 |  |  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
 |  |  | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
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”
Friday, May 11, 2012
New Release - RJ Mischo "Make It Good"
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”
A Long Way To Go - Cinqui - New Release Review
I've been listening to A Long Way To Go... the new Cinqui release and although not bluesy in a traditional sense, it's a pretty nice recording. It is overall a vocal oriented recording with a good shot of tasty guitar riffs, cool Hammond playing, light rhythm and strong seductive backing vocals
Chuck Berry's Memphis Tennessee gets a funky blues makeover which is actually quite cool. Should I is another song that stands out as heavily blues influenced with a cool guitar intro and solitary guitar interludes interspersed. I'm A Train is another standout song on the cd with it's funky (Sly Stone) style blues. My Heart, a bonus track, is played acoustically and is a real clean ballad. Cinqui is Ian Sinclair (vocals) backed by Stuart Dixon (Guitars), Richard Newman (drums), Sandeep Ravel (chimes), John Buys (bass), Jenoe Bajtala (Keys), Kristel Morrison (vocals), Ann-Marie Johnson (vocals), Will Wilde (Harmonica), Dani Wilde (Vocals). I also want to comment on the packaging. I'm sure this isn't the first time but the cd is pressed to look convincingly like a 45...cool.
Overall this is quite a strong recording and should fair well along side as contemporaries such as Ben Harper, Jack Johnson and John Mayer.
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”
American Folk Blues Festival - Mae Mercer
Miss Mae Mercer (vocal) Sonny Boy Williamson (harp), Willie Dixon (bass), Memphis Slim (piano) e Clifton James (drums). Germany TV 1964.
Born Mary Ruth Mercer in 1932 to tobacco-croppers, she was one of nine children and stood out as soon as he started singing in church. Once in New York, she cut several tracks for Atlas, the black-owned jazz and jump blues label, but only her sterling version of Lee Dorsey's "Great Googa Mooga" – paired with her take on Tampa Red's "Sweet Little Angel" – was released in 1959.
The following year, Mercer travelled to Paris, where she met Maurice Girodias, the French publisher of erotica alongside avant-garde novels like Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita, J.P. Donleavy's The Ginger Man and The Naked Lunch by William S. Burroughs. He engaged her to sing at the Blues Bar, one of four clubs he owned near the offices of his Olympia Press company. She was an intense performer, often drinking an ampoule buvable – a cocktail of vitamins – to boost her stamina before going on stage. Indeed, she proved so popular that she ended up running the venue and paved the way for the success of Memphis Slim and Sonny Boy Williamson, two of the many visiting American musicians she worked with. By 1965, she was such a prominent figure in Europe that she was profiled in Ebony magazine.
Mercer spent much of the Eighties raising her own children, as well as a niece and a nephew, but in 1996 she recorded an album entitled When He Called It Quit for Blackhawk Records. In recent years, she had guest roles in the TV series ER and The Shield.
Tall, thin and strikingly beautiful, Mercer possessed a powerful voice as mesmerising as her physical appearance. Her stunning version of the blues standard "Careless Love", shot for German TV in the Sixties and included on the 2004 DVD Memphis Slim and Sonny Boy Williamson: Blues Legends In Europe, featuring Williamson on harmonica and Hubert Sumlin on guitar, is a gem. The Chess Records legend Willie Dixon rather misguidedly introduces Mercer as "the little girl with the real low-down blues" – but there's no mistaking the intensity of her performance.
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”
House of Blues Presents....Talented Vocal Babe Tricia Freeman In Concert
What The Media Is Saying About Tricia Freeman & Her New CD Everyone Can See
"Everyone Can See" reflects all the paths Tricia has explored..."Thought You Was The One" is a funky blues number in the vein of Little Feat and Bonnie Raitt..."Time To Call A Friend" showcases Freeman's vocal talents as well as her imaginative writing skills." BMANS BLUES REPORT
"You put this CD in a player, and lo and behold, you instantly have to be impressed...this voice jumps out from the speakers, and it has so much sass, so much grit, so much personality, that you instantly have to be sold. That's how I felt when I first heard the voice of Tricia Freeman."
MUSIC NEWS NASHVILLE
"One thing is readily apparent when you put this album on. This woman can sing. Her raspy vocals in "Thought You Was The One" not only remind me of Janis Joplin, but also are perfect for the blues she sings. Everyone Can See is an album you should add to your collection."
OC MUSIC EXAMINER
<Tricia Freeman Live In Concert At House Of Blues/Hollywood - Sat., May 12>
(HOLLYWOOD, CA) - Check out one of the hardest-working ladies in the Southern California live music scene, Tricia Freeman, when she comes to the House of Blues, Crossroads Room, 8430 Sunset Blvd., West Hollywood, Saturday, May 12. 8-11 p.m. Free. Info: (323) 848-5100 or http://www.houseofblues.com/venues/clubvenues/losangeles/.
