Category: Blues

Today was a mixed blues day, I started by going to the Roots Music Report and looking at the Blues chart. A couple of musicians with new albums stood out one I knew Coco Montoya and the other not so much, one of those artist, where I know the name not the music, Guitar Shorty. So I downloaded both the albums and started the day with Coco Montoya’s new CD I Want it All Back. I first heard Coco Montoya’s guitar on John Mayall’s album Chicago Line, which is an outstanding album and Montoya’s guitar playing is one of the reasons. Since then I’ve picked up a couple of his albums, generally,  I like his guitar playing more than his vocals and on first listen that is the way I feel about this album. Generally, the songs are just ok, not really all that straight up blues but more rhythm and blues. One of the tracks stood out because it was a more straight blues number “Fannie Mae”, was one of the few tracks with some nice blues harp in it and it is  my favorite track. You know there’s jazz and then there’s smooth jazz on first listen this album is smooth blues! But again, I do like Coco’s guitar work! Overall it’s like a 3 out of 5 for me. Read More

So in honor of St. Patrick’s Day and my McCloskey ancestors, yes, they are the ones that my wife keeps finding newspaper articles about often being arrested in Beverly. Mostly for drunk and disorderly behavior including, my great-grandmother Margaret McCloskey Ashton, I listened to some Irish blues men,  Rory Gallagher and Gary Moore. Now Rory Gallagher is one of those artist that I’ve heard the name and never really listened to their music, while Garry Moore I’ve heard and really like. The Gallagher album that I chose was Live at Montreux and is a collection of recording made during his performances in 1975, 1977, 1979 and 1985.Overall, I liked the album, but it was a little more blues rocky than the blues I usually listen to. There was one song that stood out on my second listen “Out on the Western Plain”.  That track had a really neat acoustic sounding guitar. Also “Last of the Independents” and “Mississippi Sheiks” stood out. There are some good reviews at Amazon from fans who know more than me about Gallagher. Sadly, Gallagher passed away from  complications after a liver transplant in 1995 at the age of 47. Also, I was surprised to read at Amazon that Hendrix rated Gallagher second to himself as a guitarist.  I guess I will have to listen to some more Rory Gallagher! Read More

One of my favorite bands from the 60’s and early 70’s was Ten Years After and not just because of Alvin Lee’s guitar wizardry. No, while I liked the overall blues rock feel of the band and loved tracks like “Good Morning, Little School Girl” and “Woke up this Morning”‘ I also liked that the rest of the bands members could play and  the strong  jazz influences on their early  albums particularly on the second release  Undead. I loved the track  “Woodchopper’s Ball”. A cover of the Woody Herman hit. The band was the first band booked by the  Chrysalis Agency and their performance at the Windsor Jazz Festival in 1967 led to their contract with Deram Records.  I have their albums from the first release Ten Years After through Cricklewood Green. Which was their fifth album and contained the hit “Love Like a Man”. After that album the band took a more commercial turn with A Space in Time which contained the song “I’d Love to Change the World and I kinda drifted away.  The band ultimately broke up in 1974 when Alvin Lee embarked on a solo career. Read More

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. Read More