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...

If you watched the movie "the Jerk" and wondered who the musicians were when all the family was sitting around singing ... that Was Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee. Here's a short little song by them that shows their ongoing talents at their instruments in the traditional blues style. Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click HERE

I first saw Lil' Ed at the Chesepeake Bay Blues Fest a few years back and he smoked the joint. If you like rowdy slide blues...Li'l Ed is your man! Lil’ Ed boasts a direct bloodline to blues history—his uncle and musical mentor was the great Chicago slide guitarist, songwriter and recording artist J.B. Hutto. According to The Chicago Tribune, “Williams represents one of the few remaining authentic links to the raucous, pure Chicago blues.” The Associated Press agrees, stating, “Williams fills Chicago’s biggest shoes with more life and heat than anyone on stage today.” Adding to the legend is Ed’s storybook rise, taking him from working in a car wash to entertaining thousands of fans all over the world. In 2006 he made multiple appearances on Late Night With Conan O’Brien (including a hilarious film with Lil’ Ed teaching Conan how to play the blues) culminating with Lil’ Ed on stage jamming with O’Brien in front of a television audience in the millions.

I saw this Leon Russell special on PBS may years ago and Furry lewis was featured on it. He demonstrates some of that famous "John Lee Hooker" timing for his singing. Walter E. Lewis was born in Greenwood, Mississippi, but his family moved to Memphis when he was aged seven. Lewis acquired the nickname "Furry" from childhood playmates. By 1908, he was playing solo for parties, in taverns, and on the street. He also was invited to play several dates with W. C. Handy's Orchestra. His travels exposed him to a wide variety of performers including Bessie Smith, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and Alger "Texas" Alexander. Like his contemporary Frank Stokes, he tired of the road and took a permanent job in 1922. His position as a street sweeper for the City of Memphis, a job he would hold until his retirement in 1966, allowed him to remain active in the Memphis music scene. In 1927, Lewis cut his first records in Chicago for the Vocalion label. A year later he recorded...

Buddy Guy, the best living blues artist, discusses Guitar Slim. Get Facebook support for your favorite band or venue - click HERE

King was born Earl Silas Johnson IV in New Orleans, Louisiana. His father, a local piano player, died when King was still a baby, and he was brought up by his mother. With his mother, he started going to church at an early age. In his youth he sang gospel music, but took the advice of a friend to switch to blues to make a better living. King started to play guitar at age 15. Soon he started entering talent contests at local clubs including the Dew Drop Inn. It was at one of those clubs where he met his idol Guitar Slim. King started imitating Slim, and his presence gave a big impact on his musical directions. In 1954, when Slim was injured in an automobile accident (right around the time Slim had the #1 R&B hit with "The Things That I Used To Do"), King was deputized to continue Slim's band tour, representing himself as Slim. After succeeding in this role, King became a regular at the Dew Drop Inn. His first recording came in 1953. He released a 78 "Have you Gone...

Chicago Blues : A Living History; The (R)evolution Continues is the much-anticipated follow-up to the Grammy-nominated Chicago Blues: A Living History (2009) and features legendary blues men Billy Boy Arnold , Billy Branch , Lurrie Bell , John Primer and Carlos Johnson, along with very special guests Buddy Guy , James Cotton , Magic Slim , Ronnie Baker Brooks, Mike Avery and Zora Young. The official US release date is June 7, 2011. The 2-CD set will be released by Raisin' Music and distributed by RED. New Website launching May 10, 2011.

Unlike his contemporaries Elmore James and Muddy Waters, Earl Hooker used standard tuning on his guitar for slide playing. He also used a short steel slide. This allowed him to switch between slide and fretted playing during a song with greater ease. Part of his slide sound has been attributed to his light touch, a technique he learned from Robert Nighthawk. "Instead of using full-chord glissando effects, he preferred the more subtle single-note runs inherited from others who played slide in standard tuning, [such as] Tampa Red, Houston Stackhouse, and his mentor Robert Nighthawk." In addition to his mastery of slide guitar, Hooker was also a highly developed standard-guitar soloist and rhythm player. At a time when many blues guitarists were emulating B.B. King, Hooker maintained his own course. Although he was a bluesman at heart, Hooker was adept at several musical styles, which he incorporated into his playing as it suited him. Depending on his mood and audience reaction,...

Another generation bringing the blues. Traditional style buy with a new twist. John Anthony "Jack" White (previously Gillis; born July 9, 1975), often credited as Jack White III,[1] is an American musician, record producer and occasional actor. He is best known as being the guitarist, pianist, and lead vocalist of The White Stripes until they disbanded in February 2011. He was ranked #17 on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". White's popular and critical success with The White Stripes enabled him to collaborate as a solo artist with other renowned musicians, such as Beck, The Rolling Stones, Jeff Beck, Alicia Keys, Bob Dylan, Electric Six and Loretta Lynn, whose 2004 album Van Lear Rose he produced and performed on. In 2005, White became a founding member of the rock band The Raconteurs. In 2009, he became a founding member and drummer of his third commercially successful group, The Dead Weather. Another look at Son House Get F...

From the top of blues highway 61 in remote northwest Ontario comes an album whose roots stretch as far south as the highway itself. Canned Heat by Thunder Bay's "Blues Duo" was named after the album's first track, written by blues forefather Tommy Johnson. It introduces an unknown bluesman, Jamie 'Snakeman' Steinhoff, guilty of preserving authenticity and pairs it with the raspy and well-controlled torch vocals and harmonica of award winner Tracy K. From the foot-stompin' title track, to laid back front porch blues to rollin' and rompin' rags, Canned Heat weaves five traditional acoustic folk blues gems with five contemporary acoustic originals about love, longing, stealing apples and joy. The tracks are laden with Steinhoff 's masterful fingerstyle and slide guitar work of Piedmont and Delta styles, with the addition of banjo and his gritty bass vocals. Tracy K's skills shine with melody-rich harmonica in the acoustic tradition of the ear...

Duarte was first inspired by music at age 8 after seeing Fiddler On The Roof on television. Duarte began playing his brother's guitar, and got his first electric guitar at the age of 14 and played with bands in San Antonio. In 1979, Duarte moved to Austin, Texas and purchased a 1963 Fender Stratocaster guitar for $500. Duarte began exploring the jazz music of John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Duarte won a label recording contract with Silvertone Records and released Texas Sugar/Strat Magik in 1994, and was named "Best New Talent" in Guitar Player’s 1995 Reader's Poll.[citation needed] He finished fourth in the magazine’s "Best Blues Guitarist" category behind Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy and B.B. King. Though Duarte has played a limited number of U.S. dates in recent years with the Japanese band Bluestone Company backing him, he performs primarily as a power trio, the 'Chris Duarte Group'. Originally formed with long-time friends and collaborators John ...

I think that every slide player who ever played the blues learned how from studying Elmore James. Here's one of Elmore's classics. David Gogo is doing a great job of burning up the wire out there. If you get a chance to see him... take the opportunity.