Friday, May 4, 2012
Thursday, May 3, 2012
WNTI 91.5 Rock-it Science with Greg Lewis - Playlist-links for May 3, 2012
Playlist Songs---SONG----ARTIST---ALBUM---
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”
Search For Robert Johnson Part 3 (of 5)
The Search for Robert Johnson is a 1991 UK television documentary film about the legendary Delta blues musician Robert Johnson, hosted by John Hammond, and produced and directed by Chris Hunt. In it, Hammond travels through the American Deep South to pursue topics such as Johnson's birth date, place and parents, his early musical development, performances and travels, romances, his mythic "pact with the devil," his untimely murder in his late twenties, the discovery of possible offspring, and the uncertainty over where Johnson is buried. Throughout, Johnson's music is both foreground and background, from recordings of Johnson and as performed on camera by Hammond, David Honeyboy Edwards, and Johnny Shines.
Blues musician and "keeper of the flame" John Hammond described his journey into the American South as "the quest of a lifetime". His father, record producer and jazz impresario John H. Hammond, had planned and advertised for Robert Johnson to perform at Carnegie Hall, but Johnson died prior to the concert.
The film is loosely organized around field work by Johnson researcher Robert "Mack" McCormick. Throughout the film, Hammond travels to locations where Johnson lived, performed, recorded, and purportedly where he died, and interviews two of Johnson's girlfriends and blues musicians who knew him, as well as two noted blues researchers. Locations include the "Delta, the floodplain of northwestern Mississippi, on into Arkansas and Texas, and into southern Mississippi, where he was born and died."
The film has been noted for its presentation of new evidence, at the time, about Johnson's life.
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”
Wishing Well - Honey Island Swamp Band
Great music begins with great songs, and great songs are what the Honey Island Swamp Band is all about. The band came together after 4 friends were marooned in San Francisco after Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans. Formed on the strength of timeless songs from Aaron Wilkinson and Chris Mulé, HISB’s "Bayou Americana" sound has been compared to the music of such forefathers as Lowell George, Earl King, Taj Mahal, Jerry Garcia, Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown, Gram Parsons and Jimmy Reed. Their eponymous EP was recorded in 2006 at famed studio The Plant in Sausalito, CA, and was received so well that they all decided to continue the band upon moving back home to New Orleans in 2007. Wishing Well, the band's first full length album won "Best Blues Album” of 2009 from OffBeat Magazine, which has also honored Honey Island Swamp Band as "Best Emerging Artist" of 2009 and “Best Roots Rock Artist” of 2010. And most recently the band was awarded “Best Roots Rock Artist” the past two years (2011 & 2012) at the Big Easy Awards, widely considered the “Grammys of New Orleans”. HISB's newest offering – Good To You – was nominated by OffBeat Magazine as “Best Roots Rock Album” of 2010, was named to numerous “Top 10 CDS of 2010” lists, and has become a staple of most DJs on the Crescent City's legendary radio station WWOZ, as well as on Sirius/XM satellite radio’s Bluesville and traditional stations from coast-to-coast. Featuring the southern strut of songs such as “Country Girl”, "300 Pounds" and the album’s first single “Chocolate Cake”, Good To You illuminates the mix of country-inflected rock and New Orleans funky blues that makes Honey Island Swamp Band's music so familiar and unique at the same time.
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”
End of the Blues - Freddie Roulette
Frederick Martin "Freddie" Roulette (born May 3, 1939) is an American Chicago blues and electric blues guitarist and singer. He is best known as an exponent of the lap steel guitar. In a lengthy career, he has collaborated with Earl Hooker, Charlie Musselwhite, Henry Kaiser, and Harvey Mandel, and released several solo albums.
Roulette, whose family came from New Orleans, was born and raised in Evanston, Illinois, and learned to play steel guitar in high school. He started playing in clubs in Chicago in his teens, and in 1965 began work in Earl Hooker's backing band, continuing to tour and perform with him until 1969. That band, with pianist Pinetop Perkins, harmonica player Carey Bell, vocalist Andrew Odom, and Roulette, was "widely acclaimed" and "considered [as] one of the best Earl had ever carried with him". Roulette participated on several of Hooker's singles, his 1967 album, The Genius of Earl Hooker, and the 1969 follow-up, Two Bugs and a Roach. He developed a friendship with Charlie Musselwhite, and recorded with him (credited as Fred Roulette) on the 1969 band album Chicago Blue Stars. He then toured with Musselwhite, and backed him on the albums Tennessee Woman and Memphis, Tennessee, before relocating to the San Francisco, California, area where he has lived ever since. When there, he played in a band with Luther Tucker, and recorded with Earl Hooker's cousin, John Lee Hooker.
