Mike Zito and the Wheel’s latest album Gone to Texas was released on Ruf Records back in June of this year, and has occupied a spot at the top of the Roots Music Report’s Blues Chart for most of the summer. For the last two weeks it has held steady at No. 7! From Mike’s biography at his website:
So this afternoon I listened to some blues from Phil Gates and his band. I had put their new album Live at the Hermosa Saloon on the iPhone the other day and never had a chance to listen to it! Boy did I like what I heard! I’m off to work at Target tonight, and will listen on the way there and back, and can tell you more about the album tomorrow!! Here’s some background from Phil’s website:
So I ran last night, but I didn’t write a post about the run. I ended up spending the evening transferring my iTunes library from the desktop to my laptop, because I use the laptop more than the desktop now, while I watched the Phils lose, By the time I was ready to write, I was too tired! I think the trick is to write the post as soon after the run as possible!!
So after two runs last week and then not being able to run this weekend because of Elizabeth’s move, and work at Target, I was determined to run last night. On the last two runs, I had used my work Windows phone and an app called Run the Map. It worked ok but for some reason the phone would only play half of the songs on the album I was listening to, so the headphones came off about mid-way in the run, which actually wasn’t that bad because I was struggling at the end of the runs so I really wasn’t listening, because I was paying attention to my heart rate. Anyway last night I found an app. for my Iphone called Runmeter I haven;’ figured out all the options yet but yesterday it was displaying the pace I was running at the time and my average pace for the run. When I finished both the total distance of the run and the pace were close to what I had measured the course at and the pace from my heart monitor watch!! Overall the time over about 4.2 miles was 44:38 almost three ,minutes faster than a week ago and the pace was around 10:40 per mile, Not too bad considering that the 12 whole miles I’ve run in August beats the average over the May, June and July by a lot!!
Ok so this one will be quick, this morning I was looking around for some morning music and came across this dynamite video featuring John Mayall and the Bluesbreakers with Buddy Guy and Junior Wells. Now I have been a fan of John Mayall since the early 70s and Buddy Guy, particularly, some of his more recent stuff, but for some reason I never have gotten into Junior Wells’ music. After watching this video all I can do is shake my head and say – why not!! I think someone needs to check out Mr. Wells’ discography real quick-like!
So on this Friday(now Saturday) that is going to be the third long day this week as I have another Target work day to couple with, Tuesday’s 8:30 am to 11:30 pm, Wednesday’s-7 am to 6pm. (damn I’m too old for this stuff) let’s kickstart the day with on of my favorite songs from Louisiana’s Tab Benoit “Nighttrain”!
So Buddy Guy’s latest album Rhythm and Blues has been on various music charts for about a month now, but the official release date of the album was set for today to coincide with Buddy’s 77 birthday! Yes on this date in 1936, Buddy Guy was born. For those of you non-blues fans here some background on Buddy from Wikipedia:
So this afternoon I turned on BLuesville on XMRadio on my way home for lunch and I think it was a track by track show of Jimmie Vaughan’s latest album. Anyway Vaughan was talking about the influence of Jimmy Reed and playing harmonica and a few other things so I thought that I’d listen to a little Jimmie Vaughan this afternoon. Now I said last week that The Fabulous Thunderbirds have never been a band that I listened to much but have listened to Kim Wilson’s solo stuff. So the upshot was I put Vaughan’s new album Jimmie VaughanPlays Ballads, Blues and Favoritesand I must say that I liked what I heard but alas I must confess that I didn’t hear the whole album, because after the last two days it didn’t take me too long to fall asleep on the couch so I will probably have to go back and listen some more before making any comments on the album!After Vaughan and my little nap I listened to another artist that I really 
haven’t listened to very much Delbert McCLinton. I heard a track the other day on XM and thought it sounded pretty good and I guess that’s what put it in my head to give Delbert a spin I listened his 2009 release Acquired Taste. While there were several good tracks on the album Delbert’s music just isn’t really for me and I really don’t know why! Anyway you can get a free download of the opening track “Mama’s Little Baby” at Delbert’s page at Amazon
So playing Rock n’ Roll in your 70’s, playing punk roll in your 80’s doesn’t seem right. But you can keep singing the blues right into your golden years – just listen to Pinetop Perkins who’s about to turn 100!, or Hubert Sumlin who turn 80 next year, or B.B. King who past 80 five years ago. So at 74 years young Buddy Guy‘s one of the young guys! And this youngster has just released a terrific new album Living Proof. I’ve said before that I’ve never been a big Buddy Guy fan but after the release of Skin Game and now this album I may have to rethink my position!
