Home Archive by category "Roots Music Safari" (Page 31)

Category: Roots Music Safari

Lunchtime Music from Two Blues Favorites – Vincent Hayes and Tinsley Ellis

The Grind

So let’s make this a Blues Thursday, we’re almost to the weekend, even though that means that I have to work Friday and Saturday nights, I do have off on Sunday for the NFL Conference finals!!  I don’t have much time to write now so I’ll just give you a taste of what I’m going to listen to this afternoon! First up will be the new release from Vincent Hayes The Grind. Hayes is an award-winning blues man from Michigan. I really liked his earlier release the Reclamation. So I’m looking forward to The Grind. Read More

Thoughts about Dave Van Ronk “The Mayor of MacDougal Street”

The Mayor of MacDougal StreetSo I want to go and see the Coen Brothers new movie: “Inside Llewyn Davis” and surprisingly my wife does, too. I really don’t think she knows that the story is based on Dave Van Ronk’s memoirs because I don’t think she’s a fan of Van Ronk’s music! Anyway, until we get to go I thought that I’d like to read the book The Mayor of MacDougal Street first.So I used some of the money from a Barnes & Noble gift card that my daughter-in-law;law’s parents gave me for Christmas and bought it the other night. I’m not that far into it yet but I’m loving it already. Van Ronk always has had a flair for telling stories and he puts it to good work in his memoirs!! I’ll tell you more about it as I work my way through it. But tonight though my first thoughts were how about I go look up some videos from some of the musicians that populated MacDougal Street back in the day.One of the first names to pop into my head wasn’t Dylan, but Fred Neil and then I thought, hell, why not Van Ronk. The first music from Dave that came to mind was a piece that I heard every Sunday night back in the 60s and 70s and that would be the “St. Louis Tickle”. I heard it as the Gene Shay Folk Radio Show came in and out of commercial breaks. The song is an old piano rag that Van Ronk transcribed to make it a guitar piece. Here’s a good over of the song. Read More

A Good Run and Happy Birthday, Greg Trooper!!

So when I turned on my Runmeter app this afternoon, the first thing I saw was my last run – November 18, 2013 and I cringed! I knew it had been a long time since my last run, but I thought that the last one was closer to the end of the month!! It was about the time that the clocks got set back and it started getting dark at 5 o’clock! And then the weather turned nasty and cold and Christmas came along and before I knew it December was gone!! But then I also admit that I am a fair weather runner, when it gets dark and cold, this old body doesn’t really want to go out and run!! But today was nice the high temperature was in the upper 50s and it was sunny with hardly any wind!! I was also off, due to lack of work, (ugh!) and the gave me the opportunity to run in the sun!! I certainly told myself that all I wanted to do was get a 30 minute run in. I didn’t have to set any world speed records and I did a good job throughout the run of slowing down. I often use that trick that if you can talk comfortably you are running comfortably, and I often ask myself (out load) how I am doing and I respond back! If folks are watching they may think I’m crazy,but then again they probably just think I’m on the phone!! Don’t you love that when you are walking along and people come up from behind you and you here their voice and turn to respond only to find that they are talking on the phone!! Happens to me all the time at Target I hear a voice and turn and oh yeah!! But I digress, back to the subject at hand running, or at this point jogging!! So after many thoughts of cutting the run short and mentally figuring where I should turn around I made it to the second mile at between 21-22 minutes and I knew I could make it to the 3o minute mark!! The final distance for the 30:14 minute run was 2.8 miles for an average pace of 10:44 min/mile and I am satisfied with that now I just have to keep going!! The soundtrack for the run was a Prog Rock Album Clessidra from an Italian Prog Band Laviantica. You can read about it at FreeWheelin’ Music Safari Greg TrooperWhen I signed on to Facebook this morning I saw that it was the birthday of one of my favorite Americana musicians, Greg Trooper! Greg was born on this date in 1956 in was born in Neptune Township, New Jersey, and raised in nearby Little Silver. I first listened to Greg’s music sometime around 1999 when his  release Straight Down Rain,found its way into my library. That album was quickly followed by his prior release Popular Demons which had been released  in 1998, on Koch Records and produced by Buddy Miller. His current release Incident on Willow Street is currently number 2 on the Roots Music Report’s Roots Rock chart! Incident on Willow StreetHere’s Greg performing “All the Way to Amsterdam” one of my favorites from Incident on Willow Street! Happy Birthday, Greg!! Read More

“Into the Morning” with the music of Mark Erelli -“Volunteer”

Mark ErelliSo tonight I was thinking, I would post a song from one of my favorite folksinger songwriters. The first one that popped into my head was John Gorka, thoughts of John were quickly replaced by thoughts of Mark Erelli. I listened to Mark’ most recent release Little Vigils the other night and was reminded of what a great songwriter he is. .So  I thought that I’d post a video, maybe of one of my early favorites songs “They do it every day” but there was no Youtube video,for the song. Then I thought “Compass and Companion”,but then I spotted this video for his song “Volunteer” on Don Was’ My Damn Channel and I listened once again to this powerful song and again was blown away! Here’s what Don Was writes: Read More

The Safari meets Charlie Musselwhite at the Juke Joint Chapel – and says It’s about time!!

