Bman's Blues Report

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Life Don't Miss Nobody , by Tracy Nelson and it's really good. Opening with Strange Things Happening Every Day , Tracy Nelson on vocal really gets things moving. Kevin McKendree on piano knows how to play a boogie and backed by John Gardner on drums, Byron House on bass, Mike Henderson on electric guitar, this is a great opener. With a Spanish taste, title track, Life Don't Miss Nobody features Nelson on lead vocal and Wurlitzer, with Mike Dysinger on congas and Guiro, House on bass, Larry Chaney on 12 string guitar and Cuatro and Steve Conn on piano and with the tight horn work of Jack Warner on sax, Dominique Caster on trumpet, and Chase Carpenter on trombone. Very nice. Willie Nelson steps up on Honky Tonkin' sharing the lead vocals with Nelson. Mickey Raphael adds some tasty harmonica lead melody and I particularly like Mike Johnson's contribution on steel guitar. One of my favorites on the relea...

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, I Still Get Excited , by Terry Hanck and it's jam packed with sax infused blues. Opening with a rumble, title track, I Still Get Excited has a real nice boogie feel with excellent piano work buy Jim Pugh and cool guitar work by Johnny Cat Soubrand, with backing vocals by Whitney Shea and Lisa Leuschner Andersen, bass by Kid Andersen and drums by Butch Cousins. On Smooth Tyrone , Hanck leads on vocal and soulful sax with really nicely styled guitar work by Soubrand and again really nice piano work by Pugh. On Early In The Morning I particularly like Hanck's vocals and Chris Cain adds really strong lead guitar. I like Andersen's bass attack on this track and the backing vocals by Lisa are really nice. Pugh's B3 work on this track adds that additional dimension and June Core's drumming sets up a solid opening for Hanck to solo. Very nice.  Harmonica great, Rick Estrin joins in on Come On Back playing ...

I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Calling Nashville , from Trevor Sewell and it builds on his last release, Calling Your Name. Opening with Some Day , singer /songwriter and guitarist, Sewell crafts a track with traces of pop, Charlie Daniels and Jeff Beck for his new release backed by Kellen Michael Weinrich on fiddle and Trevor Brewis on drums. Janis Ian has the floor on Fade To Grey in a vocal duet with Sewell and piano on this cool jazz number. Blues rocker, Matter Of Time has a taste of Dire Straits with grinding guitar tones and ultra  cool vocals. With a quick shuffle, You Ain't What I'm Looking For has a super feel and snappy guitar riffs. Stand Next To Him pulls in flavors of western styling and the sounds of the range. Sewell's guitar finesse and the fiddle work of Weinrich pull this off nicely with bass by Justin Kimball and Brewis on bass. Very cool. Wrapping the release is ballad, Shadows , featuring Janis Ian on piano and Sew...

“Tracy Nelson isn’t so much a singer as she is a force field — a blues practitioner of tremendous vocal power and emotional range.” - Alanna Nash, Entertainment Weekly “ . . . a bad white girl . . .” —Etta James, from her autobiography, Rage To Live She has one of the signature voices of her generation. That natural gift has always guided Tracy Nelson’s soul; indeed allowed her to both write and seek out the deeper songs regardless of niche or genre. A fierce singer of truth, a fountain of the deepest heartache, she is an ultimate communicator and has regularly destroyed audiences across decades of performing. She is one of the few female singers who has had hit records in both blues and country genres, performing with everyone from Muddy Waters to Willie Nelson to Marcia Ball and Irma Thomas, with Grammy® nominations for both her country and blues efforts. John Swenson, writing in Rolling Stone, asserted, “Tracy Nelson proves that the human voice is the most expressive instrument...

Delta Groove has a mega release, The Blues Broads, hitting the streets on September 18, 2012. The package includes both a CD and DVD of Dorothy Morrison, Tracy Nelson, Angela Strehli , and Annie Sampson live together in concert. I've watched the DVD a few times (it is a similar but slightly different grouping from the cd)and it is very well composed, performed and shot. The video opens with Livin' The Blues , a shuffle track led by powerhouse Nelson who also trades a lead with Strehli and backed by the others and band. Bring Me Your Love , a solid R&B track is sung by Simpson, the tracks composer. The voices blend extremely well as if they have been singing together all of their lives. Next up is River Deep/Mountain High , another R&B track and gets the crowd revved up. Walk Away finds Nelson back on lead vocal for a nice slow blues number. She demonstrates her solid vocal bass and range as well as true feeling for the blues. I want to mention the band who plays extr...

Tracy Nelson (born December 27, 1944) is an American singer. In the late 1960s Nelson relocated to Nashville, where she and Mother Earth recorded the album Make A Joyful Noise and the solo effort Tracy Nelson Country. The latter features Nelson's cover of the country classic "Blue, Blue Day". Nelson made a total of six albums with Mother Earth for the Mercury, Reprise, and Columbia labels. She has continued to record as a solo artist, for Atlantic and other labels. In 1974, her duet with Willie Nelson, "After the Fire is Gone", was nominated for a Grammy Award. After a lengthy hiatus from recording in the 1980s, Nelson released several albums on the independent Rounder Records label in the 1990s. Her 1998 collaboration with label-mates Marcia Ball and Irma Thomas "Sing It" garnered a second Grammy nomination. During this comeback period she performed on American music television programs such as Sunday Night and Austin City Limits. Since the earl...

TOUR DATES INCLUDE SPECIAL SHOWS WITH THE LEGENDARY TRACY NELSON ANNAPOLIS , MD – Severn Records announces the signing of seminal American roots music band The Nighthawks, who’ve already recorded their first album for the label, with an expected release date in the first quarter of 2012. The two Washington, DC-area based entities unite at a very special time in their history. Severn Records was just announced as the recipient of the 2012 Keeping the Blues Alive Award for Record Label from the Blues Foundation; and The Nighthawks are coming off their first-ever Blues Music Award (also from the Blues Foundation) -  Acoustic Blues Album of the Year - for their Last Train to Bluesville CD, presented in Memphis this past May. The Nighthawks are: Mark Wenner - vocals, harmonica; Johnny Castle - vocals, bass; Paul Bell – guitar; and Mark Stutso - drums, vocals . Always known as one of the hardest working bands in the business, The Nighthawks continue to tour extensiv...