In 1973, Roulette released his debut solo album, Sweet Funky Steel, which was produced by his fellow guitarist, Harvey Mandel. Don "Sugarcane" Harris also played on several tracks. Over the next twenty years, he continued to perform with other musicians and occasionally led his own band, while also working full-time as an apartment manager. The 1996 album, Psychedelic Guitar Circus, saw him work in a group format with Mandel, Kaiser and Steve Kimock. His solo 1997 album, Back in Chicago: Jammin' with Willie Kent and the Gents, had Roulette recording with both Willie Kent and Chico Banks. The album won the Living Blues magazine award as Best Blues Album of 1997. Following that album's success, Roulette began performing widely at blues festivals, and followed it up with the 1998 album Spirit of Steel, produced by Kaiser, as well as contributing to Kaiser's own album Yo Miles, a tribute to Miles Davis.
Roulette's most recent solo album, Man of Steel (2006), incorporated guitar playing contributions from Will Bernard and David Lindley, as well as guitar and production duties from Kaiser. It was recorded in Fantasy Studios, in Berkeley, California, and included strains of jazz, country, soul and reggae in the overall blues setting.[8] In the same year, Roulette played locally in a small combo including Mike Hinton.
Roulette has played at a number of outdoor events over the years, including the Long Beach Blues Festival, the San Francisco Blues Festival (1979), and the Calgary Folk Music Festival (2000). He has also continued to play club dates in the San Francisco area, often with Harvey Mandel.
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”
Merle Jam Welcomes Back Chicago's Howard and the White Boys
"Chicago's Hardest-Working Blues Band...For Over Two Decades!"
"Chicago's Hardest-Working Blues Band," Howard and the White Boys (pictured here with the great B.B. King) perform at this year's Sixth Annual Merle Jam Festival at Knucklehead's in Kansas City on Saturday, May 5. Merle Jam - named for founder Merle Zuel - raises awareness and money for the organ-donor world.
Performing Live: 6th Annual Merle Jam Fest Knucklehead's - Saturday, May 5
"In these days when it seems that most every CD I receive to consider for review is produced by the hands of yet another non-shaving aged guitar prodigy with visions of Stevie Ray dancing in his head complete with hired gun session players, it is indeed a pleasure when I get one from a real genuine band (yes they do exist even now). It is a double pleasure when the recording comes from one of the many great region bands from here in the US. The popular Chicago based band Howard and the White Boys are among my personal favorites of these bands, and are also high upon my "hope to see live soon" list. " Tom Branson/BLUESROCKERS
KANSAS CITY, MO) - Howard and the White Boys, known as "Chicago's Hardest-Working Blues Band" for their over two decades of non-stop performing and touring, return to perform at the Sixth Annual Merle Jam Fest at Knuckleheads, 2719 Rochester St., Kansas City, Saturday, May 5. $15. Info: www.merlejam.com. The festival is named for Kansas City resident Merle Zuel, who received a heart transplant in 2007 and has been active in raising both money and awareness in the organ-donor world ever since. The event is a fundraiser for the Kansas City chapter of Transplant Recipients International Organization (TRIO). Funds go to heart transplant recipients via the St. Luke's Hospital Foundation.
The veteran quartet are recently back from their yearly Southern tour and continue to perform through out the U.S., bringing audiences to their feet and out onto the dance floor - much as they have done for over twenty years - while getting ready to record the follow up to their critically-acclaimed most recent recording, MADE IN CHICAGO (Evidence Records). Most recently, band member Rocco Calipari has branched out with his side project Head Honchos', who have released a well-received debut CD.
The members of Howard And the White Boys first met at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb in 1988 and began jamming together just for fun, but their fast-growing popularity soon convinced them they could make a career of it. After only a few months, they got their first big break by opening for Blues legend, B.B. King. The band soon made the move to Chicago and began performing with the biggest names in Blues: Koko Taylor, Albert King, Junior Wells, Lonnie Brooks, Luther Allison, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry (the latter whom they were the backing band for in a headlining capacity at the 2002 Long Beach Blues Festival in Long Beach, Calif.).
MADE IN CHICAGO represents the zenith of the group's recorded output, and it's certainly the disc that Howard & the White Boys are most proud of. While the band hadn't recorded in six years, they've been gigging continuously throughout the U.S. and Europe; this, in turn, has lent their trademark brand of contemporary blues an indomitable tightness brimming with raw power. All of this comes through on the new disc, proving that the wait was well worth it.
Watch Howard and The White Boys performing their funky interpretation of the Robert Cray tune "Phone Booth" at the Blues Nights Festival in Lithuania below:The members of Howard And the White Boys first met at Northern Illinois University in Dekalb in 1988 and began jamming together just for fun, but their fast-growing popularity soon convinced them they could make a career of it. After only a few months, they got their first big break by opening for Blues legend, B.B. King. The band soon made the move to Chicago and began performing with the biggest names in Blues: Koko Taylor, Albert King, Junior Wells, Lonnie Brooks, Luther Allison, Bo Diddley, and Chuck Berry (the latter whom they were the backing band for in a headlining capacity at the 2002 Long Beach Blues Festival in Long Beach, Calif.).
