Andy T - Nick Nixon Band Releases New Album, "Numbers Man" on Blind Pig Records

Numbers Man, released August 28, 2015 Tracks 1.       Shut The Front Door 2.       Devil's Wife 3.       Deep Blues Sea 4.       Tall Drink of Water 5.       Numbers Man 6.       Pretty Girls Everywhere 7.       Blue Monday 8.       Hightailin' 9.       Sundown Blues 10.    Tell Me What's The Reason 11.    Be Somebody Some Day 12.    What Went Wrong 13.    Gate's Salty Blues 14.    This World We Live In "Numbers Man": "This band just gets better with each recording." - Jim Hynes, Elmore Magazine, August 2015 Website Tour Dates Sep 17 - Wiregrass Blues Society Event at Clarion Inn, Dothan, AL Sep 18 - Darwin’s Burgers and Blues, Marietta, GA Sep 19 - Bradfordville Blues Club, Tallahassee, FL  Sep 22 - Nashville Music Series, Nashville, TN Sep 25 - Blues Blast Awards Show, Champaign, IL Sep 26 - BB’s Jazz Blues and Soups, St. Louis, MO Oct 10 - King Biscuit Festival, Helena, AR Nov 6 - Rhythm Room, Phoenix, AZ Nov 8 - Elks Club, Sierra Vista, AZ

Billy The Kid & The Regulators - I Can't Change - New release review

I just received the newest release, I Can't Change from Billy The Kid & The Regulators and it's quite good! Coming out of the gate with title track, I Can't Change, Billy and the Regulators hit the funky groove with Reggie Watkins on trombone, Rick Matt on sax and JD Chasin on trumpet. Billy Evanochko, Jon Vallecorsa and James Dougherty on guitar and vocals lead the way and Yolanda Barber's complimentary backing vocals are excellent! Arnold Stagger on bass and Brian Edwards on drums really anchor the bottom and stylized guitar soloing tops this super opener! On Ain't Gotta Prove Nothing, Billy leads the way vocally and with voracious guitar work. Another track with a serious funky feel driven by Stagger, this track moves! Radio styled, R&B ballad, What Are We Fighting For has a catchy melody and warm horn work, nicely complimented by Dougherty's singing slide work. R&B styling on Story of the Blues suits this band well. This is a tight track with a clean jazzy guitar solo and nice key work from Ublai Bey. Twelve bar number, Who, opens with a nice Freddie King style guitar intro and rumbles with a southern blues rock feel. Featuring Jason Ricci on harp and Evanochko on Elmore James style riffs over Bey's key work, this track is a nice blues rocker. That Darn Cat has a funky jazz feel and a cool slinky beat. Choice harp riffs from Ricci and warm vocal injections from Barber are a perfect compliment to the lead almost rap like lead vocal. Dougherty lays down some real nice Little Feat like slide work on Edwards' funky rhythm giving this track a cool vibe. Slow blues number, Slender Man Blues, features prime lead vocal work from Billy and clean piano work from Bey. Billy steps up with some of the hottest guitar riffs on the session pushed ever higher by Watkins, Matt and Chasin. Barber's warm backing on this track is effective in a totally different way showing her absolute versatility. Very cool! On Jimmy Reed's Can't Stand To See You Go, the band maintains the standard JR feel. Ricci nicely adds with his harp work and it's vocal harmonies with Billy's solid leads that sets this track apart. Saturday Night is a high energy rocker along the lines of Radar Love. Never venturing far from the blues format, it's the driving bass line of Stagger that kicks this track and the super harp work of Ricci, the organ work of Bey and the sweet vocal blending of Barber, Evanochko, Vallecorsa, Dougherty, Edwards and Bey that make it sing. A guitar guitar shootout featuring Damon Fowler and Sean Carney is a nice treat on this track as well. Wrapping the release is Robert Johnson's Me And The Devil Blues. With a much more stripped down approach of vocal, guitar and harp on this track, it makes for a very nice closer or a real nice release!

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  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”

 

Buddy Guy to Headline the Russian River Jazz & Blues Festival Sept. 12 & 13

The 39th Annual Russian River Jazz & Blues Festival returns to Johnson’s Beach & Resort in Guerneville, CA on September 12 & 13, 2015. Two great festivals over one weekend – voted Best Music Festival in Sonoma Country by the readers of the North Bay Bohemian. Join us for a weekend of incredible music, dancing, wine tasting and loads of fun! Headlining the Blues Day on Sunday, September 13th will be the legendary award winning Blues icon, Buddy Guy, alongside friends Taj Mahal Trio, Jackie Greene and more! Music fans can purchase Single Day & Weekend Passes to the festival and enjoy 2 stages of jazz, blues and roots music over 2 days at Johnson’s Beach – a beautiful venue surrounded by California Redwoods. The festival also features a Wine Garden with tastings from local wineries, a variety of craft & merchandise vendors plus an eclectic food court. Tickets are available through www.russianriverfestivals.tix.com or by calling the Box Office at (707) 869-1595.

