Bman's Blues Report

 I just had the opportunity to review the most recent release, Fight On! True Blues Vol 2 , by Corey Harris , Alvin Youngblood Hart , and Guy Davis and it's pure roots blues. Opening with We Are Almost Down To The Shore (Fight On) is written by Jimmy Strother and originally on banjo but adapted by Cory Harris to guitar, presented in a Piedmont finger style accompanying Harris on vocals. Solid opener. See Me When You Can is performed in Delta style by Guy Davis on vocal and acoustic guitar. His finger work is strong and confident and his vocals rich and sincere. Very nice. Harris wrote clever rag, What's That I Smell , with cool, laid back finger work on acoustic guitar and great vocal delivery by Harris. Alvin Youngblood Hart takes over on original composition, If The Blues Was Money . The track has just the right texture with authentic delta style guitar work and Hart's own vocals. Very cool. On Rev Gary Davis ', I Belong To The Band , Harris' very strong voc...

 I just had the opportunity to review the newest release, Ghost Hymns , by William Lee Ellis and it's an interesting exploration of blues, gospel and bluegrass. Opening with Cony Catch The Sun, Ellis on fretless banjo and vocal play a very cool, primitive, Hill Country like track. Very cool. On Pearl River Blue s, Ellis and Mikahely on guitar work nicely over a piedmont styling and solid vocal work by Ellis. One of my favorite tracks on the release is instrumental, Lost Heaven featuring  Ellis on acoustic guitar and a Chinese folk string instrument called a yueqin with it's quiet melody and clean articulation. With honor to father Tony Ellis and godfather Bill Monroe, Mumblin' Word is a great bluegrass tune with Ellis on vocal and 12 string, Neil Rossi on fiddle, Rik and Julie Coffey on vocal. Very cool.  Tony Ellis penned track, Belarus , has a beautiful melody, with Ellis on guitar and Tom Cleary on piano. Very nice. Closing the release is Bury Me In The Sky , with ...

I just received the newest release, The Ragpicker String Band by Mary Flower, Rich DelGrosso and Martin Grosswendt and it's refreshing. Opening with Walter Vinson's Honey Babe , Martin takes the lead on vocals and guitar with Mary on harmony and slide and Rich on harmony and mandolin. Nicely blended vocals, warm slide and clean mando work makes for a super opener. Lil Johnson's Minor Blues features Mary on lead vocals and she does a really nice job grabbing the tension of the original. A tight mando solo by Rich and Mary's guitar accompaniment enriched by Martin on fiddle rounds out the track. Contemporary Google Blues by Rich Lyons, features DelGrosso on lead vocal and mando. Martin's bottleneck slide work on this track is really sweet and Mary rounds out the track with clean guitar riffs. Very nice! A change in perspective altogether with Thelonious Monk's, Blue Monk ... rag style. Mary on guitar, Martin on slide and Rich on mando...very nice! Sleepy John...

New Music from Eden Brent and more Eden Brent picks up the pieces of her Jigsaw Heart with a soul-baring set of new songs Take Eden Brent to a Nashville studio and you still hear the Mississippi Delta. Recording in the historic RCA Studio A with producer/guitarist extraordinaire Colin Linden, the blues-piano powerhouse stretched her musical legs, ambling into soulful Americana territory. But by reaching back to Mississippi, recalling memories, old friends and all she learned from her piano mentor Boogaloo Ames, she combined an immensely satisfying array of American music styles — blues, gospel, soul, country and R&B — to forge her deepest, most reflective album yet. Read the full article » CDs and downlo...

I just received the newest release (May 6, 2014), Jigsaw Heart , from Eden Brent . This new release has a definite weight toward country music but remaining all Eden. The opening track, Better This Way is a solid ballad illustrating clearly why Eden is regarded so highly for her vocal skills. A slow, easy waltz paced ballad, it's a nice opener. Everybody Already Knows busts out with honky tonk pride, Brent swinging on piano as she hammers out cool piano riffs. Title track, Jigsaw Heart , has a definite country feel again in ballad rather than easy pop style. There is a definite class to her songs separating them from today's pop country efforts by other artists. Dan Dugmore add a nice easy steel guitar counter to Brent's vocals. Very nice and air bound. Opportunity has a gospel/R&B feel and is one of my favorites on the release. Brent gets into a super groove and really delivers vocals nicely against her own rhythm piano. Drums by Gary Craig bass by John Dymond an...