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”
White River Records artist: Jimmy Thackery And The Drivers - As Live As It Gets - New Release Review
I had a big build up of this recording, Live As It Gets, from my pal Stilladog and I couldn't wait for it to come. Well, here you go. To say they captured Thackery at his best and live is the understatement of the year. This thing rips! This is a 2 cd package opening with a 7 plus minute version of Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones's Letter To My Girlfriend, a cool swing tune with Thackery playing great riffs and a full horn compliment thanks to the Hydraulic Horns. Blind Man In The Nightis a slower blues with shimmering chords beneath the vocals and clean riffs at the turnaround. Thackery and crew do a massive job on Johnny Guitar Watson's Gangster Of Love including a blistering solo by JP Soars mixed in with Thackery's own wizardry.Muddy Waters' Gypsy Woman gets a total rework by Thackery to the point that it is barely recognizable. He has transformed this classic into a long slow blues again with beautiful lush chords. Joe McGlohon plays a great tenor sax solo to start the ball rolling but both Thackery and Soars blow the roof off of this song. I mean it is a guitar extravaganza! The first disc is finished up with Thackery's Kicken' Chicken, a jump blues which gives Jim Spake a great opportunity to shine on the Bari sax, McGlohon to pop out some great riffs on tenor sax and Thackery to tear a hole in it with his Strat! Disc two opens with Thackery's Feel The Heat, a straight forward blues rocker with some tasty riffs in the mix. H.E. Owen's The Hustle (Is On), a shuffle track is up next. very stylish T-Bone Walker style leads are laid down on guitar and again Spake steps up for a nice long stretch with his honking Bari sax. Man can make it go! There are some vicious guitar riffs on this song so hold on tight!Thackery's Hobart's Blues is up next with a nice showcase for each of the players in a standard 8 bar blues. Wrapping up the entire package is J.B. Lenoir's I've Been Down So Long. This is what you call a screamer! At 19 minutes and 55 seconds it's a little longer than all of the other songs (6 songs spank the 9 minute mark) but there are some lengthy songs on this set of cd's so if you love to hear tight bands with super players get down and dirty and rip the lid off... pick up your copy....now!! These guys really put it all out here!!
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”
Here's a taste of the band:
Ironing Board Sam glows at Jazzfest!
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
| ||||||||||||
Sleeping Alone - Bobby Blues Ray
Bobby Ray is an accomplished musician. His gospel upbringing in the churches of Arkansas prepared him for his jump into the Northern California Soul scene during the 60's.
He played assorted venues opening for the likes of B.B. King, Lowell Folsom, Albert King, Muddy Waters, and Bobby "Blue" Bland. Bobby played numerous Soul venues but his heart remained with the blues through the years.
Ray is based in Sacramento, California. His earthy voice is loved by local musicians who idolize his talent.
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
You Keep Me Hangin - Kilborn Alley Blues Band
The Kilborn Alley Blues Band.. was formed in 2000 when ..Andy Duncanson.. was still in high school, and ..Chris Breen.. and ..Josh Stimmel.. were barely out. In 2005 ..Ed O'Hara.. joined the band, and in 2008 ..Deak Harp.. became a long-term replacement for original member Joe Asselin. And in 2009 became a regular member of the group... .. The line-up is Duncanson vocals and guitar, Deak Harp harmonica, Breen electric bass, Stimmel guitar, and O'Hara drums... .. The Kilborn Alley Blues Band plays filthy Chicago blues, with just a little bit of southern fried soul. The point of the act is to deliver the blow out bar show associated with blues at its zenith. Kilborn Alley is not about youth angst; it is about adult delirium... .. If we wrote the history of this band here, you wouldn't believe us. Just put it this way; Kilborn has played over twelve hundred shows, and knows how to smile in your face and then kick you in the ass-- musically.
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”
Miranda Louise and the Mohawk Slim Band
Rarely does one find as devoted and sincere an interpreter of the Blues as Miranda Louise. The Singer/Songwriter has been singing in amphitheaters, nightclubs, and performing in Blues festivals in the US, Europe and the Caribbean for fifteen years. As a master and demo studio musician based out of Nashville, TN, her career has been well documented. She is a well known and loved mainstay of the Southern Blues scene.
A founding member of the Blues Foundation's Award winning Music City Blues Society, she spends her time and energy perpetuating the music she loves on all levels.
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”
I'm Ready - David Shelley & Bluestone
David Shelley is the son of Jazz singer / actress Martha Stewart and grandson of the late George Gard "Buddy" Desylva who was a top songwriter ("Birth of the Blues", "Sunny Boy" and the "Best things in Life are free"), film producer and record executive.
