage name Studebaker John (born November 5, 1952, Chicago) is an American blues guitarist and harmonica player. He is a representative of the Chicago blues style. Studebaker John's father was an amateur musician, and he played early in life at the Maxwell Street flea market. Grimaldi began playing harmonica at age seven. In the 1970s he put together his band, the Hawks, and worked as a construction worker while recording and performing on the side. He recorded extensively for Blind Pig Records in the 1990s. Grimaldi counts Hound Dog Taylor as the reason he began playing slide guitar.[1] Atom Egoyan choose three of John's songs for his 1993 film Calendar, and included two songs in his 1994 film Exotica. “Like” Bman’s Facebook page. We use Facebook to spread the word about our blog. We will not hit you with 50 posts a day. We will not relay senseless nonsense. We use it only to draw attention to some of the key posts on our blog each day. In...