It’s amazing to me that I’ve never been a big Charlie Musselwhite fan. I love blues harp and he is certainly one of the best players of the harp around, so why?? It’s in explicable isn’t it, is it his voice or is it that there’s too much, music and too little time and somehow poor  Charlie gets lost in the shuffle!  Well that may have to change because last night and today I listened to one of the best blues albums of 2013 Juke Joint Chapel from Charlie and I must say at 69 years young he appears to be at the top of his game!! From Charlie’s website: Read More

2013 Blues Guitar from Jeff Jensen – road worn and ragged!!

So yesterday as I was exploring and writing about the Blues Music Award Nominees for Blues Rock Album of the year one of the albums  on the sidebar of the website, caught my attention.because I thought it was very tastefully done….. roadragged and worn So I went over to Spotify and found the album,road worn and ragged.by Jeff Jensen, When I looked at the track list, I saw that Brandon Santini and Victor Wainwright played on several of the tracks, now, not only are those two favorites of mine, but they are nominated for 2013 Blues Music Awards! Brandon is nominated for Contemporary Blues Album of the Year for his album  This Time Another Year (which wrote about briefly back in March) and as harmonica player of the year! While Victor Wainwright is nominated for the Pinetop Perkins Piano Player award! Now Victor I found about a year earlier in July of 2012 and several of his albums are now in my library!! Anyway all of this made it a no brainer that I was going to listen to the album and when I did I was not disappointed in the least! This is one really,really fine album!! On his biography page of his website the title reads JEFF JENSEN – PRODUCER, COMPOSER, BLUES GUITARIST and I do believe that he excels at all three jobs!! While Jeff has been playing guitar since the age of 11 and had his first gigs at the age of 19 and then fronted a blues band that played throughout Southern California, it wasn’t until after he returned from the International Blues Challenge in 2004 a member of the Blues Foundation the he was driven to form his own band. Since then the Jeff Jensen Band has released two albums “Self-Titled” and I’m Coming Home  both of the albums have been well received and made it on to the Roots Music Report Charts and the Lining Blues Charts!  The band also performed at the International Blues Challenge in 2005, 2006, and 2007! In 2011 he moved to Memphis and has spent the last two years as Brandon Santini’s guitarist and music director and together they have recorded three albums!!Man, I’m tired of just reading about all that work that has lead up to his latest release road worn and ragged, so I guess that the title of the album is very fitting!! So check it out Here’s what some folks are saying about the album: “(Road Worn and Ragged) is certainly one of the blues highlights of 2013” — Ben Bonin (No Depression) “Road Worn and Ragged enhances the listener with raw connections to a spectacular variety of blues styles on this recording. Extreme creative talents flow with diversity in vocals, lyrics and fresh instrumentation. ” — Mississippi Blues Club “Jensen delivers fluid leads and solos that meld into the rhythms and soars with melodic intent.” — Dave Ruthenbuerg (Living Blues) Read More here So let’s go “into the night hours” with Jeff performing “Raggedy Ann” from the album!! Read More

The Safari investigates:The Best Rock Blues Album of the Year – Is it Luther’s Blues?

And the nominees for,,,,,Rock Blues Album of the Year at this year’s Blues Foundations Blues Music Awards are: Mike Zito & the Wheel, Gone to Texas Tedeschi Trucks Band, Made Up Mind The Rides, Can’t Get Enough Toronzo Cannon, John The Conquer Root Walter Trout, Luther’s Blues Ok so before I choose which album I think should win, I’ll have to listen to the first three albums a few more times, and the last two, I really hadn’t heard until recently….Toronzo Cannon’s album I give a quick listen last night and tonight I listen to Walter Trout’s Luther’s Blues for the second or third time. Now I am a fan of  Walter Trout’s music, but I just couldn’t find the album at any of the streaming sites I use and then I forgot about the album. I found it though the other night at Spotify and gave it a listen and it’s a great hard-driving blues album with some of the best guitar playing that Walter’s ever done! The album is of course an album of covers of the music of Luther Allison. Why an album of Luther’s cover? I read at one review

 Walter Trout: Luther’s Blues Review Read More