I just received a copy of the new Claudettes release (October 1, 2013), Infernal Piano Plot... HATCHED! and it's a non stop piano riot. Opening with Stumblin' Home Satisfied is a cool piano boogie track featuring Johnny Iguana on piano and Michael Caskey on drums. This is pure blues and one for traditional style piano blues lovers. Big Sucker Punch gets a bit more jump in the step when Caskey kicks the pace up a few notches. With Hound Dog Taylor intensity the two men create a rockin frenzy. On Hammer and Tickle a dash of Latin rhythm dictates a more jazz approach and the title aptly describes Iguana's playing style where he hammers out the beat and then tickles the notes. Tide Pool has the roots of rock and R&B at it's core but Iguana takes a musical interlude on piano again showing a bent toward jazz. Deep Soul For High Society has a strong R&B feel a la Ray Charles. Again taking a jazz twist with expansion and experimentation Iguana circles back to R...

I just received the new release, A Sunshine State Of Mind , from  The Soul of John Black and it's really enjoyable. John A. Bigham, playing most of the parts as singer, songwriter and instrumentalist really delivers a nice package here. Opening with Magic Woman a rock/R&B style track, JB provides a solid package with a catchy hook and snappy beat. Echoing his voice with layers of backing vocals and lead guitar melody, this is a track that easily find it's way to the airwaves. Beautiful Day is a great soul track with a certain Al Green feel... excellent! East LA Lady has an uptempo club beat but not venturing far from the soul thread established by Marvin Gaye. Higher Power is another soul ballad again with an Al Green style structure. No real question where influences come from here. My thoughts, listen to masters to make masterful music. Johnny Bear (Give It To Me) , is another high energy dance track with R&B rhythms. I know that I make references to legendary ...

I just received a copy of the new release, Out Of My Mind , by Cassie Taylor and she just keeps getting better! This release of 12 original tracks opens with Ol' Mama Dean , a soulful strut with a great pop hook and in addition to sweet vocals from Taylor includes rippin nice slide guitar work from Steve Mignano. Some Spare Love is a particularly cool blues track with soft but rich vocals supported by clean guitar riffs by Mignano and minimal drums by Larry Thompson and bass by Taylor. Mignano really has a nice hand on the fretboard and adds significantly to the overall feel of the track. I really like this. Lay My Head On Your Pillow is a real nice R&B style track done lightly backed by acoustic guitar and drums. Taylor continues to demonstrate her individuality in vocal style, not going over the top with vocal pyrotechnics but singing solid tracks with certain feel. New Orleans shows a definite period style with solid pop style vocals and is strengthened by addition of tr...

Eden Brent is an award-winning American musician on the independent Yellow Dog Records label. A blues pianist and vocalist, she combines boogie-woogie with elements of blues, jazz, soul, gospel and pop. Her vocal style has been compared to Bessie Smith, Memphis Minnie and Aretha Franklin. Brent also attended the University of North Texas. Along with other awards, Brent garnered two 2009 Blues Music Awards - one for Acoustic Artist of the Year, the other for Acoustic Album of the Year (Mississippi Number One). In 2006, she won the Blues Foundation's International Blues Challenge. Brent has appeared around the country at recognized venues and events including the Kennedy Center, the 2000 Republican National Convention, the 2005 presidential inauguration (sharing the bill with B.B. King), the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, the British Embassy, Portland’s Waterfront Blues Festival, the Edmonton Blues Festival, the annual B.B. King Homecoming, and aboard the Legendary Rhythm & Blues Cru...

Considered one of the top acoustic blues guitarists on the West Coast, Terry Robb is also an inventive and ever-evolving American primitive master. As an heir to the late, great John Fahey’s musical legacy, Robb is an established icon in a pantheon that includes Robbie Basho, Leo Kottke, Peter Lang, John Renbourn, and Stefan Grossman. Because American primitivism, a transitional style that ranges between country blues and early 20th century string-band music, is often nuanced by dissonance and minor tunings, it is sometimes considered esoteric and obscure, appealing only to a musically intellectual elite. But Robb has distinguished himself by redefining this complex finger-picking style, using popular and traditional genres to open up and make this approach accessible to the general music-loving public. Robb is that rare talent, a musician’s musician and an enormously popular performer. Onstage, his fleet fingers, wry humor, and intense focus mesmerize audiences. The passionate ar...

February of 2010 Chris Cotton got an interesting idea while talking to a long-time friend and artistic collaborator who had been living in a van in Brooklyn, NY over that previous winter that intrigued both Chris, a San Francisco Bay Native, and his friend, which subsequently led to a concept idea for a new record that Chris was highly skeptical of but couldn't stop thinking about. Chris and his friend, who wishes to remain anonymous, spoke for hours about murky and unknown details which naturally led to a wager. The terms of this wager are not exactly clear, but what can be understood thus far is that this is a sea change for Mr Cotton many steps removed from his preferred turn-of-that-last-century-hokum and string band anachronism that he has been known for mastering over the last decade. This album will be be released in Feb. 2011.