David played percussion with jazz fusion artist Randy Bernsen and was guitarist, singer and songwriter with reggae band T'shan. T'shan was wildly popular in local clubs and David took the sound even further with his own band, opening for everyone from The Clash and The Kinks to reggae star Dennis Brown, rocking the house with an eclectic mix of worldbeat and blues roots.
When some of his recordings were chosen for a movie soundtrack, Shelley was cast to play a rock musician in Roger Vadim's remake of "And God Created Women" starring Rebecca DeMornay. This lead to a role in music videos for Cher on her "Heart Of Stone" album, including the famous aircraft carrier scene of "If I Could Turn Back Time." The pop diva was no stranger to blues rock talent and drafted the guitarist to play in her touring band. Thus David performed at the 1989 American Music Awards and the 1990 and 1991 MTV Music Awards, toured the US, Canada, Australia, Ireland and the UK, and was seen by millions on cable channels like VH1. Soon after he found himself as series regular and guitarist for "The Ron Reagan Show" on Fox and his songs being played on the CBS soap "The Guiding Light", ABC soap "General Hospital", "Touched By An Angel", and "Promised Land".
David then moved to the desert in an effort to reconnect with his musical roots. Roaming the West, he hooked up with some Native American musicians in Santa Fe. Featuring members of the Apache and Zuni tribes, The Mud Ponies (sometimes called Seventh Son) played hard rocking Indian based blues throughout the Southwest.
For many years David has worked in the Native American community, performing on the bill with John Trudell, Floyd Redcrow Westerman and the late Jessie Ed Davis. He co-wrote and co-produced for Native American vocalists Paula Bowers and Grammy Award winner Star Nayea. He also performs in Native American singer/songwriter and former Seminole Tribal Chairman Chief Jim Billie's backup band.
David also had Blues Farm, an LA based band often featuring blues star Coco Montoya, who encouraged Shelley to pursue his dreams of being a blues artist. David is often invited to play with Allman Brothers guitarist Warren Haynes' band Gov't Mule, he has shared the stage with Allman Brothers alumnus Dan Toler, blues artists like Anson Funderburg, Billy Branch, Ronnie Baker Brooks, Tommy Castro, Larry McCray and many more.
David Shelley has done the work to become one of the region's top blues performers. He headlines annually at the Riverwalk Blues Festival in Fort Lauderdale, one of the largest of such events in the country. In 2007 David represented the South Florida Blues Society at the International Blues Challenge in Memphis, Tennessee. There The David Shelley Band competed with almost 160 bands from around the world, proudly making it to the top 10 finalists.
After competing with 24 other bands, David Shelley and Bluestone won the chance to open for The Charlie Daniels Band at Sunfest, Florida's largest waterfront music and art festival, in 2010. David also beat the competition for a repeat opportunity to represent the South Florida Blues Society at the International Blues Challenge in 2011.
A trip to Nashville in late 2009 reinvigorated David's songwriting and 2010 found him hard at work on writing, performing and recording original songs for a new CD to be released in early 2011.
David Shelley has been to a crossroads called Earth, where glitz and grime meet on the boulevard between swamp and desert, creating jamming blues rock music that is ancient and modern and truly original.
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”
Stormy Monday - Preston Shannon
Hailed as the reigning "King of Beale Street", Memphis' own Preston Shannon is a powerful guitarist with a compelling and soulful voice that sounds like a cross between Otis Redding and Bobby Womack.
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”
| |
| Shannon toured for a couple of years as a member of soul singer Shirley Brown's band; in concert he sang Womack's part in the soul duet Brown had done years before with Womack himself.
Known to have performed on Bourbon Street and in Memphis area casinos, Shannon is a singer guitarist who can solo himself through a fire-breathing set of slick, urban blues. |
Preston exemplifies to many listeners the power of Southern "deep soul" - hoarse, gritty vocals, brassy arrangements, and an emotional way with both party tunes and aching ballads.
Shannon's lush guitar playing contains echoes of the Kings . . . Albert & B.B., as well as T-Bone Walker and rhythmic sensibilities of Little Milton.
Born in Olive Branch, Mississippi, Shannon's family moved to Memphis when he was eight. Although his Pentecostal parents didn't initially accept his fascination with blues music, they eventually did when they saw how serious he was about pursuing the music for his livelihood.
The seeds of his enduring talent were sown deep in the blues-rich Mississippi Delta and his specialty is a blend of Southern soul and blues and his albums and live shows, always with a horn section, are an eclectic mix of danceable, grooving tunes and slow, soulful ballads.
If you like what I’m doing, Like ---Bman’s Blues Report--- Facebook Page! I’m looking for great talent and trying to grow the audience for your favorites band! - ”LIKE”
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)