The talented vocalist blends elements of rock, blues, country, and even soul in her repertoire, while gigging on average of five-six times a week with the Tricia Freeman Band.
Freeman's distinct gravelly-edged vocals have been favorably compared with both Bonnie Tyler and Bonnie Raitt. She is nominated for a 2012 Los Angeles Music Award in the "Best Blues/Americana/Roots" category and will be performing at the Real Blues Festival Of Orange County 3 later this Summer.
Freeman has just released the well-received, independently-produced album, Everyone Can See. From the ballad-like "Blind Man Wandering" and Little Feat-esque rock 'n' funk feel of "Thought You Was the One" to the uptempo boogie-woogie urgency of "Mama He Treats Your Daughter Mean" and the sexy jazz feel of the title track, the twelve-song record encompasses a myriad of sounds sure to satisfy. Listen closely and you'll hear strains of The Motel's Martha Davis in the lovely "Going Back" and Heart's Ann Wilson in the equally serene "Let It Go" - both not bad company to be in, to be sure!
Check out a great interview with Tricia in the latest issue of All Access Magazine here - http://allaccessmagazine.com/2012/01/26/tricia-freeman/
Tricia Freeman - Bio
Raised in Kansas and Texas, Tricia's earliest memories of music go back to her mother's love of jazz and blues, flooding the house with the likes of Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, and her favorite, Dinah Washington. Her father loved it all, from the Latin American to classical.
Tricia made the big move to California at the age of 19 and immediately bought a guitar and a "how to" chord book. The rest just came naturally, from singing those country / blues songs at the local saloons, to performing in the stage production of "Godspell", to performing at all sizes of venues, from local taverns to major festivals up & down the coast.
Freeman has toured Europe from Finland to Germany several times, with different line ups, performing songs from her own CD's and a blend of cover tunes that she makes completely her own with her bold original sound, that can only come from living the songs she sings.
Her studio work has brought her performance credits in 3 movies from Disney, Time Warner and Indigo Films. She also appeared on the television show, "Your Big Break", paying tribute to Janis Joplin.
Tricia traveled to Memphis several times to sing back up vocals on 2 CD's of Walter Trout, the amazing blues guitarist from "Canned Heat". While there, she had the honor of working with producer, Jim Gains, of Santana fame, as well as, many other bands.
Besides Walter Trout, Tricia has also shared the stage with the likes of Spencer Davis, The Little River Band, Olivia Newton John, Missing Persons, Eric Burdon and The Animals, Eddie Money and in 2007, she opened for Al Green & John Fogerty at the Doheny Blues Festival in Dana Point, California.
Freeman has a bold, humorous stage presence that will have you rolling with laughter between songs. This is why being compared to Janis Joplin, Stevie Nicks, Linda Ronstad, and Melissa Etheridge, among others, has been "trumped" with other fan's and critic's opinions that she is much more like the multi-talented Bette Midler. Indeed, Ms. Freeman has that "Midler" appeal.
This singer/songwriter puts on a great show, no matter what size the venue or the audience. You will always get the "real thing" with Tricia Freeman.
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”
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Carolina Chocolate Drops release music video!
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
| |||||||||||||||
This week we've had birds on the brain, on account of a little red and blue bird knocking into the window behind Corinne's desk about every five minutes. We've tried putting objects in the window, taping swaths of fabric, standing by the window and waiving our hands. Feeling helpless, we turned our attention back to our work. 
59th annual Jimmie Rodgers Festival returns to Meridian, Mississippi
| ||||||||||||
Mike Portnoy's Flying Colors announce September European tour
Flying Colors, the hot new virtuoso prog rock supergroup featuring drummer Mike Portnoy (ex-Dream Theater), guitarist Steve Morse (Deep Purple), and Neal Morse (Spock’s Beard), follow the release of their eponymous debut album with a rare European tour taking in London’s prestigious Shepherd’s Bush Empire on September 21st.
Tickets for all the European tour can be ordered online via the official European press page here.
Flying Colors: September 2012 European Tour
* Hamburg / Markthalle / Sept 9
* Berlin / C-Club / Sept 10
* Munich / Theaterfabrik / Sept 11
* Milan / Alcatraz / Sept 13
* Zurich / Volkshaus / Sept 14
* Stuttgart / Longhorn / Sept 15
* Aschaffenburg / Colos-Saal / Sept 16
* Cologne / Gloria / Sept 17
* Paris / Le Trianon / Sept 19
* Tilburg / 013 / Sept 20
* London / Shepherd's Bush Empire / Sept 21
Flying Colors showcases Mike Portnoy (drums, vocals), Dave LaRue (bass), Neal Morse (keyboards, vocals), Casey McPherson (lead vocals, guitar), and Steve Morse (lead guitar). "The album has bits and pieces of what you'd expect from each of us,” says Portnoy. “The sum of all its parts led to brand new, unchartered territory for everyone involved."