Swing Suit Records artist: Mick Kolassa - Ghosts of the Riverside Hotel - New Release Review

I just received the most recent release, Ghosts of the Riverside Hotel, from Mick Kolassa. A cornucopia of blues like last years release by Kolassa, "Michissippi Mick" , the net proceeds will go to The Blues Foundation and Generation Blues. Opening with Hank Williams' Ramblin' Man, Kolassa on lead vocal and guitar, Jeff Jensen on Lead guitar, Bill Ruffino on bass, Robinson Bridgeforth on drums and Chris Stephenson on organ, this is an interesting track with march like rudiments and tasty guitar work. Slow swinging blues track, Grapes & Greens, featured nice electric guitar and slide work from Jensen and Eric Hughes on harp coupled with solid lead vocals by Kolassa. Lou Singer's depression era, One Meatball, gets a light reggae rhythm treatment under the vocal harmonizing by Reba Russell and bright piano passages by Victor Wainwright. I Always Meant To Love You is a swinging 12 bar with some real jazzy riffs from Jensen, complimented nicely by Kirk Smothers on sax and Wainwright on piano. Lighthearted Trouble, written by Todd Snider, has a cool swing. Kolassa's vocals are spot on, Santini takes a real nice harp solo on this track and Jensen throws in a few country influenced riffs of his own. Nothing Left To Lose (Robin's Blues) is a smooth jazzy blues ballad featuring Smothers on melodic sax. Kolassa's most serious vocal of the release are restrained but well placed and pointers by Smothers and Jensen are perfectly executed. Very nice! If I Ain't Fishin' has a cool pace with Wainwright and Hughes teaming up with tension against the calm. Randy Newman's, Mama Told Me Not To Come, made popular by Three Dog Night, gets a modified Chicago blues remake and a totally different type of cover. Kolassa uses an almost spoken delivery and Santini really wails on this one giving it it's best showing to my ears. On Whiskey Woman, Cole Layman trades lead guitar lines with Jensen and Logan Lyman lays down some cool funk bass. Chris Stephenson's organ solo punches up the track eliciting nice guitar soloing and even more pluckiness from Layman. Walkin' (Dead) Blues capitalizes on the current zombie obsession. With an Elmore James basic track, Kolassa gets the band cranked up with his frantic vocal antics. Santini gets his harp rolling hard and Jensen kicks out his best set of riffs on the release. Tongue in cheek but the hottest track on the release! Following a Magic Sam format, Mama's Got A Mojo, is a cool track with shimmery guitar soloing by Jensen over solid organ work by Stephenson. Real nice! Wrapping the release is Delta Town featuring Watermelon Slim on dobro and harp. Bridgeforth and Ruffino give the track a bit more structure and Kolassa leads the way. This is quite an enjoyable release with a bit of something for most blues lovers.

   

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NPR Music's First Listen To Premiere Shemekia Copeland's OUTSKIRTS OF LOVE

NPR MUSIC'S FIRST LISTEN TO PREMIERE SHEMEKIA COPELAND'S OUTSKIRTS OF LOVE Album Is #1 Most Added Triple A Record On FMQB Chart NPR Music's influential First Listen will host the premiere of singer Shemekia Copeland's Outskirts Of Love, beginning Thursday, September 3 and running through the CD's September 11 release date. Initial radio response has been stellar -- the album was the #1 Most Added Triple A Record for the week of August 24 on the FMQB chart. MOJO magazine says, "It is Copeland’s thrilling voice, part Koko Taylor, part Mavis Staples and capable of incredible expression, that makes Outskirts Of Love so super-special. Spectacular, stirring, sanctified and sassy…at the crossroads where funk meets blues rock. Her band, led by producer Oliver Wood, and featuring guests Billy F Gibbons, Robert Randolph, Alvin Youngblood Hart and Will Kimbrough, is faultless throughout." Copeland’s return to Alligator Records with Outskirts Of Love (she recorded four albums for the label from 1998 through 2006) finds her at her most charismatic. She mixes freshly written material with thrilling reinventions of songs originally recorded by Solomon Burke, ZZ Top, Jesse Winchester, Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Jesse Mae Hemphill and her father, the late Johnny Clyde Copeland. The result is Copeland’s most musically adventurous album of her still-evolving career. With a voice that is alternately sultry, assertive and roaring, Copeland’s wide-open vision of contemporary blues, Americana, roots and soul music showcases the evolution of a passionate artist with a modern musical and lyrical approach. Whether she’s belting out a raucous blues-rocker, firing up a blistering soul-shouter, bringing the spirit to a gospel-fueled R&B rave-up or digging deep down into a subtle, country-tinged ballad, Shemekia Copeland sounds like no one else. Copeland has performed thousands of gigs at clubs, festivals and concert halls all over the world and has appeared on national television, NPR, and in newspapers, films and magazines. She is a mainstay on countless commercial and non-commercial radio stations. She's sung with Eric Clapton, Bonnie Raitt, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Carlos Santana, James Cotton and many others. She opened for The Rolling Stones and entertained U.S. troops in Iraq and Kuwait. Jeff Beck calls her “f*cking amazing.” Santana says, “She’s incandescent…a diamond.” In 2012, she performed at the White House for President and Mrs. Obama. Afterward, Jagger (with whom she sang) sent her a bottle of champagne. With Outskirts Of Love and a packed tour schedule, Copeland has her eyes fixed firmly on the future as she continues to break new musical ground. "I want to keep growing, to be innovative," she says. “I’m a lifer, singing about things that are important to me, using my music to help people. My dad always said ‘we’re all connected.’ I’m an old soul marching to the beat of my own drum,” she continues, “and right now I’m making the most exciting music of my career.” ### www.ALLIGATOR.com