Bman's Blues Report

"... the last of the best ..." Band leader Paul deLay ranked among the greatest blues harmonica players, songwriters and vocalists. His work on the chromatic harp is considered by many to be unrivaled, and he was a three-time W.C. Handy Award nominee. A member of the Cascade Blues Association's Hall of Fame, Paul was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. Heavy Rotation, the Paul deLay Band's 2001 release on Evidence, peaked at #1 on the Living Blues radio charts, the fourth consecutive recording by the band to land in the Top Ten. In 2007, to honor Paul after his much-too-early death at age 55, Criminal Records will release "The Last of the Best," the first CD to capture all the excitement of the Paul deLay Band performing live! Read more to see why the Paul deLay story goes on. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- F...

Big Time Sarah, (born January 31, 1953, Coldwater, Mississippi) is an American blues singer. Sarah Streeter was raised in Chicago, Illinois, from early childhood, where she sang in gospel choirs in South Chicago churches. At age 14, she began singing blues at the Morgan's Lounge Club, and in the 1970s she played with musicians such as Magic Slim, Buddy Guy, The Aces, Junior Wells, Johnny Bernard, and Erwin Helfer. Her experience playing with Sunnyland Slim led to her first solo release, a single released on his label, Airways Records. Teamed with Zora Young and Bonnie Lee in 'Blues with the Girls', Sarah toured Europe in 1982 and recorded an album in Paris, France. From 1989 she performed with a group called The Big Time Express. Since 1993 she has recorded for Delmark Records. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for grea...

Devon Allman: The 12 Days of Turquoise : Audio Love Notes From Devon To His Fans: Debut Solo CD, on Ruf Records, Out on February 12 Atlanta, GA – Starting on Friday February 1 st , Ruf Records recording artist, Devon Allman, will be sharing his thoughts on his debut solo release, Turquoise ,  each day with an audio note gift for his fans leading up to the official release date, February 12 th . This will be posted on his social media sites:  Facebook page, his Twitter feed, YouTube Channel and website. So tune in at 12PM Eastern Time, each day to get your dose of Devon Allman talking about Turquoise. “These songs are very special to me,” says Allman. “It’s part ‘dusty road driving music’ and part ‘tropical getaway’ music. These are the stories, feelings and reflections from my last couple of decades of forging my musical path.” Turquoise was produced and mixed by multi-Grammy winner Jim Gaines and recorded at his Bessie Blue Studios in S...

Clarence Clifford "Peg" Richardson, Vocals & Slide Guitar d. December 30, 1984 in Charleston, West Virginia. Born December 18, 1918, Sumter, SC. Richardson got his foot in the blues doorway by performing in his uncle"s quartet in Brown Chapel Church in Sumter, SC. Sadly, he lost part of one foot in a train accident as a child. He performed in bands with such notable leaders as Jay McShann and Nat Cole and claimed to be influenced most by Blind Boy Fuller. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Mance Lipscomb (April 9, 1895 – January 30, 1976) was an American blues singer, guitarist and songster. Born Beau De Glen Lipscomb near Navasota, Texas, United States, he as a youth took the name of 'Mance' from a friend of his oldest brother Charlie ("Mance" being short for emancipation). Lipscomb was born April 9, 1895 to an ex-slave father from Alabama and a half Native American (Choctaw) mother. Lipscomb spent most of his life working as a tenant farmer in Texas and was "discovered" and recorded by Mack McCormick and Chris Strachwitz in 1960 during the country blues revival. He released many albums of blues, ragtime, Tin Pan Alley and folk music (most of them on Strachwitz' Arhoolie label), singing and accompanying himself on acoustic guitar. He had a "dead-thumb" finger-picking guitar technique, and an expressive voice. Lipscomb often honed his skills by playing in nearby Brenham, Texas, with a blind musician, Sam Rogers. His debut rele...