Flying Colors began with a simple idea: virtuoso musicians and a pop singer joining together to make new-fashioned music the old fashioned way. Refreshing, classic, old and new, the songs are saturated with the many styles, tones and hues of the players who in becoming a band have delivered a unique fusion of vintage craftsmanship and contemporary music.
"It was quite an experience making the album,” recalls Dave LaRue. “It's been an inspiring challenge melding folk, prog, pop and metal into one big recording."
Mike Portnoy was the co-founding member and drummer for the world’s biggest prog metal band Dream Theater. Neal Morse is the co-founding member of the prog rock bands Spock’s Beard and Transatlantic. David LaRue is the bassist for the Dixie Dregs and has worked with Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. Steve Morse is the lead guitarist for Deep Purple. Casey McPherson is the lead singer for Alpha Rev, who has experienced success on US radio with numerous hit singles including “New Morning”.
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”
Everything I Do - Maurice John Vaughn & Fred Brousse
Maurice John Vaughn (born May 10, 1952) is an American blues musician from Chicago, Illinois. He is a guitarist, saxophonist, keyboardist and singer.
Vaughn began playing professionally in 1968 as a saxophonist in Chicago R&B groups. He recorded with The Chosen Few in 1976, and played and recorded with Phil Guy, went on tour in Canada in 1979. He played as a sideman with Luther Allison, Son Seals, Junior Wells, Valerie Wellington, and A.C. Reed.
His debut solo record was 1984's Generic Blues Album, released in plain white packaging on his own Reecy Records record label; Alligator Records reissued it in 1987.
In the 1990s, Vaughn played with Detroit Junior, but spent much of his time working in A&R for Appaloosa Records, and produced albums by Shirley Johnson, Zoom, Maxine Carr, B.J. Emery, and Velvet McNair. Vaughn and his band backed up Detroit Junior on the latter's two releases on Blue Suit Records, "Turn Up The Heat" and "Take Out The Time." In 1994, his song "(Everything I Do) Got To Be Funky" was released on the soundtrack for the film Major League II. The song was also a part of his 1993 release, In the Shadow of the City.
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”
Instrumental - Jimmy Ponder
Jimmy Ponder (born May 10, 1946 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania) is an American jazz guitarist.
Ponder started playing guitar at age 14, and was heavily influenced by Wes Montgomery and Kenny Burrell. He began playing with Charles Earland at 17, and in the following years played with Lou Donaldson, Houston Person, Donald Byrd, Stanley Turrentine, and Jimmy McGriff. He moved to Philadelphia and later New York City in the 1970s, and recorded extensively as a leader for a number of jazz labels. Since the late 1980's Jimmy has frequently returned to his hometown to perform with his popular trio alongside two of Pittsburgh's other Jazz greats; Roger Humphries and Gene Ludwig. Ponder's most commercially successful releases were his 1978 Muse Records set All Things Beautiful (U.S. Billboard Jazz Albums #38) and 2000's Ain't Misbehavin', for HighNote (U.S. Jazz #16)
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”
Hurdy Gurdy Man - Donovan
No, I really don't consider Donovan when I think of blues, but then again, Jeff beck was featured on an early album and the Allman Brothers thought enough of his stuff to do a 2 sided jam of his Mountain song.
Donovan (born Donovan Philips Leitch, 10 May 1946) is a Scottish singer, songwriter and guitarist. Initially labelled as an imitator of Bob Dylan, Donovan quickly developed an eclectic and distinctive style that blended folk, jazz, pop, psychedelia, and world music (notably calypso). He has variously lived in Scotland, London, California and Ireland, and currently lives with his family in County Cork in Ireland.
Emerging from the British folk scene, Donovan shot to fame in the United Kingdom in early 1965 with a series of live performances on the pop TV series, Ready Steady Go!. Initially signing with the British label Pye Records in 1965, he recorded a handful of singles and two albums in the folk music vein, but after signing a new contract with the US label Epic Records his popularity rapidly spread to the US and other countries. After extricating himself from his original management contract, he began a long and successful collaboration with Mickie Most, one of the leading British independent record producers of the era, scoring a string of hits in the UK, the US, Australia and other countries. His successful records in the 1960s included the UK hits "Catch the Wind" and "Colours" in 1965, while "Sunshine Superman" topped the US Billboard Hot 100 chart the following year, and reached #2 in Britain. Donovan was the first artist to be signed to CBS/Epic Records by then-new Administrative Vice President Clive Davis, who later became head of the CBS Record empire.
