Bman's Blues Report

I'm on a roll to listen to my roots. Here's a little Otis Spann. Otis played with all the greats and was and is still one of the best blues players that every touched to piano. Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click HERE

Muddy Waters is one of my all time favorites..and most every great player in his day played in his band. he would just drop into a club for an hour or so and the musicians would cluster to back him. Here is one of his routine bands featuring James Cotton. Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click HERE

Now I warned you when you tuned in, I love Alvin Lee. Time for my daily dose. This isn't the best example of his work but I gotta take what video has to offer me. Hope you enjoy it. Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click HERE

I first saw Ronnie Montrose with the Edgar Winter Band in Pittsburgh. Edgar had broken up White Trash, an absolutely incredible band and formed the Edgar Winter Group. This was when he performed Frankenstein and really hit it big. It was a lot of show, black lights, portable keys and green phosphorescent hands. In any case...is it the blues... I think it is... lets hear what you think. Write on our Facebook Wall or post your Photos of great blues events! -  Here

This is a good example of how the blues can morph. Todd Rundgren, always a musical innovator began singing blue eyed soul in the suburbs of Philly in the mid '60s and by the late seventies was using all of his blues chops to play this blues rock infested music. I know it's outside the realm of pure blues... but not outside of the realm of what can make us better listeners and appreciate deviation from the base. I just have to remind myself that one of the most influential blues writers of all times, Robert Johnson, probably doesn't appeal to most listeners in his pure form. It is far too primitive and many don't like his howling voice. Not a lot unlike Jack White. I for one love it. But my job here is to find the best blues and blues influenced music available and get it to you (and me) to listen to. Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click Here

This says it all. Howlin Wolf layin it out there!

I recently had the opportunity to catch up with JW Jones and he was kind enough to give us a little insight to his world. Bman: Tell us how you got started. How long have you been playing? JW : My dad used to play folk music, but more of my influence came from friends in the neighborhood. I grew up with a bunch of Greek guys that introduced me to Zeppelin and Hendrix and then later to the Fabulous Thunderbirds, B.B., etc. My first gigs were as a drummer, talent shows at school etc. My first proper gig as a guitar player was sometime around 1998, about two years after picking it up. It was probably opening for a UK band called "The Hoax" at a venue that no longer exists - Perfect Strangers, in Ottawa. I wasn't singing at the time, so I had a singer, drummer, bassist and keyboard player. We covered all of my favourite blues artists at the time, most of whom are the same today! Bman: As a drummer. Interesting. Me too... although I'm not accomplished at it any more th...

Is this blues? Sounds like blues to me. I think this song is just terrific! Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click Here

This is an absolutely terrific song and a largely overlooked guitar player and vocalist outside of a few hit songs that he had. Mayfield was active throughout the 1970s and 1980s, though he had a somewhat lower public profile in the 1980s. On August 13, 1990, Mayfield was paralyzed from the neck down after stage lighting equipment fell on him at an outdoor concert at Wingate Field in Flatbush, Brooklyn, New York.[8] The accident set him back, but Mayfield forged ahead. He was unable to play guitar, but he wrote, sang, and directed the recording of his last album, New World Order. Mayfield's vocals were painstakingly recorded, usually line-by-line while lying on his back. Mayfield received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. In February, 1998, he had to have his right leg amputated due to diabetes. Mayfield was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on March 15, 1999. Health reasons prevented him from attending the ceremony, which included fellow inductees Pa...