Sam John Hopkins (March 15, 1912 – January 30, 1982), better known as Lightnin’ Hopkins, was an American country blues singer, songwriter, guitarist and occasional pianist, from Houston, Texas. Rolling Stone magazine included Hopkins at number 71 on their list of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. Robert "Mack" McCormick stated, "Hopkins is the embodiment of the jazz-and-poetry spirit, representing its ancient form in the single creator whose words and music are one act" Born Sam John Hopkins in Centerville, Texas, Hopkins' childhood was immersed in the sounds of the blues and he developed a deeper appreciation at the age of 8 when he met Blind Lemon Jefferson at a church picnic in Buffalo, Texas. That day, Hopkins felt the blues was "in him" and went on to learn from his older (somewhat distant) cousin, country blues singer Alger "Texas" Alexander. Hopkins had another cousin, the Texas electric blues guitarist Frankie Lee Sims, wit...

BLUES KINGPINS MR. NICK & the DIRTY TRICKS ARE READY TO BUST OUT BAD AND NATIONWIDE by Ted Drozdowski Nick David's harmonica playing has a swagger - developed over thousands of one-nighters from Massachusetts to Memphis and from Portland, Maine, to Portland, Oregon, and even across the pond to Europe. Or maybe it's a swing, or a little extra hip-shake, just like the grooves generated by the powerhouse band he's formed with four other kingpins of the New England blues scene: Mr. Nick & the Dirty Tricks. Mr. Nick & the Dirty Tricks unites veteran musicians Nick David (a.k.a. Mr. Nick), "Lonely" Gus Carlson, Teddy B. (Bukowski) and Rick Rousseau for one of the region's most formidable live outfits in any genre. But their hearts belong to blues. Real blues. They play elegant, stomping and swinging classics like Little Walter's "Mellow Down Easy," Howlin' Wolf's "300 Pounds of Joy" and Wynonie Harris' "Go...

Chris’s musi­cal back­ground includes duties as lead singer and front man for rock and roll hall of famer and Grammy award win­ner Levon Helm’s band The Barn­burn­ers. Dur­ing the 6 years that Chris and Levon played together they toured across the US and Canada light­ing up stages every­where they went. Chris has appeared on stage with: Leg­endary Rolling Stones side­man Bobby Keys, The Fab­u­lous Thun­der­birds, Jimmy Vivino, Jeff Healy, Dan Akroyd, Albert Lee, Dave Edmunds, Dave Maxwell and the great James Cot­ton to name just a few. Chris has also recorded with Bill Perry and Hubert Sum­lin among others. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

I just received and have been listening to the newest release, In Between Time , by Al Miller . Due to some family issues I found my self in sunny Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania last week and had the pleasure to listen to this release numerous time while on the road. While driving, I rarely have time to look at the liner notes but now that I am writing my review, some of my passing thoughts actually make sense. I'll begin by saying, I kept thinking that I was listening to a Mike Bloomfield or early Paul Butterfield album. In reading the press release, I note that Miller was a part of the '60's Butterfield scene and played often with Bloomfield. This does not sound at all like a clone. It sounds like the real deal. The release opens with McCracklin/Taub track, Rockin' All Day . A rockin' boogie, this starts the entire release with a great groove with Billy Flynn (guitar), Willie Big Eyes Smith (drums), Barrelhouse Chuck (piano), and of course Miller on vocal and harp. B...

BLUES PIANIST/SINGER/SONGWRITER ANN RABSON, 1945 - 2013 CO-FOUNDER OF SAFFIRE--THE UPPITY BLUES WOMEN Blues pianist/singer/songwriter/guitarist Ann Rabson died on Wednesday, January 30, 2013 in Fredericksburg, Virginia after a long battle with cancer. She was 67. Co-founder of the hugely successful trio Saffire--The Uppity Blues Women , Rabson was a legendary force on the keyboards as well as being a deeply soulful vocalist. She recorded eight albums with Saffire and one solo CD for Alligator Records, and released three solo albums for other labels. Her most recent was 2012's Not Alone (VizzTone Records). Rabson's prodigious talent, along with her take-no-guff attitude, struck a chord with music fans around the world. Considered one of the finest barrelhouse blues pianists of her generation, Rabson -- an accomplished guitarist since she was a teen -- didn't start playing piano until she was 35. DownBeat magazine said that "Rabson plays ...

