Parnell Hall doing research for his puzzle lady series attends a Crossword Puzzle Tournament. A funny writer of mysteries and songs!
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OBJdU7mxrEY
So I was thinking about what to listen to yesterday on blues Wednesday a little Tab Benoit, Dave Hole, Buddy Guy – well maybe I’ll check out the Blues Radio Chart and see what looks good number 23 looks interesting Mike Zito so I went to Rhapsody and downloaded his 2009 release Pearl River and was not disappointed! Pearl River is Zito’s second major record release following on the heels of his first Eclecto Grove Records release Today. The St. Louis native Zito has had several independent releases and toured and shared the stage with some of my favorites Tab Benoit, Walter Trout, Bernard Allison, Coco Montoya, and Joe Bonamassa along with many others!.
While this book is my first read of a book by James W. Hall it is the sixth book in the eleven book series featuring Hall’s iconoclast beach bum fisherman Thorn. (Anyone know his full name?). The book centers around the senseless slaughter of eleven dolphins at a Key West park that Thorn and his current girlfriend Monica had visited a few days previous. The slaughter is tied to the experiments in pain alleviation being performed on wounded veterans by an old boyfriend of Thorn’s Bean Wilson Jr. Wilson is also being investigated by the DEA for illegal actions and they have placed an undercover agent Greta Masterson in Wilson’s clinic. As Thorn starts to investigate he becomes a target and the rest of the story revolves around solving the mystery of the slaughter of the dolphins and rescuing Greta!
The other day I was thinking about lost and forgotten music, well, maybe just not listened to in a while and I thought about Goose Creek Symphony. I first heard Goose Creek in the early 70’s and I think, I was introduced to them by my wife! Anyway, in my vinyl collection I have their first three albums., Est. in 1970, Words of Earnest and Do Your Thing but Don’t Touch Mine. They are a good time country rock band that travels just a little beyond the norm. From their website:
So, I was on the No Depression website the other day and on the sidebar was an advertisement for a new CD Flood by Moreland and Arbuckle, it looked interesting so I headed over to emusic.com and searched for the CD and found it and downloaded several of the songs and all I can say is WOW! Mississippi Delta Blues at its finest! The trio consists of leaders Aaron Moreland on guitars, Dustin Arbuckle on harp and vocals and drummer Brad Horner. You can read the band’s bio at their website. While they are from Wichita, Kansas they live in the Mississippi delta in spirit. Their songs and playing are great! Moreland plays Telecaster and Les Paul guitars and a Cigar Box guitar consisting of four strings, one of which goes to a bass amp and the other three to a guitar amp. This guitar really adds to the great original sound of the group. Dustin Arbuckle’s vocals are top notch but his harp playing is extraordinary and would make his heroes Little Walter and Sonny Boy Williamson proud. His playing takes the band to another level for me.
Book 7 of 2010 – Dark Tiger is most likely the last Stoney Calhoun novel by William G. Tapply. Tapply passed away in July of 2009 after a battle with leukemia. Tapply is best known for his Brady Coyne series which spanned twenty-six years and twenty-five books. Dark Tiger is the third book in the Stoney Calhoun series. Stonewall Jackson Calhoun is currently afishing guide in Maine and runs a bait shop with his lover Kate Balaban.
In honor of the opening of Shutter Island (which from the trailers looks great) today based on the book by Dennis Lehane. I thought I’d write something about his series featuring Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro. Before he turned to stand-alones after the success of Mystic River, Dennis Lehane wrote five novels featuring Kenzie and Gennaro, starting with A Drink Before the War, which won a Shamus award and ending with Prayers for Rain , including Gone, Baby Gone turned into the movie starring Casey Afleck. The books are gritty and deal with the underbelly of Dorchester a suburb if Boston, but the writing is terrific and the story lines are fast paced. I think I read these books about as fast as any I’ve read. They are the kind you just can’t put down and when you do you can’t wait until you can pick them up again! Lehane said he wasn’t going to write anymore of these books but from what I understand his next book will be a Kenzie and Gennaro, can’t wait! So if you’ve never read them and enjoy gritty novels pick them up you won’t be disappointed!
So I started Wednesday thinking about the blues musician I was going to listen to and choose Corey Stevens. A couple of weeks ago I had downloaded Corey Stevens new live CD called Myth Live. Actually a two disc CD/DVD of a concert at a new state of the art venue the Myth in Maplewood Minnesota. The album is a good mix of some of the tracks from his early albums which are the two I have Blue Drops of Rain and The Road to Zen. On the CD he plays both of the
these title tracks. They have always been my two favorites. There is one track on the CD “Another Pretty Face” from his most recent CD Albertville, which is an album of covers of Albert King songs. I listened to that album today and thought it was really good. There are also some tracks from Bring on the Blues Stevens 2003 release. I listened to that CD briefly today and enjoyed it also. Stevens sounds a lot like Stevie Ray Vaughan and actually started out 
playing Vaughan covers but he can play guitar and that’s that counts. His band consists of Mark Johnson on bass, Jim Stark on guitar, Norm Stiffen on drums, Melody Gilbert background vocals and percussion and Paul Testa on Hammond organ. Testa is outstanding on the Myth Live CD. All in all it was a good two days listening to a good blues musician and his bandmates and if you’ve never heard Stevens give him a try! Check out the videos on the left sidebar!
