Blues Wednesday Mix!

So usually on Blues Wednesday I find one artist or album and listen to it enough write a  review but today I don’t think I listened to CDs enough to know how I really feel about them! I started the day by checking Billboard’s Blues Chart and the name that jumped out was Seasick Steve (Steven Gene Wold) and his album Man From Another Time. Wold plays acoustic blues on a variety of homemade instruments and the result is well different and I think it’s going to take several listens until I know how I feel about the album in total. I did like the instrumentation on the album. Wikipedia says that three of the instruments that he plays are the: “Three-Stringed Trance Wonder”, This is a normal guitar that resembles a Fender Coronado, but with only three strings One-Stringed Diddley Bow” This is a one stringed string instrument played with a slide (He uses an old screwdriver for this purpose). It consists of a 2 foot long 2×4, with a semi-loose piece of broom wire nailed to it at both ends. It was made especially for him by James ‘Super Chikan’ Johnson. The Mississippi Drun Machine (MDM)  A small wooden box that is stomped upon, providing percussion. It is decorated with a Mississippi motorcycle license plate (“MC33583”), and a small piece of carpet. Here He is playing the diddley bow! So like I said this CD is gonna take some getting used to – I’ll let you know later what I think! So after listening to Seasick Steve, I said that I need some blues that I know! So I checked out the mp3 player and there near the bottom of the artist list sat a favorite Walter Trout and his album Unspoiled by Progress – 20 Years of Hardcore Blues. And I’ve been a fan for the last 3-4 years of those twenty, sure wish I had found him sooner! Anyway Trout is a great guitarist and I like his vocals, too so it’s a good listen all around!! I listened to the first three tracks “They Call Us The Working Class”, “Goin’ Down” and “Life in the Jungle” all great tracks! Read More

Blues Wednesday – Eugene Hideaway Bridges

So tonight I am listening to an album that I downloaded a while back but I like the tracks more each time I hear them. The album is Live in San Antonio Special Edition by Eugene Hideaway Bridges. Right now the track ” I Know You Love Me” just finished and that was a great one, one that features the whole band and that would include: Bass Eric King,  Drums Bobby Baranowski, Keyboards & Organ David Webb, (who stands out on several tracks), Tenor Sax Seth Kibel and Trumpet Justine Miller. Read More

Twang Tuesday – Part 1 – Red Molly

So what do you get when you put together three super talented women with great voices and musicianship? You get a group whose new CD James is No. 10 on the Americana Music Chart and #1 on the Folk-DJ chart for March! That group would be Red Molly! Individually, they are Laurie MacAllister (vocals,bass,banjo and guitar), Abbie Gardner (vocals,dobro and guitar) and Carolann Solebello (vocals, guitar, bass and mandolin) and together, as they say they make beautiful  music. I first heard Red Molly last year when they were playing cuts on The Village on XM Radio from their album Love and other Tragedies and after listening over several weeks I went and downloaded the album and became a fan. All three of the women had careers prior to their forming of Red Molly in 2004. Laurie MacAllister and Abbie Gardner had both released two albums and Carolann Sollebello had released one. (She just released a second in 2009). I  listened to albums by all three and enjoyed them but bring their voices and musical talent together and you have something extra special. In an interview on their website they say this about their music: Read More

Blues Wednesday – Joe Bonamassa

So today started out a lot like yesterday, still no coffee at the 7-Eleven due to remodeling! Then I listened to tracks from several different blues albums and again nothing caught my attention. So at lunch I checked out the Billboard Blues charts and there are number one sat Joe Bonamassa’s new album Black Rock and at Number 9 Derek Trucks new album Already Free so I loaded both on the mp3 player and set out for a site to do some testing and listening on the way! Now Bonamassa was a name I’d always heard (seems like I say this a lot!) but never listened to, my mistake! Anyway since I heard one of his albums about a year ago his music gets steady play. So I anticipated that I would enjoy Bonamassa’s great playing and good vocals and all around strong sound. The first two tracks did not disappoint me and on the third track “When the Fire Hits the Sea” I caught myself saying is he playing slide guitar on this track – yep – and it was good! Then came “Quarryman’s Lament” which opened with a different sounding instrument, which I have since learned was a clarino (a Greek type clarinet) and I said this is a great album. Read More

Blues -The Common Ground-Tab Benoit

Last night I pulled out an old jazz album, as I prepared a forgotten music play list, Blues-The Common Ground by Kenny Burrell. When I picked up the album cover, I read the liner notes Burrell had  written and I thought about the question that was asked on No Depression the other week. Should they cover jazz and blues? Here’s what Burrell wrote: Read More

Blues Wednesday – Tab and Buddy

As I was heading down Hartford Road this morning toward the site I was going to in Medford, I was checking out the wooded wetlands along the way. After two days of rain they looked a lot like the Louisiana Bayou and I knew I had the right CD playing, Night Train to Nashville by Tab Benoit. This is a favorite (aren’t they all?) and captures Benoit at his best. The album has a great mix of music (I’ll write more about the album tomorrow when I get my notes!) I do know that three songs that really stood out again today aside from the title track were “Too Sweet for Me” with outstanding harp work from the Fabulous Thunderbird’s Kim Wilson (who I left out of Sunday’s shopping mix because it was on the way home!), “Fever for the Bayou” and “Muddy Bottom Blues” Read More

Blues Wednesday – Tab Benoit is on that Night Train to Nashville

NightTrain to Nashville2

As I was heading down Hartford Road this morning toward the site I was going to in Medford, I was checking out the wooded wetlands along the way. After two days of rain they looked a lot like the Louisiana Bayou and I knew I had the right CD playing, Night Train to Nashville by Tab Benoit. This is a favorite (aren’t they all?) and captures Benoit at his best. The album has a great mix of music (I’ll write more about the album tomorrow when I get my notes!) I do know that three songs that really stood out again today aside from the title track were “Too Sweet for Me” with outstanding harp work from the Fabulous Thunderbird’s Kim Wilson (who I left out of Sunday’s shopping mix because it was on the way home!), “Fever for the Bayou” and “Muddy Bottom Blues” Read More

Sunday Shopping Mix

So shortly after the birth of our third son Peter, my wife said that she had had it with grocery shopping and since I know what I’ll eat or want, I can do the shopping! So for the last 24 years I have done the grocery shopping. I usually go on Sunday mornings and typically over the last several years I’ve made a playlist exported it to the MP3 player and listen while I shop! Recently, I just put the player on random and listen to what’s there! Today I took the old ZenV and the mix contained some music I haven’t listen to in a while! It started with a great song off of John Batdorf’s Home Again CD “Something’s Slipping Away” and then Leonard Cohen’s “The Stranger Song” from his first album Songs of Leonard Cohen, When ever I hear that song I think of the movie McCabe and Mrs Miller, especially references to giving up the holy game of poker and the bridge or somewhere later, both lines fit the movie perfectly! Read More

Forgotten Music Friday

After the trip to the basement to browse through the vinyl, I came up with five albums to put on the turntable and listen to and remember when. Tonight I listened to one side of each of the albums. The albums were: An Anthology of British Blues, featuring various British blues musicians, Lord Sutch and His Heavy Friends, The Souther Hillman Furay Band, A Long Time Comin’ The Electric Flag, and David Buskin. Read More