Karen Carroll (born January 30, 1958, Chicago, Illinois, United States) is an American Chicago blues singer. She was born to parents Mack Carroll and Alberta Simmons Carroll (stage name: Jeanne Carroll). Her godparents were the jazz guitarist George Freeman and blues vocalist Bonnie Lee. Carroll started singing in church at the age of six. Her first appearance was on stage playing guitar with her mother's band at age 14. Early in her career she worked with Katie Webster and Albert King. She recorded her first song with Carey Bell on his album, Son of a Gun in 1983. Carroll went on to tour with Eddie Lusk in Canada, after recording his album Professor Strut in 1989. Karen went on to play at some big Chicago blues clubs. In 1995, Carroll worked on an album with five other female blues artists called Women of Blue Chicago, and it is still being played on the radio today. She was offered her own recording contract by Delmark Records in 1995, subsequently making the album Had My Fun....

WATERS, MISSISSIPPI JOHNNY b. John Sandifer, 24 May 1935; Jackson, MS d. 30 January 1987; Oakland, CA Waters changed his name in honor of Muddy Waters, a major influence as singer and guitarist. He moved to Oakland, California, in 1956 and performed songs by Waters, Chuck Berry, and Fats Domino. During the 1970s he performed with harmonica player Mark Hummel and the Blues Survivors. Despite a 1983 lung operation, he continued performing as a senior member of the Bay Area blues scene. EDWARD KOMARA   If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, -  ”LIKE” ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorite band!

Jesse Fuller (March 12, 1896 — January 29, 1976) was an American one-man band musician, best known for his song "San Francisco Bay Blues" Fuller was born in Jonesboro, Georgia, near Atlanta. He was sent by his mother to live with foster parents when he was a young child, in a rural setting where he was badly mistreated. Growing up, he worked a multitude of jobs: grazing cows for ten cents a day, working in a barrel factory, a broom factory, a rock quarry, on a railroad and a streetcar company, shining shoes, and even peddling hand-carved wooden snakes. He came west and in the 1920s worked briefly as a film extra in The Thief of Bagdad and East of Suez. Eventually he settled in Oakland, California, across the bay from San Francisco, where he worked for the Southern Pacific railroad. During World War II, he worked as a shipyard welder, but when the war ended he found it increasingly difficult to find work. Around the early 1950s, Fuller's thoughts turned toward the poss...

Ted Bogan was one of the greatest musical artists to ever emerge from Spartanburg, SC, or "South Cackalacky," as the natives would describe it. Bogan was something like a growth from a massive tulip bulb, a bloom that for some reason was never allowed to fully open. He performed and recorded beautifully throughout a career that spanned more than half a century, but was mostly known as a member of the string bands variously known as Martin, Bogan & Armstrong or Martin, Bogan & the Armstrongs. The various members played in many other formations, including the New Mississippi Sheiks, over the years, but at the crux of it all was a strange relationship between Bogan and Howard Armstrong that seems to have rivaled the hate-fest of Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry. Most important, however, is that Bogan was not just a country bluesman, but a skilled and versatile purveyor of a variety of classic styles who apparently held his own up against no less a genius guitarist than ...

Salena Jones (born Joan Elizabeth Shaw, January 29, 1944 in Newport News, Virginia) is an American jazz and cabaret singer. She was born Joan Elizabeth Shaw in Newport News, Virginia, the same home town as Ella Fitzgerald. Jones said, "I loved Sarah Vaughan so much and adored Lena Horne's elegance; I put them together as ‘Salena.’ It looked good. And I kept Joan in ‘Jones.’” And that's how Salena Jones was born." Jones began singing in church, school and began club work at the age of fifteen. After winning a talent contest in New York's Apollo Theater, singing "September Song". She began making demonstration records for Peggy Lee and Lena Horne, acquired her own contract. Her first disc was 1949's "He Knows How to Hucklebuck", with the Paul Williams Orchestra—and she toured and sang throughout the 1950s with Louis Armstrong, Arthur Prysock, Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington and Big Maybelle—sharing bills with fellow Newport News natives the ...