Donovan and Most collaborated on a series of hit albums and singles between 1965 and 1970. He became a friend of leading pop musicians including Joan Baez, Brian Jones, and The Beatles. He taught John Lennon a finger-picking guitar style in 1968. Donovan's commercial fortunes waned after he parted ways with Mickie Most in 1969, and he left the music industry for a time.
He continued to perform and record sporadically in the 1970s and 1980s, but gradually fell from favour. His gentle musical style and hippie image was scorned by critics, especially after the advent of punk rock. Donovan withdrew from performing and recording several times during his career, but he underwent a revival in the 1990s with the emergence of the rave scene in Britain. Late in the decade, he recorded the 1996 album Sutras with producer and long-time fan Rick Rubin and in 2004 released a new album, Beat Cafe. Donovan was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2012.
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 9, 2012
Search For Robert Johnson Part 5 (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”
Busy Being Blue - Paula Harris and the Eddie Neon Blues Band
Paula recently won the Golden Gate Blues Society's International Blues Challenge Competition This won her the privilege of representing the Bay Area in the International Finals in Memphis in February. There she came in Third in the world in the band category. This is the largest gathering of blues bands in the world with 120 bands competing from 40 states and 20 countries. She also won the 2012 Monterey Blues festival's Battle of the bands and will be playing the main stage this years festival.
She has been featured vocalist for the Atlanta “Pops” Symphony Orchestra, the Long Bay Symphony Orchestra, the Coastal Symphony Orchestra, and has fronted the Carere Orchestra (one of the oldest big bands in the state of Georgia) since 1995.
In 2006,2007, and the 2009 Paula was a featured vocalist for the closing ceremonies of the “making Strides for breast Cancer” in Atlanta(the largest fundraiser for cancer in the nation with more than 20,000 attendees).
She has performed for thousands at corporate parties, charity events, fundraisers, sporting events and concert venues such as the FOX theatre in Atlanta, the Georgia World Congress Center, and Chastain Park,and the internationally famous blues & jazz clubs "Top of the Mark" , "Biscuits and Blues", and "Yoshi's" in San Francisco.
Paula also worked 2 years at the world famous jazz club “The Top of The Mark” in San Francisco with Grammy Nominee- Ricardo Scales, and Grammy Winner-Dorothy Morrison.
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”
Devil Come Knockin' - Rosco Levee
Rosco Levee is a singer songwriter and guitarist from Kent, who has been playing the guitar for the last 23 years...and he’s only 28 now! Music and writing songs is in his blood; every day he composes a new song, a set of lyrics or a new melody to work with.
Spurred on by his good friend, the notable singer songwriter Pete Molinari, Rosco has gone back to his roots where he was brought up on a diet of blues, country and rock ‘n’ roll. Artists such as Robert Johnson, Delaney Bramlett and Elvis, and bands such as The Allman Brothers, Rolling Stones and The Band are all major influences.
FINAL APPROACH TO HOME is the debut album from Rosco and the fantastic musicians he works with in the band. Lee Wilson on keys, Simon Gardiner on bass, Andy Hayes on guitars/mandolin, and long time friend David Tettmar on the Kit. Also joining the band on the album were Duncan Mackay (Primal Scream, Death in Vegas) on horns, the supreme talent of Ian Cutler on fiddle and Pete Jackson on banjo and BVs.
To support the release of FINAL APPROACH TO HOME, Rosco, along with the band will be touring the UK during 2012, and also appearing at several festivals in the summer months.
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”
Wouldnt Mind Dying - Blind Mamie Forehand
Having made only a handful of recordings in the company of her presumed husband A.C. Forehand, the ’20s performer Blind Mamie Forehand joins a class of recording artists whose uniqueness is not in name only. While it many not have been that common for women to sing the blues professionally in the ’20s, Forehand was one of many who did sing gospel and also one of the few who did manage to leave compelling documentation behind. She was an active singer of spirituals on the streets of Memphis, a venue that logically led to the stylistic classification of street-corner or storefront gospel. “Honey in the Rock” is one of the titles she recorded in 1927, and these tracks have endured not just because hazy copyright status has led to overlapping reissue documentation on an international level. In fact, due to the efforts of labels such as Wolf, it is easier to find a Blind Mamie Forehand recording in Austria than a jar of peanut butter. The actual music content is something that once heard is never forgotten; the robust singers accompanying themselves on cymbals so old one can imagine clouds of dust bursting forth with each crash.
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”