Milton Roosevelt Hopkins was born in Houston’s Fifth Ward on January 30, 1934. His first musical influences came from the numerous bands in his neighborhood of Trinity Gardens and one local gospel quartet in particular. He picked up an old guitar with 4 rusty strings that was hanging from a nail on the back porch. It wasn’t long before he formed a band with other aspiring neighborhood musicians. One of the first gigs found Johnny “Guitar Watson” sitting in. This was the beginning of a career that led Milton to play with B.B. King, Little Richard, Sam Cooke, Jackie Wilson, The Drifters and many, many other great Blues and R&B artists. Milton tried copying some licks from his famous cousin, Lightnin’ Hopkins, but soon realized he had to find his own way. The artists that sought his talents were playing more modern styles of Blues and R&B. His talent and work ethic brought him to the attention of Little Richard, who formed a band with Milton and Grady Gaines called the Tempo To...

Mighty Mo Rodgers Is A Remarkably Original Singer/Songwriter Who's Shaped His Life Experiences Into A Terrifically Eclectic And Immensely Deep Vision On His Blue Thumb Debut, Blues Is My Wailin' Wall. Rodgers Combines Soulful, Gritty Vocals And Driving Rhythms With A Wholly Personal Panorama On Songs Like "Took Away The Drum," "The Kennedy Song," "Tuskegee Blues" And A Moving Tribute To His Childhood Friend With "Willie B. And Me." Blues Is My Wailin' Wall Has Already Made An Indelible Impression On Listeners, Both In Its Recorded Form And From The Concert Stage Where Rodgers Performance Dynamic Is Larger-Than-Life Captivating. "My Songs Are All About Life, And The Music Comes Directly From My Heart And Soul," Rodgers Says Candidly. Born Maurice Rodgers In The Steel Town Of East Chicago, Indiana, Where He Studied Classical Piano, He Had The Distinct Benefit Of His Father's Nightclub And The Up-Close And Personal In...

Young Philadelphia songstress Gina Sicilia exploded onto the scene in 2007, as her debut CD, ALLOW ME TO CONFESS, was met with joyous acclaim by fans and critics alike. She was heralded as a distinctive new voice in the Blues, as well as an insightful songwriter and interpreter of neglected classics in the Rhythm & Blues canon. In 2008 she was nominated for “Best New Artist Debut” at the Blues Music Awards in Memphis, Tennessee, just as her sophomore release HEY SUGAR proved her also to be a legitimate contender in the worlds of Classic Country and Americana. With her new 2011 release, Can't Control Myself, Gina broadens her stylistic palette, infusing even more Soul and Americana into her bedrock influences of Blues and R&B. This CD features seven new Gina Sicilia compositions, as well as three choice covers borrowed from Bobby Bland, Stevie Wonder, and Ike & Tina Turner. Gina’s singing and songwriting continue to break new ground, showing remarkable depth, powe...

I just received a copy of soon to be released (February 19, 2013 on Delta Groove Records) Long Walk Home by Kevin Selve . This is a really cool release with a variety of blues styles covered. The release opens with Duct Tape On My Soul , a nice loping blues track with plenty of T-Bone Walker influenced guitar riffs. Selfe takes advantage of this rhythm and lays down some really sweet solos. Mama Didn't Raise No Fool gets a bit more of a Chicago tempo featuring Mitch Kashmar on harp as well as stinging fretwork from Selfe. Selfe also has a hot voice for this style of music and blends nicely with his band. One of my favorites on the release, Moving Day Blues , has a slow T-Bone walker style setup with piano by Gene Taylor and great horn work by Joe McCarthy (trumpet), Chris Mercer (Tenor Sax), Brad Ulrich (Bari sax) and particularly hot riffs from Selfe.... dig those double stops, hot off tempo riffs and soulful bends. Smokin!!!! Last Crossroad is a lighter acoustic style blues ...

2013 is kicking off with some terrific music from Robert "Top" Thomas on WildRoots Records. "The Town Crier" Florida “Swamp Blues” master Robert ‘Top’ Thomas, a native of New Smyrna Beach, Florida has toured and/or recorded as guitarist and vocalist with several renowned Blues artists including; Noble ‘Thin Man’ Watts, Lazy Lester, Victor Wainwright, The King Snake All - Star Revue, Alex Taylor, Bill ‘Sauce Boss’ Wharton, Blue House and Mark ‘MuddyHarp’ Hodgson, to name a few; but is best known as a founding member of King Snake recording artist Smoke-House. If you support live Blues acts, up and coming Blues talents and want to learn more about Blues news and Fathers of the Blues, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! -  ”LIKE”